Tell Us about the University of Georgia

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The downside of UGA is that it is mostly Georgia residents and most grads will end up in Atlanta. If that's where your daughter wants to end up that's fine. Atlanta has good employment opportunities. Fewer UGA grads will be chasing jobs on Wall Street, fashion, Silicon Valley etc. There is a huge football and Greek culture and both dominate over academics. The smart UGA grads I knew went straight to law school and most of them because they couldn't find other jobs. I wouldn't send my daughter out of state to UGA unless it kept her from taking on significant student loans. I'd also have a plan for summer internships as they aren't going to have many in Athens.

OP here. Thank you - helpful post. Definitely trying to not have her or us loaded up with debt. I don't see my DD wanting to stay in Atlanta. I would not advocate for Wall Street, frankly I would be dead set against it. I could see law school or an IR masters. Question would be is can UGA Honors act as a feeder to the top grad schools ? That I don't know. I would think it would have a hard time competing against the top 10 LACs. I do know friends of mine that recruit have had good success with state school honors kids. Hard working, smart, and not entitled. I suspect they may have more grit which is a valuable life skill/trait.

Thanks for taking the time to post.

PP here. She can definitely get in a top grad school from UGA. Really from any school. BUT - I wouldn't force your daughter to decide what she wants to do at such a young age. She may change her mind many many times. Part of college is finding out who you are and what you're interested in.

OP here. I understand. I am trying to balance making her aware of opportunities and that there are multiple paths one can take to get there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm originally from Atlanta and had many friends who went to UGA's honors college. Especially if the price is right, I wouldn't hesitate to send your kid there. The program is very well resourced, and my friends had amazing opportunities while they're there. Most of them no longer live in GA, multiple lived abroad for stints, many continued on to great grad school programs. And if the worst case scenario is that your kid lives and works in Atlanta, well, Atlanta is way better than DC is many, many ways.

Atlanta is a giant soulless suburb filled with very average people.

[Anonymous]

OP, your questions and comments have been exceptionally thoughtful. Your DD will benefit.

My personal prejudice tends towards brand-names. That would argue in favor of Tulane, from your current list. You may find a few surprise reach-offers, given your DD's very solid statistics (don't be put off by the ceaseless one-upping -- your DD's numbers really are very good). Please do try to bargain more with Tulane if that's an appealing destination. But you have nothing to fear from the UGA honors programs (I use plural because there are several).

Good luck -

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, your questions and comments have been exceptionally thoughtful. Your DD will benefit.

My personal prejudice tends towards brand-names. That would argue in favor of Tulane, from your current list. You may find a few surprise reach-offers, given your DD's very solid statistics (don't be put off by the ceaseless one-upping -- your DD's numbers really are very good). Please do try to bargain more with Tulane if that's an appealing destination. But you have nothing to fear from the UGA honors programs (I use plural because there are several).

Good luck -

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, your questions and comments have been exceptionally thoughtful. Your DD will benefit.

My personal prejudice tends towards brand-names. That would argue in favor of Tulane, from your current list. You may find a few surprise reach-offers, given your DD's very solid statistics (don't be put off by the ceaseless one-upping -- your DD's numbers really are very good). Please do try to bargain more with Tulane if that's an appealing destination. But you have nothing to fear from the UGA honors programs (I use plural because there are several).

Good luck -

OP here.

Thank you - that's very kind of you to say. I figure if I can't help with the money maybe I can help with the strategy. I believe the college application process is a such a great teaching and learning opportunity. I have already expressed that there is going to be disappointment in the process and that it will sting but that's part of life and if you never experience disappointment well then you are not really trying at this thing called life. I also believe that there will be, or there is a good chance that there will be, an offer that we had discounted or had deemed unlikely that may very well help make the decision for us. Or I guess that's what I am hoping given DD's hard work. It's been amazing to watch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Typical SEC school.

Not great.

Lots of drinking

Football First ... College second. Like Penn State, if the choice came between abolishing the school or the football program then the school would be abolished.

Other than that , it looks like fun!

+1. It's a football school. Their campus recruiting is lacking and students rarely have summer internships in large cities. It's an SEC school. It's gotten harder to get into in recent years but the academics haven't improved.

Do you have personal experience? Because our family hasn’t found this to be the case at all. Daughter will graduate in May from the Terry School of Business and has offers from multiple Fortune 500 companies already. Her fellow classmates the same.

Most offers are probably for average corporations in Atlanta. UGA simply isn't a school where outstanding students or go getters go. Most alumni are living in Atlanta suburbs. Their campus recruiting was weak when I was in school and I'm sure it still is.

OP here. At first I was dismissive of UGA as well but my daughter did some research on their honors program and it seems pretty damn selective. She's hoping to win one of the named scholarships but out of the gate she did well with the OOS fee waiver. In looking at these stats they are comparable to some pretty damn good schools (the average SAT is the same as Dartmouths') so that's what makes me wonder. And I will admit part of this is financial and part of it is having her work hard but also have a good,fun, college experience. That's the conundrum.

https://honors.uga.edu/p_s/first-year_profile_this_year.html

Right but if it were that great of a school it wouldn't need to have an HONORS program.

Op here. Point taken.

I wouldn’t take that point. Tulane has an honors program, so does pretty much every single state school in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD was recently accepted into UGA and more specifically into their honors program. As part of her admission, UGA offered my DD instate tuition so financially it's pretty appealing. We do not live in VA as many on these boards do so some of the fine VA schools are not available to us at instate rates. While at first I was somewhat dismissive of UGA, in looking into the school and the surrounding area, it seems to have a lot going for it.

I would appreciate any input from folks that are familiar with the school.

Thanks

They're bribing you to attend. Ask yourself why do they need to do that...

Um, it’s called merit aid and pretty much every school outside the top-25 offers it to top students.

You clearly aren’t familiar with the college admissions process, let alone UGA, if you don’t know this and as such it’s probbaly best if you refrain from giving advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Typical SEC school.

Not great.

Lots of drinking

Football First ... College second. Like Penn State, if the choice came between abolishing the school or the football program then the school would be abolished.

Other than that , it looks like fun!

+1. It's a football school. Their campus recruiting is lacking and students rarely have summer internships in large cities. It's an SEC school. It's gotten harder to get into in recent years but the academics haven't improved.

Do you have personal experience? Because our family hasn’t found this to be the case at all. Daughter will graduate in May from the Terry School of Business and has offers from multiple Fortune 500 companies already. Her fellow classmates the same.

Most offers are probably for average corporations in Atlanta. UGA simply isn't a school where outstanding students or go getters go. Most alumni are living in Atlanta suburbs. Their campus recruiting was weak when I was in school and I'm sure it still is.

Right. My daughter goes there, you don’t. Yet you know better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD was recently accepted into UGA and more specifically into their honors program. As part of her admission, UGA offered my DD instate tuition so financially it's pretty appealing. We do not live in VA as many on these boards do so some of the fine VA schools are not available to us at instate rates. While at first I was somewhat dismissive of UGA, in looking into the school and the surrounding area, it seems to have a lot going for it.

I would appreciate any input from folks that are familiar with the school.

Thanks

They're bribing you to attend. Ask yourself why do they need to do that...

Um, it’s called merit aid and pretty much every school outside the top-25 offers it to top students.

You clearly aren’t familiar with the college admissions process, let alone UGA, if you don’t know this and as such it’s probbaly best if you refrain from giving advice.

If it’s so great why do they have to bribe smart kids to attend?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DD was recently accepted into UGA and more specifically into their honors program. As part of her admission, UGA offered my DD instate tuition so financially it's pretty appealing. We do not live in VA as many on these boards do so some of the fine VA schools are not available to us at instate rates. While at first I was somewhat dismissive of UGA, in looking into the school and the surrounding area, it seems to have a lot going for it.

I would appreciate any input from folks that are familiar with the school.

Thanks

They're bribing you to attend. Ask yourself why do they need to do that...

Um, it’s called merit aid and pretty much every school outside the top-25 offers it to top students.

You clearly aren’t familiar with the college admissions process, let alone UGA, if you don’t know this and as such it’s probbaly best if you refrain from giving advice.

If it’s so great why do they have to bribe smart kids to attend?

Again...if you are unfamiliar with the concept of merit aid...that probably 95% of colleges in the US offer...I’m not sure this discussion is worth having as you clearly know nothing about even the most basic aspects of college admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The downside of UGA is that it is mostly Georgia residents and most grads will end up in Atlanta. If that's where your daughter wants to end up that's fine. Atlanta has good employment opportunities. Fewer UGA grads will be chasing jobs on Wall Street, fashion, Silicon Valley etc. There is a huge football and Greek culture and both dominate over academics. The smart UGA grads I knew went straight to law school and most of them because they couldn't find other jobs. I wouldn't send my daughter out of state to UGA unless it kept her from taking on significant student loans. I'd also have a plan for summer internships as they aren't going to have many in Athens.

This was entirely my experience as an honors student at UGA. I found my niche, but your daughter is going to face intense pressure to "look" a certain way if she wants to be accepted in many greek organizations. I didn't go through this and opted at doing my own thing, working in a bar and taking classes. I ended up at a top law school and was a gainfully employed biglaw attorney. So YMMV

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The downside of UGA is that it is mostly Georgia residents and most grads will end up in Atlanta. If that's where your daughter wants to end up that's fine. Atlanta has good employment opportunities. Fewer UGA grads will be chasing jobs on Wall Street, fashion, Silicon Valley etc. There is a huge football and Greek culture and both dominate over academics. The smart UGA grads I knew went straight to law school and most of them because they couldn't find other jobs. I wouldn't send my daughter out of state to UGA unless it kept her from taking on significant student loans. I'd also have a plan for summer internships as they aren't going to have many in Athens.

This was entirely my experience as an honors student at UGA. I found my niche, but your daughter is going to face intense pressure to "look" a certain way if she wants to be accepted in many greek organizations. I didn't go through this and opted at doing my own thing, working in a bar and taking classes. I ended up at a top law school and was a gainfully employed biglaw attorney. So YMMV

OP here. Thank you for sharing your experiences. I don't believe my DD will want to gravitate toward Greek life. I was hoping that given the size of the school she would be able to find her own niche and had hoped that other honor students would form the basis of that niche. How close knit of a group are the honor students ? I had hoped that as there is an honors dorm it would be a bit of its own community. Is that not the case ?

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The downside of UGA is that it is mostly Georgia residents and most grads will end up in Atlanta. If that's where your daughter wants to end up that's fine. Atlanta has good employment opportunities. Fewer UGA grads will be chasing jobs on Wall Street, fashion, Silicon Valley etc. There is a huge football and Greek culture and both dominate over academics. The smart UGA grads I knew went straight to law school and most of them because they couldn't find other jobs. I wouldn't send my daughter out of state to UGA unless it kept her from taking on significant student loans. I'd also have a plan for summer internships as they aren't going to have many in Athens.

This was entirely my experience as an honors student at UGA. I found my niche, but your daughter is going to face intense pressure to "look" a certain way if she wants to be accepted in many greek organizations. I didn't go through this and opted at doing my own thing, working in a bar and taking classes. I ended up at a top law school and was a gainfully employed biglaw attorney. So YMMV

OP here. Thank you for sharing your experiences. I don't believe my DD will want to gravitate toward Greek life. I was hoping that given the size of the school she would be able to find her own niche and had hoped that other honor students would form the basis of that niche. How close knit of a group are the honor students ? I had hoped that as there is an honors dorm it would be a bit of its own community. Is that not the case ?

Thank you.

PP here. It is and it isn't. The honors college has a lot of overlap with campus leadership groups like student government and Greek organizations. If anything, I found my own niche working, but I've had friends who were happy in the marching band or got involved with religious groups, which were surprisingly popular. It's a big school and there's something for everyone, but if you are quirky it might take some more digging to find it.

It's a good school. I had a good experience, studied abroad, which was encouraged, and interned at a federal agency in DC that actually paid and paid for housing (the Foreign Ag Service).

I will say this. It's a big school and if you want to, you can fade into the background and no one will notice or care. If your DD needs help or has a mental health issue, my friends who were in this position had terrible experiences. It's not a hand holding type of place that you might find in a smaller college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Typical SEC school.

Not great.

Lots of drinking

Football First ... College second. Like Penn State, if the choice came between abolishing the school or the football program then the school would be abolished.

Other than that , it looks like fun!

Uh Pedophile State U is a Big 10 school that should have had its doors closed for a very long time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm originally from Atlanta and had many friends who went to UGA's honors college. Especially if the price is right, I wouldn't hesitate to send your kid there. The program is very well resourced, and my friends had amazing opportunities while they're there. Most of them no longer live in GA, multiple lived abroad for stints, many continued on to great grad school programs. And if the worst case scenario is that your kid lives and works in Atlanta, well, Atlanta is way better than DC is many, many ways.

Atlanta is a giant soulless suburb filled with very average people.

I know - this whole post seems fake. Why would a top student even apply to the University of Georgia?