Helene damage prompts Georgia Tech, UGA to extend early action deadline

ATLANTA — Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia are extending the deadline for prospective students to apply for early action admissions for counties severely impacted by Hurricane Helene.

Georgia Tech has changed its Early Action 1 deadline from Oct. 15 to Oct. 31. The extension is designed to provide students, their families, their high school counselors and others more time to gather all necessary documentation and submit their applications.

“When something like (Helene) happens ... we all think about what as an educational institute we can do for these students,” Mary Tipton Woolley, Georgia Tech’s interim executive director of its office of undergraduate admissions, said in an interview Monday.

Woolley noted some high schools in storm-ravaged areas remain closed since the storm and may not resume classes by mid-October.

Woolley said the Georgia counties that have received the extension are those that have been declared disaster areas by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. None are in metro Atlanta. Georgia Tech said it will consider requests from students living in counties that aren’t on the list.

Counties in other states that have been designated as disaster areas will receive a fee application waiver. Georgia Tech will soon have additional information for students who have been impacted by Helene in Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee.

The deadline to submit standardized test scores to Georgia Tech remains Nov. 18.

UGA has moved the deadline to submit materials to Oct. 29. The university sent emails to students who live in impacted counties in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee.

“We will continue to be flexible for students who are experiencing disruptions in their high school education or others who are in unique circumstances,” Andy Borst, UGA’s vice provost for enrollment management, said in an email Monday.

It’s difficult to get an early action admission to either school. UGA, the state’s flagship university, last year offered admission to about 9,000 of the 26,760 early action applicants for the Class of 2028. The number of early action applicants was a record. Georgia Tech last year admitted 2,688 of its roughly 7,000 Early Action 1 applicants.

The Georgia counties Georgia Tech has included in the extension are: Appling, Atkinson, Bacon, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brooks, Bulloch, Burke, Candler, Chatham, Clinch, Coffee, Colquitt, Columbia, Cook, Echols, Emanuel, Evans, Glascock, Irwin, Jeff Davis, Jefferson, Jenkins, Johnson, Lanier, Laurens, Liberty, Lincoln, Lowndes, McDuffie, Montgomery, Pierce, Richmond, Screven, Tattnall, Telfair, Toombs, Treutlen, Ware, Washington and Wheeler.

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