For high-achieving high school students eager to attend Georgia’s premier research universities, their senior year can be enormously stressful.
Many have sleepless nights obsessing about whether they will earn early admissions to Georgia Tech or the University of Georgia so they can put the college admissions scramble behind them. After all, many years of hard work and good grades should payoff.
But for too many Georgia teens and their families with impeccable academic records, they still can’t get a guaranteed seat into the college of their choice when early admissions letters go out each fall.
What’s most alarming to parents – and Georgia lawmakers – is that too many students who get early admissions for coveted seats like UGA, Tech, Georgia State University and Augusta State are not Georgia residents. My research found that 58.5 percent of Georgia Tech’s early admissions and 31 percent of UGA’s early admissions in 2019 were from out of state.
By comparison, in 2003 UGA admitted only 21.5 percent of out-of-state students in early admissions. Georgia Tech admitted about 61 percent from out of state in early admissions back then.
That’s why I have introduced the Keep Georgia Kids First Act. Senate Bill 282 is an attempt to keep the brightest students in our state and not flee to places like Clemson University, the University of Tennessee or the University of Alabama.
A fall early admissions letter gives a student the opportunity to make definite plans where he or she may want to attend college and not have to explore second or third choices if they don’t make regular admission in the spring.
It sounds like a no-brainer to Moms and Dads who have saved for almost 20 years to send their children to college. And for those high-achievers, it seems like the only fair thing to do.
This is proposal is not an attempt to lower standards or grow the size of our universities but do what we as a state government and University System should be doing: prioritize our constituents. The University System spends about $2.5 billion a year, and it should always put Georgia students first.
With the introduction of the HOPE Scholarship, many of our most talented students no longer rush off to Ivy League schools but make our state’s top research universities their first choice to attend college. If two students have equal academic performance during early admissions, then a Georgia student should always be admitted with preference over an out-of-state student.
When I hear stories such as one young woman from Alpharetta with a 4.0 grade average, a 1425 SAT and a 33 ACT with 10 honors courses who was rejected for early admissions to UGA, I believe these parents and students have a right to complain. This student was offered early admissions to Tulane, Vanderbilt, Clemson and the University of Tennessee. She wound up enrolling at UT in Knoxville, and our state lost a young lady who will likely become a permanent Tennessee resident upon graduation.
Sadly, our University System is too preoccupied with where students originate and a balancing system on early admissions then seeking to admit our most prized local students.
For those more concerned about balancing the student body, I believe the University System can obtain a healthy variety of out-of-state students and those from throughout Georgia as it fills its class throughout the year.
Getting that college admissions letter in the mailbox is one of the most cherished moments in a student’s life. We as a state government have a great responsibility to encourage those who excel to apply to our great universities and have confidence that they will get that early sign off to the college of their choice.
Beach, a Republican, represents District 21 including parts of Cherokee and North Fulton counties in the Georgia Senate. He is also a member of the Georgia Senate Higher Education Committee.
