<p>Does anyone have any info on this school? 96 percent are in state, so I was wondering if alot of kids leave on weekends. The college books don't have much info. Anyone have any first hand knowledge?</p>
<p>Yes, a lot of kids go home for the weekend. Although my daughter attends school out of state, we know students that attend. It is not a college preferred by the strong students in the state..they go to UGA or GaTech. I know many adults that are graduates and they were satisfied with their education. </p>
<p>There is a lot of drinking that goes on and I've heard other unflattering descriptions. It should not be very difficult to get in.</p>
<p>There was a poster here who is an administrator at Ga Southern. However, I haven't seen him on the forums in a while. I am not aware if it being a "suitcase school" (ie people leaving on the weekends). I believe there is a strong frat/sorority presence, with plenty of parties.</p>
<p>Thanks. One of my daughter's friends will attend next year. I think that she also applied to U of Georgia. I was curious because I had never heard of the school.</p>
<p>We lived near the school when it was called Statesboro (sp) College. At that time, it was primarily a teachers/business college and served many of the local kids. When Georgia instituted the HOPE program to keep its students in state, there was a mad rush for U Ga and Georgia Tech. The program has succeeded beyond the wildest hopes of anyone. The problem is that it is now very, very difficult to get into those two schools, whereas at one time it was not so hard. Even good students fail to get in if their SAT scores are below a certain threshhold. This has resulted in Georgia upgrading their ancillary state schools, including Georgia Southern, which has grown and become a viable option to kids from all over Georgia instead of just from the region surrounding the school. It's about an hour or so from Savannah (maybe closer, we lived in Glennville, and I never went from Savannah to the school; just from where we lived). There is some diversity provided by the military base in Hinesville (Ft Stewart, I believe, memory is fading) since a number of military families do sent their kids to GS. It is not the commuter school it used to be, but it has a large suitcase faction because it does tend to serve its locality more heavily than Georgia's two big state guns. </p>
<p>A good friend of mine who did grow in a military household but now is a civillian in Atlanta has a lovely daughter who graduated from there and is a very happy and successful teacher. She enjoyed her years there. She was one of those kids who was an A/B student, wanted to be a teacher; did not get into UGA, but got Hope money and wanted to stay in state. They looked at all of the other state options--I know Susan and she is very thorough and discerning, and chose GS for the college. </p>
<p>I don't know the breakdown between commuter/resident of the school, or any of the particulars as I knew it as old Statesboro. I can tell you that my son currently goes to a school undergoing the same transition from primarily commuter to a major state U. He is not finding it to be an issue, and enjoys a rich social life on and around campus. This is something to investigate if you are considering a school of this sort. They can be outstanding bargains and if you pick a program that is small provide the attention you would not get at a major flagship U, particularly at the freshman level. My son is in classes of 10 kids or less for the most part at his school, though the lecture halls for the required frosh classes are huge.</p>
<p>Thanks for your info. My daughter will be an elementary school major. They do list this as a top major. The area seems very rural. So we would have to visit. Maybe we will add it to our summer tours.</p>
<p>My mom went to GS in the late 60s. She went home every single weekend.</p>
<p>We had a babysitter who was on the swim team there. She didn't say anything one way or the other about it, but when we were in Augusta we drove by it . I have to say its in a pretty remote location.</p>