Campus Life: U of Kentucky is located in Lexington, which is about a 7 hour drive. It has over 200 majors in 18 different colleges, and 500 student organizations. For students who are unsure of their major, they have Exploratory programs, where students work with an academic advisor to help guide them through the different areas of study. They spoke about how one organization has students train puppies into eventual guide dogs, taking them to class to go through that process to certify them! The Bill Gatton Student Center is one of their newest buildings, and houses many things, including their visitor's center, theater, classrooms, and dining. They have also built 14 residence halls in the past 5 years and have tempurpedic mattresses in the dorm rooms! They also offer a Living Learning Program (LLP), which groups students based on major or interest areas. Even though on-campus housing isn't required, it is strongly encouraged, as they have found through research that those students have higher GPAs, graduate, and have greater community engagement because of it.
Admissions: UK has two tracks: Early Action and Regular Decision. Early Action is due by December 1st and Regular Decision is due by February 15th. Students hear back withing 3-6 weeks of applying, and the application is on their website or Common App. The Early Action deadline is also for students applying to the Honors college (has an additional essay) and Scholarships. Kentucky does a holistic review process, so they are looking at GPA, test scores, rigor of classes, and extracurriculars. Teacher recommendations are NOT required, but are an optional part of the application. For admission, they use the weighted GPA that NOHS provides on the transcript.
Academic Common Market: UK is a participant in the Academic Common Market, which allows students who are seeking a major not offered in Georgia to receive in-state tuition for an out-of-state school. These students still qualify for scholarships at UK, but they would look at in-state scholarships, rather that out-of-state (which are discussed below). Currently, there are 13 majors at UK that qualify for this program:
- Arts Administration
- Interior Design
- Integrated Strategic Communication
- Clinical Leadership and Management
- Merchandising, Apparel, and Textiles
- Mining Engineering
- Equine Science
- Equine Management
- Agricultural and Medical Biotechnology
- Biosystems Engineering
- Community and Leadership Development
- Animal Science
- Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies
Scholarships: UK has several opportunities for academic, competitive, and selective scholarships. All scholarships are based on their core, unweighted GPA, which is different from how they evaluate a student during the admissions process. Their academic scholarship, Bluegrass Spirit, is determined when the student applies and doesn't require an additional application. For the competitive Presidential or Otis A. Singletary scholarships, an additional essay IS required. These scholarships cover full-out-of-state tuition, and the Singletary scholarship has a housing stipend for the first two years at an on-campus residence hall. The Patterson Scholarship is their most selective, and the student has to meet certain Merit Scholar requirements in order to be considered. This doesn't require any additional application. Students are only able to receive one scholarship from the list above. The William C. Parker Diversity Scholarship Program is a separate program for students if they qualify. There are also separate opportunities for Departmental Scholarships.
Visit: There are two upcoming "See Blue" days at UK. One is on Saturday, October 13th and the other is Friday, November 16th. If you're unable to make it those days, there are weekday opportunities to see the campus, as well as sit in on a class or meet with a specific department.There's also a virtual tour option if you're not quite ready to make the drive to Lexington!
