<p>Sounds so great--unfortunately, it doesn't have either of his sports. Thanks for the suggestion though.</p>
<p>Yankees? In Georgia? <em>faints dramatically</em> </p>
<p>Just kidding! <em>grin</em> Anyway, I'm southern by birth and attended both a small college in the Atlanta area and UGA. I don't agree that Emory isn't well-known. It <em>does</em> have a positive reputation. What it has going for it is a more cosmopolitan setting -- not <em>urban</em> as such, but close enough to have all the positive things -- and strong academics. The student body has a more cultural diversity than UGA, I think. Emory does have southern flavor, but it's colored, again, by Atlanta, which is a southern city full of transplants, these days. I am trying to put this delicately -- Emory has fewer rural southern students, and the students tend to be more worldly, more urbane. In the 80's-90's, we'd have said the were all yuppies, or yuppies in training. <em>grin</em> That's not a bad thing, and in Georgia, Emory commands respect like say, Rutgers does there. </p>
<p>UGA has a smaller setting. Athens is a college town, as much as they'd like you to think of it as a town that happens to have a university in it. The student body is more suburban and less sophisticated than Emory. Sports are important at UGA, and the greek system. When I went to school there, one of the big things about Athens was the music scene -- every third person was in a band, or had been in a band, and there was a lot of music coming out of Athens. Athens itself is a lovely town, and it's sort of a joke/truism that once you've lived there, you'll always go back, or at least love it. OTOH, I don't think UGA is as strong academically as some of the other schools you've mentioned. I know someone else said that it's "up and coming", but it's got a ways to go. </p>
<p>At the risk of upsetting UGA fans, UGA students are less tolerant than those at more urban schools, especially with religious issues.</p>
<p>Boxcar, I'd love to know about your search. One of the reasons my children enjoy living in California now is that they didn't like the religious attitudes in their birth state, Georgia. I grew up surrounded by Southern Baptists and other culturally conservative folk, who honestly thought (and would tell you!) that the "jews killed Christ", etc. (UGH!) My experience at UGA frequently involved being in a classroom full of students who were mostly on the same page about their faith (southern Christian conservative) <em>and</em> expected that to be the norm others started with. I studied Biblical Hebrew at UGA, and it was frquently joked that the entire Jewish student population could enroll in the class at the same time, and we'd still have open seats.</p>
<p>So I guess I'm wondering about how the search was for you, and if you felt that different schools had different levels of tolerance, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks for the great analysis, TrinSF. I had kind of passed over Emory, but we'll take a closer look. I still can't imagine a Jersey boy at UGA.</p>
<p>what's wrong with someone from new jersey going to UGA?</p>
<p>Check out NC State's College of Natural Resources</p>
<p>What turned me off were the negative comments on StudentsReview.com, mostly. There was more than passing mention of racism, very conservative thinking, conformity, and less-than-stellar academics. Granted lots of kids complain about their schools on that site, but I pretty much run the other way when I hear the words 'conservative and conforming.' Not to mention, the school is more than 90% in-state. Not sure it would be a particularly welcoming environment for him.</p>