Enjoy your family and friends, relax, and stay safe!
We are only a few days away from the moment that many of you are
eagerly awaiting: Notification of Seniors who have applied for Early
Decision at The University of Georgia. I hope all of you who have
applied will login to the UGA system on Monday and scream with
delight as you read the magical words that you have been accepted. I
think you all have worked so hard in the past few years and jumped
through so many hoops that you deserve to gain admission. Good-luck!
What is UGA looking for in their early-admission candidates? According to UGA's website, this year's applicants had
- Avg. GPA of 3.95
- Mean SAT of 1312 (without writing)
- Mean SAT Writing of 650
- Avg. of 5 AP courses
As your teacher, however, I also know that only a small percentage of
students who apply for early admission will be selected, and,
unfortunately, some of you with high grade-point averages, excellent
test scores, and wonderful personalities will receive disappointing
news. We go through this every year, and your teachers will be just as
perplexed and upset as you are over many of the students who receive
deferment. Before you login to that cursed system on Monday, I hope you
will consider the following:
• Let’s congratulate the students who have been accepted. They have worked hard and deserve our support.
• Let’s commiserate and help the students who are deferred. They have also worked hard and deserve our support.
• If you are deferred, do not start wondering “what did I do wrong,” or
“why don’t they want me?” It’s a game of numbers, and sometimes the
numbers simply do not make sense. (However, it AIN’T over yet!)
• If you are not admitted through early decision, that does not mean
you will not get into UGA. Most of you will be accepted, but you will
just have to jump through a couple of additional hoops and wait a few
more months.
• Your next step will be to write the short essays, obtain a teacher’s
recommendation, and get everything to UGA by January 15th.
• If you write your essays and get them to me on the day of your final exam, I’ll help you make revisions so you can finish
them and prepare to send them off. If at all possible, get this done
next week so you don’t have to worry about it over the holidays.
• If you need a recommendation, see a teacher as soon as possible. Most teachers will not write recommendations over the holidays, but they may be willing to write the recommendation during the first week of the new semester. Choose a teacher
who knows you well, someone who has the time and desire to write a
glowing recommendation that will make UGA see the error of its ways and
beg you to come to Athens. (UGA guidelines stipulate that the teacher must be a teacher who taught you in an 11th or 12th grade academic course.)
• If you want me to write a recommendation for you, please complete the
Teacher Recommendation form on the AP English website. Bring this
completed form, the UGA teacher recommendation form, the form you have
previously filled out for counselors (the one that lists all of your
activities, etc.) and a stamped, self-addressed envelope to UGA. I will
write your letter of recommendation over the holidays and mail it for
you. For obvious reasons, please only ask me to write a recommendation for you if you have worked as hard as possible and maintained a good grade during the semester.
I hope you receive wonderful news on Monday!
Instead of emailing your student comments to me, please submit them to Turnitin.com. This will help me keep everything organized. If I have a problem downloading your comments, I'll contact you and we'll work it out.
Please participate! I don't want anyone to feel left out when I distribute the student comments in class.