Thoughts on UGA vs UF
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Anonymous
| I went to UF and loved it. UGA is not the same. While Athens is a cuter city, don't knock Gainesville. It has everything for a great college experience. UF is the better school too. Georgia is a bit preppier and more Greek. |
Anonymous
huh? I went to UF and it was great, but it's not a good location. There's nothing there. It's 2 hours to any big city on either coast, 5 hours to Miami. Neighboring cities have amazing attractions like Old Sparky, the electric chair. hah. It is the best college in Florida, if that's what you're trying to say. It's selective because it's dirt cheap (most Floridians go for close to free, I was completely free) and is the best college in fL. |
Anonymous
UF Honors College grad- it was an amazing smaller school experience with the resources of a huge university- highly recommend. The Gator Nation alumni network is strong too. |
Anonymous
Having a hard time believing ?most Floridians go for close to free?. |
Anonymous
Look up Florida Bright Futures |
Anonymous
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Honestly, since both are main state schools, they are going to have the same cache once they are job-hunting. UF versus UGA will mainly matter in terms of who comes to recruit on the campus and which programs they offer that feed into graduate programs. Other than that, UF versus UGA is only going to matter if the person interviewing you went there or knows someone who did, and can have an opening break-the-ice conversation about it. Either will check the box of having been to a large state school the employer recognizes. I went to Clemson and UGA, am 55 years old, and that has been my experience the entirety of my decades job hunting.
Therefore, unless you're looking into a grad-school feeder program or one has huge recruitment from the campus in a particular field versus the other, it would be down to the one they just feel more at home with and excited about. |
Anonymous
Georgia grad here feeling the need to add a another pro UGA reply.  I know very little about the UF experience, so please don't view my comments as counterpoints to previous posts or as if UGA has what I mention and UF doesn't.
My DH was at UGA in the late 80s, I was there early 90s, and while we had completely different experiences, we both loved it! He was a fine arts major and was not involved in Greek life, and I was a liberal arts major in a sorority. When I was there, and I think it's still the case from kids I know attending now, Greek life is what you make of it. I had friends in it, friends not in it, and from my perspective, nobody seemed to care. Knowing no one as a freshman, joining a sorority was a great way for me to meet people when I first got there, but my friends were not limited to sorority and fraternity members. As someone mentioned, Athens is such a cool town, and I think the arts, music and food scene was more important than whether or not someone was "Greek." I see that currently, 26% of students are in a sorority or fraternity (31% female, 20% male) - certainly a presence but not dominating. I don't have percentages on the liberal/conservative front, but I would not describe the town of Athens or UGA as overly conservative. I realize Georgia tends to be more conservative as a state, but like most college towns, Athens is more liberal. Again, the music and art scene is big there, so the vibe at the school and in the town is far more open than you might think. I realize UF has a lower admit rate, but I can't compare the actual education received at the two schools. I know smart successful alums from both. Georgia has the "Double Dawg" program http://doubledawgs.uga.edu/ that is a great opportunity and definitely worth checking out (I think UF has something similar.). UGA also has an honors college https://honors.uga.edu/index.html, and I hear positive things about it (a close friend's child is in the program). I live in Georgia, so UGA grads are definitely viewed as better than UF grads; but we may be a little biased. 
Congrats to your DS! I'm sure he would love either school! |
Anonymous
| UF offers much more diversity. It attracts people from many more major cities and culturally different (South Florida, Tampa, SW corridor, Orlando, Jacksonville, and everything in between) and being that it is the top-ranked University in the State, it probably feeds well into a lot of these cities as well as Atlanta For UGA, the majority of the students come out of the Atlanta area. A lot of these jobs go to G Tech, Emory, Alabama, Tennessee, Clemson, USC graduates due to the fact that everyone wants to go to either Atlanta, Charlotte, or Charleston. I get the feeling that UF has more alumni around the mid-Atlantic states as well as the NE. Both are excellent Flagships. Both have a lot of rah rah and SEC Football. UF is also more competitive in other sports. Not you can go wrong at either school. UGA will have better weather. Either one will be an incredible amount of fun. I want in..... LOL! |
Anonymous
They have to qualify academically, but it's a great program. |
Anonymous
| I went there for grad school and as a POC, did not see that much racial diversity, if that matters to you. |
Anonymous
For which school? UF is about 55 percent white. |
Anonymous
| Any new opinions on this? |
Anonymous
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We've seen a lot more kids from my child's school apply to and attend UGA since this thread started in 2020. Not as many for UF, but maybe it's a harder OOS admit? We are OOS for both.
No personal experience, but I get the impression that they are very similar in many ways. I have heard UF has some housing headaches and some online only courses. On the flip side, people complain a lot about the size of UGA's campus. I think both seem to attract smart kids who like to have fun! |
Anonymous
| Not sure what impact Ben Sasse as Pres at UF has had in recent years. But other factors: Gainesville is closer to the beach than Athens. Lots of international students at UF which is pretty cool. My first international trip was visiting European friends that I met in college. |
Anonymous
| Ignoring rank and considering both schools have almost identical tuition for out of state students, what would make you choose one over the other? DC is interested in business, and not sure where they would like to live postgrad. |