<p>I am thinking about transferring out of West Point next year and atttending the University of Georgia and doing their ROTC program. How are the academics at UGA and what is your overall perception of the school?</p>
<p>UGA is good. Depending on your major, it can or cannot be rigorous. But the school offers a solid experience in terms of extracurricular activities and recreation. If I put in terms of the top schools in Georgia, it’s kind of the middleway. Admittedly, the academics are going to be less rigorous than Emory and Georgia Tech (and perhaps many top schools outside of Georgia for that matter), but they will be rigorous enough for the students attending. However, it is clear that the social atmosphere and recreation opportunities are probably much better than those offered at Tech and Emory (Emory isn’t bad considering it’s size. I’d put it between UGA and Tech for social atmosphere, and behind them for recreational outlets). And since the workload is more manageable at UGA, you get a reasonable amount of time to enjoy such amenities and maintain a decent GPA. Overall, it’s a good school. I personally just wanted more rigorous academics, and wasn’t interested in engineering, so I figured when I was applying that I was coming to Emory or going to another rigorous institution out of state. I haven’t been disappointed yet in terms of academics (Emory is rigorous, but manageable while I’d say that UGA is moderate and manageable which is not bad. Tech is rigorous and less manageable than both apparently. But that’s what you expect from a top engineering school), and my social life here is thriving. I’m not sure if “I” could claim both of those sentiments to be true if I went to UGA. I suppose it depends on the type of student. </p>
<p>The question for you would be, How rigorous were West Point Academics, and how rigorous do want the academics to be at the school you transfer to?</p>
<p>By the way, you’re leaving a very cool looking campus (love the neo-Gothic and Granite. Amazing!!).</p>
<p>Just dropped my son from NJ off at UGA as a Freshman. He was accepted at a number of elite NE colleges. He choose UGA because of its Business program with a specialty in the business side of the music industry. He also fell in love with the campus and Athens. He is an accomplished blues guitarist who sees UGA and Athens as his training to become a record company CEO (his goal). He plans on attending NYU or Columbia for his MBA, so UGA and Athens gives him the perfect undergrad environment. Like many students he recognizes that an undergraduate degree is like a HS diploma was 25 years ago.<br>
I knew nothing about UGA when he started his college search and was more focused on him attending a NE institution. He had scholarship monies to several, but selected UGA for the above reasons. Having met many of the Freshman this week I was impressed with the quality of first year students. His dorm floor had some impressive young men and women. The bottom line—I’m now sold on UGA and, so far, see it as a great choice for him. If he focuses on his studies, gets several good internships and enjoys his undergraduate experience, I’m confident he’ll go to a top MBA program. He graduated from a top NJ HS with a 3.8 and had a 30 on his ACT. He tested out of Calc and Stats via his AP courses, so he starts UGA with some credits.
By the way I love West Point. My son was a gymnast and competed in the West Point Invitational for 5 straight years.</p>
<p>Wait, UGA has undergrad. business? I thought only us, Mercer, and Tech had it (maybe GSU). I didn’t know that. Interesting. Hopefully it’s not as crazy as ours where you must apply to it when you complete pre-reqs. And then when you get there, you have to deal with the fixed curve for the classes that fix the average GPA to 3.15 (which puts it way lower than the college. This would put it second to pre-med as the hardest major in terms of GPA and not really a distant second either) . Hopefully UGA business is less cut-throat. I’m sure your son will enjoy it and the music scene Athens has to offer (being in a true collegetown is awesome). Good luck to both of you.</p>
<p>What’s the chances of getting into a ROTC program after dropping out of the USMA?</p>
<p>You should probably talk to people in our ROTC program.</p>
<p>I believe UGA is 18 among public universities. Last I checked, West Point was #1…so you are leaving behind rank, but UGA is a great school…depending on your major.</p>
<p>Doesn’t that depend on who’s ranking? I mean I thought US News put Berkeley as #1. But regardless, even here I think Westpoint is ahead of UGA. Just not quite that far.</p>
<p>Emory, GT and UGA will all be easier than West Point. While the three can match the academic challeges of WP, none will match the extracurricular rigors of a military academy. </p>
<p>If you want an engineering degree, GT is the choice. If you want a liberal arts degree, choose between UGA and Emory. If you want a business degree, all three schools offer strong programs. Both UGA and GT have excellent honors programs that provide ivy-league-like opportunities.</p>
<p>Emory is unaffordable to many, and it probably isn’t much of a consideration for the OP. Just kind of defending Emory, in asking why does it normally gets shafted/ignored as soon as someone mentions GT or UGA honors. It’s as if it is being said that if one gets into either, it’s like end discussion, Emory should just be thrown out of the picture. I would say this is the case that you get no scholarship or significant aid (which is very possible even w/ the economy, Emory Advantage is still pretty strong). However, if you do get funding and want to go into liberal arts or natural sciences, it’s the place to go. Strangely enough, I know some people here who chose here over GT honors for natural sciences for whatever reason even though they had to pay some money out of pocket. They seem happy, even if some of the courses give them a very hard time every now and then. Plus luckily they dabbled into the humanities and social sciences and haven’t been disappointed. And undergrad. B-school here is really good, but the grading curve is harsh. If one could easily (through shear wealth, scholarship, fin. aid grants) afford it and was considering under-grad. B-school, I’d say come to Emory, even despite the grading curve. Just trying to throw out the idea that the smaller environment here can easily create and make way for “ivy-league-like” opportunities without entering through a special program that to some degree or another sects. you off from other peers on campus and treats you significantly different/better. The only thing close to honors here is Scholars, and they aren’t that noticeable as they don’t have a special dorm where a majority are placed, and certain sections of courses are not almost completely reserved for them. Though they do get first dibs on course selection and housing, there are too few to warrant scholars-only sections (hence non-scholars can easily enroll in the remaining spots in say some course section with a new teaching style which many scholars may or may not choose, which we have 2-3 of in the intro. sciences this year!) . Plus everyone here is expected to be able to perform on the same level, so either all sections will be rigorous to everyone, or a section with additional rigor or experimental teaching method is made available to everybody interested and qualified Like freshmen orgo. for example. No reason to reserve it for scholars since they a) don’t necessarilywanna take it, and b) because many non-scholars earned the necessary 5 on AP chem. or 7 on IB to be invited. What would make the 5 or 7 of the Scholar special? The fact that they used their course rigor as an accolade when applying to the program? In reality many other students did too, as it was needed to merely gain admission. This is the case with Tech. There won’t really be a huge gap in learning ability between an honors/presidential scholar and normal admit these days. There probably is a solid difference in caliber at UGA though. I guess I’m also just poking holes in such a model for an honors program at a school as selective and rigorous as Tech. Parts of the model are useful b/c Tech is large, and getting such students extra exposure to faculty members is important. Some non-honors tell me it is very difficult to establish a solid relationship or even interact w/profs. outside of class. I can see where Honors students perhaps deserve this, but I don’t know if I agree with special treatment in terms of academics in their case.</p>