We live in the west. S has applied to Bama, and qualifies for Presidential. This makes Bama a very interesting alternative. We have yet to visit, and will if he does not get into his ED first choice. Recently, Georgia was suggested to him. He wants business Finance…For those here who are familiar with both schools, could you offer an objective comparison of the two schools. Mama is a batter financial deal for us. Both schools have the spirit. How does the atmosphere and college town environment compare? Is Georgia’s higher rank legit and worthwhile? Perspectives please?
Any opportunity to visit? Any interest in Greek life? Better like football!
Loves Sports, probably greek, and will visit upon acceptance. Thus trying to understand points of differentiation
I have kids at both, and graduated from UGA. Similarities–big southern schools, big SEC football, tons of tradition and school pride. Bama has 58-60% out of state students, UGA is down to about 20% out of state. The difference occurs because Bama is attracting OOS students through big scholarships, and UGA is taking in their finest in state students through the Hope Scholarship recipients. Because of the large OOS presence, Bama is looking a little more “melting pot” than UGA. Plus, less kids go home on weekends and short holidays because of long distances to travel. UGA for finance is higher ranked, UGA for business in general is higher ranked, except for MIS–then Bama wins easily. Distance to local airports is about the same–for UGA you have to go to ATL (90 mins), for Bama, you are heading to BHM (an hour) or ATL (3 hours). The Honors College at Bama is more cohesive and offers more to do (in our experience), the UGA Honors College is harder to get into. Both schools offer their “premier programs” in Honors–University Fellows and Computer Based Honors at Bama; UGA offers Foundation Fellows and Emerging Scholars. UGA has Athens–small town vibe, great downtown, great bands, great food. Bama’s downtown is smaller, but they have much better overall shopping in Tuscaloosa than Athens. UGA has some nice dorms, especially the Honors dorms. Bama has a greater number of nice dorms, but its harder to stay in a dorm after freshman year. Both are very large Greek systems.
Both are excellent options. My kids have had great opportunities at both.
@swim4school, That was quite thorough. Is UGA easy for OOS student to assimilate?
OOS student there, and though it was unlikely for him to stay on campus his sophomore year, he actually was able to re-contract.
That is rare though, but a positive for me, was all the off campus housing available. Rental houses to really nice complexes for the kids. There is school shuttle that travels to some of them, some have their own.
Also, travelling to airport has become even easier at Bama. Besides the school shuttle that operates during breaks, there is a new shuttle service starting up that will run at other times as well. Our local airport is usually expensive to travel from, but travelling to Philly airport, which can add another 5-6 hours to travel time, is not much cheaper, so I have been very happy with that.
DS is only coming home for Xmas and spring break, because he can’t stay in his dorm for those times. Even with so many OOS students, he said last year for Fall Break, very short, it was actually very quiet on campus. Luckily all his roommates were OOS so they were all there for that.
That is worth keepingin mind. My friend’s son is at a school where a lot of kids go home quite often, and he said the campus is dead; he really isn’t happy there at those times, as he is a real social kid.
UGA has FEW OOS students, so not a good choice for an OOS student.
The OOS numbers for UGA are perhaps a bit deceiving - OOS students largely from neighboring states. UA, due to building up UG STEM and OOS/nationally recruiting/high stat kid scholarships, has students from all over and having more incoming freshman students from OOS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrV8g7kxJps - this is a good overview of how UA has developed in recent years
UA has updated its Quick Facts http://viewbook.ua.edu/quick-facts/
(2014 enrollment breakdown by state - new undergraduates - which would be freshmen for the most part): http://oira.ua.edu/d/webreports/enrollment2/Fall_2014/f18.html
http://oira.ua.edu/d/webreports/enrollment2/Fall_2015/e10.html
This URL gives FALL 2015 data for all of the university (not just freshmen).
http://eng.ua.edu/undergraduate/scholarships/ - this has the link for university scholarship page, and info with UG engineering scholarship.
I saw this article today on the Red and Black site: http://www.redandblack.com/uganews/georgia-on-their-minds-out-of-state-student-population-increasing/article_bb56ee46-7560-11e6-89dd-27c1be0ffec8.html
OOS in 2015 was only 13 percent and most of those come from neighboring states. There is a map in the article too. I have kids at both (Freshman at UGA and a Junior at UA). I will say that even as in-state residents with both the Hope and Zell, we pay more for our UGA kid than the Bama one (Presidential and Engineering). Although our tuition is covered at UGA, the fees are higher.
Don’t expect much merit aid from UGA either. We moved to GA just prior to our DD’s senior year so we were classified as out of state for admission and until a few days before enrollment (you have to have lived in the state for 12 months prior to the 1st day of classes to be considered in-state). Our DD got NOTHING in the way of merit aid. Her stats: 4.25+ gpa, 33 ACT, and a National Merit Finalist. Oh wait, I just remembered. She did finally get a letter awarding her $500 for her NMF a few weeks before school started, lol.
Wow!
I had heard that UGA is horrible with merit, and that’s likely because of HOPE and Zell Miller. They have so few OOS. As you’ve said…the few OOS they have are likely from bordering states…or I would guess…athletes or students that have “something” paying the bill (like VA benefits).
This was my daughters choice 2 years ago. She actually got a good scholarship to Georgia. She was thinking of majoring in Food Science, and Georgia had that major.
However, she chose Bama. She switched her major several times and settled on Communications Disorders with the intent of becoming a speech therapist.
She liked the honors college at Bama better. At Georgia’s honors college presentation they mentioned that there was more writing in the honors classes, and my daughter hates writing. Bamas honors classes are smaller and have lots of discussions, and my daughter lives them.
Bama also stresses community involvement, and that’s important to my daughter.
Finally, my daughter liked that Bama has lots of OOS kids. We’re from California and there are lots of California kids at Bama. When we were at an informational meeting for Georgia I think there was only 1 other out of state kid.
She like the Athens food scene better than Tuscaloosa. Lots of quaint restaraunts.
She’s very happy with her choice. It’s better than she thought it was going to be. She’ll be able to afford grad school because she picked Bama.