I am aware that UNC and UVA are extremely competitive and to some extent in the South (mid-Atlantic) as well, but based on some of the stats being reported on these boards, it is incredible to see how competitive UGA has become through the years. You are constantly seeing perfect GPAs as well as close to perfect ACT/SAT scores getting deferred and in some cases even flat out denied.
I wonder what the perspective is from those applying from OOS. The University of Michigan gets over 60K applications which are twice as many as UGA. This allows Michigan to be even more selective and it is a well-known fact that it is a choice destination for everyone in the country. including kids from the west coast, SW, etc. I do not think UGA is as popular in those States. But there is no better marketing than having a super successful Football team and top academics to boost. Now you got the selectivity point and as they continue to get more applications, I would think that it will become even more selective just like Michigan.
Georgia Tech is extremely selective but it always seems to attract more of the Stem applicant even though they pretty much offer every major and they are incredibly selective for those as well. Just wonder what is the take from those applying.
I don’t think UGA is close to being like MI, VA, and UNC. UGA is a great school and has a lot of great majors, but it is not as selective as those three schools.
BTW, if having a quality football team was the ultimate lever, Alabama would be the most selective college in America. But it is not even close in that metric.
Disclaimer: It’s always a treat to see UGA beat Bama!
UGA 4 year graduation rates (50%), much lower test scores and gpa, and high acceptance rates, will keep them from getting close to Michigan in rankings.
Michigan has 15% international students and about 50% out of state students.
Georgia has only 5% international and 16% out of state.
In addition, Michigan is internationally ranked with top 10 graduate programs in Law and Business.
In the U.S. Forbes ranks Michigan #20 and Georgia #99. That’s a big gap to overcome.
Lastly, Virginia ranked #33 is much more like “Michigan of the South” than Georgia.
My OOS top stat child passed on applying to Michigan, UVA, and UNC and applied to UGA. He was accepted with early merit and it is towards the top of his list. He was enticed by their top scholars experiences and fell in love with the campus and Athens. I think all of this comparison and ranking is getting ridiculous. UGA connected with my child in a way that those others did not. What they have to offer connects with what he is looking for in a school. It had nothing to do with football, but a fun, engage, and excited student body who have pride in their school is certainly a part of school culture. The opinion expressed above that “good schools usually don’t have good football teams” is just that, an opinion. The two are not mutually exclusive and the opinion is narrowly focused and elitist. I can name a few dozen “good” schools that are strong football schools.
Equating schools, ranking of minutia, southern ivy, public icy, little ivy, near ivy is all nonsense. The vast majority of top students do not attend these schools are are sitting in honors colleges at state U’s all over the country receiving a great education. My child is not interested in a single Ivy and has the stats, personality, and multiple top level ECs and national level awards to make them all viable. He carefully crafted his list without ever once looking at USNWR or any other rankings. He has earned through hard work and dedication the chance to be picky in where he applies and he picked UGA. Seems like lots of other amazing young adults did as well.
@EconPop I think, it is closer than you think. Keep in mind that in the State of Georgia, the majority of the high stats students come from one major city which is Atlanta. Having a top-ranked football program does not hurt when it comes to marketing, exposure, and name recognition.
UGA is similar to UF but for sure not Michigan State.
No, the University of Georgia is not becoming the Michigan of the South.
The University of Michigan has the ninth (9th) largest endowment of any college or university in the country (slightly over 800 endowments are reported and ranked annually). Michigan’s $11.9 billion dollar endowment exceeds that of Northwestern University’s $11.09 Billion and the endowments of many elite schools including Columbia, Duke, Cornell & Virginia.
Michigan has about 41% non-resident undergraduates, while the University of Georgia has just about 13% non-resident undergraduates.
Michigan is a national university while Georgia remains largely a regional school.
Of course if you are a family chasing merit you are not looking at colleges like Michigan, Virginia, or the ivies as they give little to no merit dollars to high stat applicants.
The Georgia’s and Alabama’s look a lot more attractive from a COA perspective which is a different question than the one posed by the OP.
Totally understand where the OP is going here but not with these 2 schools. Michigan is like ranked in the top 10 for just about every field out there.
With respect to endowments, the University of Georgia ranks at #90 in terms of size of endowment funds with $1.275 billion. Georgia’s endowment is a bit more than one-tenth (1/10) the size of Michigan’s endowment which is almost $12 billion.
For a broader perspective with respect to endowments:
Overall, in my opinion, the University of Texas & the University of Virginia are in the same league with the University of Michigan in many respects as is the University of Washington.
The University of Georgia is a regional powerhouse similiar to the University of Wisconsin, the University of Florida, Ohio State, Penn State, Illinois & Minnesota, in my opinion.
Although ranked lower by US News at #62 versus Univ. of Georgia at #50, the University of Washington is more like Michigan than is Georgia due to Washington’s superior research funding from the federal government.
Stanford, Cal, Notre Dame, USC, UCLA, Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan, Ohio State, Texas, Northwestern, etc., notwithstanding some down years. Some good schools and good football teams there.
There are a few ways to look at this. It seems that the OP point comes from the side of selectivity in the sense of how selective UGA has become with their admissions requirements which do not seem to be far off from those of Michigan. The admission numbers are very impressive.
Kids are getting either deferred or denied with what is usually takes to get into the top 20 schools or the more selective Universities such as Michigan.
Another consideration is that the University of Michigan has one of the top engineering/computer science programs in the world along with a top-ranked business school. UGA’s Engineering department is fairly new and not even close to even being nationally known (Georgia Tech is for that) and even though the Business School is well regarded and well ranked, it does not offer direct admissions. I can see how these two factors alone could be the difference in a handful of applications.
@bamamom2021. It’s great that your son found a school that is a great fit for him. My daughter goes to a LAC that most likely is ranked like 267 but it’s the best school for her. She couldn’t imagine being anywhere else. The opportunities they are affording her is amazing.
This is cc… What did you expect… Lol. Everyone debates everything… ?.
Georgia has the Hope Scholarship / Lottery Scholarship & Zell Miller Scholarship. I believe that all are reserved for Georgia residents. (The University of Florida has Bright Futures Scholarship for residents.)
Use of these scholarships by Georgia residents renders the COA of attending UGA to a very low figure thereby attracting apps from the best students in Georgia. This allows UGA to be selective in admissions–admitting just under 50%. Michigan admits about 23%.
OP asked for a comparison of the University of Georgia to the University of Michigan.
Michigan & Georgia are just not in the same league with respect to admissions selectivity (23% versus 49%), non-resident students (41% versus 13%), endowments (Michigan’s is almost ten times higher than Georgia’s) & research funding (Michigan is #2 versus #57 for Georgia).
For classes entering in Fall, 2018, Michigan’s mid-range SATs were 1330-1510; Georgia’s were lower at 1240-1410.
As noted above, Michigan’s endowment is the ninth largest in the nation at almost $12 billion, while Georgia ranks at #90 with about $1.275 billion.
R&D expenditures for Fiscal Year 2018:
Univ. of Michigan = $1.6 billion = second highest among US universities. The Univ. of Georgia spent approximately $453 million = 57th highest in the nation.
P.S. For those interested in university research & development spending, I will start a new thread listing the top 66 educational institutions for R&D spending for FY 2018. I will title it “FY 2018 University R&D Expenditures”.