I wish everything work out for you at UAlbany! Regarding UGA, did they tell you anything about the waitlist? I sent an e-mail to the GDS inquiring about the cohort's size and also to know my chances.
I received an e-mail from UGA stating that my application will be reviewed at admissions meeting on February 25th. Also, today was emailed by the UGA's IT with instructions to create MyID and an institutional e-mail (I think it is quite weird since I'm still an application, I'm assuming it is an automatic e-mail sent to everyone). Did it happened to other applicants?
Great! Congrats!!
I do know that the PhD program is administered jointly by two departments, however I don't know in what directions it impacts the final results. Do you know if there is a difference?
I've been in touch with a professor from there which helped me throughout the process, and he said that the fast-track (bachelor to PhD, direct entry) would not be a good idea since it doesn't allow enough time to carry out research, properly train, and write a dissertation.
Hopefully we will be hearing back from them soon.