Hey all - an OS student of mine applied to UG ( 28 ACT, 3. 8 GPA, both parents alum) and was denied admissions. Everyone was pretty shocked she did not get accepted. Anyone have any issues with UG admissions when future student is more than qualified? Cant believe they would turn down OS money to attend there?
Thanks
I don’t know much about that specific college but – generically speaking – many state colleges have tightly controlled OOS admissions % (usually set by state legislatures) so although the schools really want that OOS tuition (and smart kids), they’re held back by the reality of the numbers.
The problem you have here is that your student was not “more than qualified” for UGA. The GPA range for UGA was 3.97-4.21, and the ACT range was 28-33, so the student in question was below the 25th percentile for GPA and right at it for ACT. Based on the information you provided, it actually seems as if the student was not qualified enough - especially as an OOS applicant. There are other factors to admission, however, based on the information provided, it seems very reasonable that UGA would deny the student in question.
UGA is NOT a shoo-in for anyone even with decent stats… In the past 10 years, it has become one of the most competitive schools for admissions whether you in In-State or Out of State. As mentioned above a 28 ACT is now on the lower end of the scale for admissions. UGA has become one of the Elite Public Universities in this country. Lots of stories of kids with ACT scores in the 31 to 33 not getting in. Yes, it is that competitive.
Some additional stats on this year’s admitted Freshman class from the excellent UGA Admissions Blog
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Here are some rough statistics on the Entire Freshman Admitted Class for 2019-November, February and March waves, where we admitted 13,050 students total, which is slightly above last year’s offers of admission (I do not have separate data on just the final group, sorry):
UGA Calculated Grade Point Average mid-range/average: 4.00 - 4.27, with a 4.10 average
Please remember this is not the GPA students see on their high school transcript, but rather the GPA that UGA recalculates for everyone based on the core academic courses taken in high school and looking at the actual grades posted on the transcripts. Roughly 88% of the HS core grades were A's, and 11.5% were B's.
AP/IB/Dual Enrollment course mid-range/average: 6-11 courses, average of 9
We determine academic rigor based on all core classes a student has taken (CP, Honors, Advanced, AP, IB, DE, etc.) as compared to what is offered in the school/community. This is not based simply on the number of AP/IB/DE courses, but instead we look at the overall coursework over four years in the core areas and the progression of rigor over the years. The AP/IB/DE information is the most specific data I can give on it, but the numbers do not cover all of our curriculum review.
SAT Best Score SAT Total (Using SAT or converted ACT) mid-range: 1330-1460
Best score data is the strongest of the SAT or the converted ACT for each admit
ACT Best Score Composite (Using ACT or converted SAT mid-range): 29-33
Remember, UGA focuses on ACT E and M. For reporting purposes, we give out the best score overall ACT score, but the ACT E and M are very similar to the overall score.