UGA or Auburn University???

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Georgia
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<p>My D was early decision and auto-honors for both UGA and Auburn. We found the overall difference in the two Universities to be more cosmetic than academic. </p>

<p>Here’s a 20 page PDF from USNEWS that compares UGA, Auburn and their peers in a variety of categories. In reality the differences in the statistics are minor and quite comparable. <a href=“https://oira.auburn.edu/about/publications/usnews2011_FINAL.pdf[/url]”>https://oira.auburn.edu/about/publications/usnews2011_FINAL.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Auburn has been on an academic recruiting binge for the last 4-5 years and becoming more selective while being far more generous in merit scholarships than UGA to build a higher level student base than they had before. Auburn rose from nowhere in this time to rank fifth out of 126 public institutions in National Merit finalists. Their national merit finalists have gone up from 30+ (2008), 60+ (2009), 134 (2010). For 2010, The admitted class compiled an average score of 26.9 on the ACT college entrance exam, outpacing last year’s then-record of 26.2. UGA is at 27. So the difference was negligible. </p>

<p>In the end, my D has chosen Auburn over Duke, Stanford, Vanderbilt, UGA, and Clemson for the main reason of merit scholarship money. It would have cost her far more to attend UGA even though we are in the Atlanta area (not to mention the others)… she will not have to spend a penny even for food or books at Auburn. UGA only gives out 20 full-ride academic scholarships via Foundation Fellows. Auburn will give 200+ this year (14 elites, national merit, etc.) This means there will be plenty of money for post-graduate work at any institution she desires after her undergraduate degree. </p>

<p>I think they are both fine universities, and overall UGA probably still has a slight academic edge based on historical statistics; but, Auburn has narrowed the gap recently to which more specific concerns such as money, specific area of study, aesthetics, dorm life, may play a larger determining factor.</p>

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<p>I thought Vandy was generous w/fin. aid. I’ve heard that Stanford and Duke are known to be stingy from everyone here who has considered them. Auburn seems to has a nice campus and both are decent options, but I wonder who has the edge in coursework and rigor (not to say that a person who mentioned that they were rushing at both in the 2nd sentence wants this). Is Auburn also known as a party school w/decent academics? Because I already know it’s unfair to consider all public shools at the same level in terms of coursework, rigor, and academic motivation. Ideally, if the student body has changed (in a good way) at both, you would hope that the coursework changes to challenge the newly, more qualified student bodies (like we already know public schools grade harder, but is the work actually useful/challenging). There are many idiots here who are so sheltered that they think all public schools are “easy”. They think that Georgia Tech, for example, is easy simply because it is public. It would help if someone knew something about it (Auburn) other than rankings/statistics I guess. Like what programs are done really well and what makes them that way? I would guess the OP would have to take science courses. Which school would prepare more in those areas? Generally the school w/a more rigorous science curriculum, but w/o it being overbearing wins?</p>

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<p>Boatfoot: Congratulations to your daughter!! I agree that most kids can do equally well at a number of universities. You have researched your options well and made a decision that works for your family. I wish the best for your daughter. I hope that others read what you have written and learn from it.</p>

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<p>Thank you so much for your kind words… We tried hard to evaluate many colleges, and my D’s first thoughts about where she wanted to go totally changed over time as more info came in for her needs. We visited 15 colleges last year starting last February thru October. Her main ‘internet’ 1st choices were Vanderbilt, Davidson College, and Duke and her backup was UGA or UVA. Everything changed over time. </p>

<p>I hope our experience will help others in deciding… There is no one right college without many, many factors considered. </p>

<p>Everyone has different needs and tastes. Her first visit was to ‘Internet’ favorite Vanderbilt and she seemed to like it and we spent much moniey to saty for extra days after initial meetings to visit downtown and the area… she still liked it, but over time while visiting others it quickly dropped of the list. She really loved Davidson College which is an elite LA college in North Carolina and we spent several days there. </p>

<p>We started scheduling Urban-Large, Urban-Small, Public, Private Small, medium and large. Every configuration possible within reason to narrow down things. It may not fit for others, but my D liked the atmosphere of smaller private LA schools like Duke, Davidson, Furman, Agnes Scott, Washington & Lee. On the public side, UVA and others fell by the wayside because if she wanted go farteher away from home, might as well do the private ones. </p>

<p>So in the middle it came down to Duke, Vanderbilt, Davidson (Stanford was just one to prove she could get in)… and UGA, Clemson, and New College of Florida (a small public honors college with huge merit scholarships). </p>

<p>Then it came down to college credits. This may effect AP students, but my D has 41 college credits as she started Dual Enrollment at the 4 year Gwinnett College in Georgia at the age of 14. Some of the privates will take AP (depending on scores) and no dual enrollemt, some will take Dual Enrollment and not AP. (Or what is excepted in either case is only 2 or 3 class credits. With 41 real college credits as an incoming Freshmen, my D did not like the idea of having to re-take college classes she had already taken to satisfy the monetary needs of a private college. For example, an ‘A’ in Calculus from Georgia Tech would be dumped by Vanderbilt. We also feel that eventual advanced degrees will be more important in the long run than the name of the undergraduate degree college. </p>

<p>The privates were dropping off the list due to her credits earned , before entering college, she could decide to double major easily, take it easy (if needed) while adjusting to college life), or whatever and provide more flexibility for whatever her future would hold. Nothing against UGA which is an hour from our house, but she did not like the ‘feel’ of the campus or the town. She loved the ‘feel’ of Clemson. </p>

<p>We searched… Is there another college like the ‘feel’ of Clemson’, far enough away but not too far, that has excellent merit scholarship potential… From websites like College ******* and others Auburn kept popping up and since it is only 3 hours away we visited. Auburn was our last college to visit. </p>

<p>She loved it… Daddy had to check it out for academics and since we knew she was going to be a national merit finalist as well as other high scores on ACT and SAT would mean there would be no loans, no nothing and all the money we could save from what we thought we would have to pay would go to her future, study abriad and advanced degrees (Important since we aren’t rich and have another daugther)</p>

<p>Sorry… That’s our story. Academics are a major concern, but there exists a multitude of other things to consider. My main concern is that my D succeeds over the next 4 years and moves on to graduate stuff. We want her to succeed. There is no way to express in an internet email or forum such as this, the personalities, history or whatever of young 17 and 18 year old people and what is ulitmately best for them. </p>

<p>I can understand being worried about whether a child will be attending a junior/community college versus a 4 year institution, and wanting to send your child to Harvard or Yale versus a public institution. But there are so many needs that vary from financial to opportunity, but #1 is your upcoming college student feeling comfortable whether they made a 22 on the ACT or a 36, or 1200 on the SAT or 1600. </p>

<p>I apologize for being long-winded. I though sharing our experience may help others. Everyone upcoming college student is different. A UGA vs. UVA vs. UNC, vs UF vs Auburn is not really significant in the overall scope of things; they are all closer together from an academic standpoint than looking at lists. Each family an potential student has to look at what is best for them from a variety of angles.</p>

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<p>Great posts, BoatFoot. I think we CCers sometimes exaggerate small differences in rankings – in all honesty, the difference between 50 and 58 or 58 and 85 is minimal. You hit the nail on the head when you say Auburn has expanded its merit aid significantly in the past few years. They are far more generous than UGA in awarding substantial merit $, and probably also more generous than Bama Honors.</p>

<p>OP: Your decision ultimately comes down to which school you feel more comfortable with. UGA and Auburn are both good schools.</p>

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<p>I thought most private schools just cap AP credit/Joint Enrollment credit hours. For example, ours is capped at 24 (6 classes+ maybe some dual enrollment/transfer limit) so if you go over, like most students here will, you forfeit the ones that you really don’t need for say your major. At Emory, she would forfeit the credit and find other courses to fullfill GERs that don’t have to be the same classes she took elsewhere/AP. For example, if she was a science major, and she had Chem, Bio, and Physics through some source (AP, IB, Tech w/e), then she is exempt from the first semester of those sequences and may go on to take w/e she wants the first semester. Perhaps she would find a major requirement that does not necessarily require the whole intro. series, or take freshmen orgo (super difficult). Many options. I was just under the impression that other peer schools were as flexible as we are in the “credit” area. I only expect that behavior that you saw from Duke and Vandy at the smaller Liberal Arts Colleges like Swarthmore, Williams, and Amherst because they are known for being very rigorous and approaching teaching intro. courses differently and are thus cynical/skeptical about AP/Outside credit. Either way, your Daughter is probably just fine and thriving at Auburn (she would have been fine where-ever w/that record).<br>
Still getting over Vandy: If they don’t accept Tech Calc., they are being stuck up. I guarantee you that Tech calc. is harder than many intro. calc. classes top 20 schools.</p>

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<p>Hey Bernie,</p>

<p>Emory is one of the more generous ones when it comes to credit. Most privates (like Vandy) say that they are a “4 year experience” as their reason to not accept much credit for incoming freshman. Even Emory for dual enrollment states this: “[if] The course taken does not count toward a high school graduation requirement”</p>

<p>[AP</a>, IB, and College Credit Policies | Emory College of Arts and Sciences Admission](<a href=“http://www.emory.edu/admission/admission/first_year_application/ap_ib_college_credit_policies.html]AP”>Admission | Emory University | Atlanta GA)</p>

<p>Thus, if a person took Calculus at Georgia Tech under dual enrollment but it was used as a math credit for high school grduation, Emory would not accept it. (Emory’s policy is almost identical to Harvard’s. ) The purpose of dual enrollment is to simultaneously get college credit while completing high school. Generally the vast majority of college classes a high school student takes is to complete their HS requirements while earning college credit and Emory will disallow. </p>

<p>In my D’s case she was dual enrolled since the 11th grade and all but one of her classes were used towards high school graduation: Eng Comp I, Eng Comp II, US Hist I, US Hist II, Chem I, Chem II, Calc I, Calc II, Intro to Psych, World Lit I, World Lit II, Micro Economics, Poli Sci, Statistics… The amount of these Emory would give to her as credits : a big Zero. </p>

<p>The question is, since you are knowledgable in this area: If a person takes Calculus at Georgia Tech or UGA as a dual enrolled student, why will Emory not give credit if it was also used for HS credit while if the same person in the same Calculus class would be given credit if the classes were taken over and above what the student needed for HS graduation?</p>

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<p>I am not quite sure how it works because somehow my friend came in with Calc. 3 and Linear Algebra Credit (she also got As) from Tech, and I’m guessing she had AP chem (as she too freshmen orgo. and got her a** handed to her). She had a lot of credit from dual enrollment and AP, and it seems as if Emory took most of it (she was probably over the what was then 32 credit limit so had to forfeit some stuff though). I really don’t think Emory would give much history credit at all (HS AP/IB history/polisci and even equivalents at GT and UGA are taught much differently here). I think they did back then, but they are now disallowing it. I think it can only be used toward placement and only if you’re a major. They seem to accept dual enrollment polisci as transfer credit, and I know another friend w/dual enrollment bio who had his counted as transfer credit. I think Emory is a bit more generous/willing to negotiate than what the policy states from what I’ve seen. Also, as indicated, Emory definitely seems lenient toward awarding credit in science/math (though I’d imagine the Tech chem. issue would get dicey since ours is the pre-med format w/2 semesters, and theirs was the 1 semester format. Even then, at least 1 will be accepted Though they should take UGA chem.1 and 2 credit).<br>
Regardless, Emory sets it up so that many students from a normal HS can knock out close to a years worth of credit through w/e means (I know people from this Texas system program who come in w/like 70 credits!, but of course they choose to take more classes and stay at least 3 years)</p>

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<p>awesome post boatfoot! ^^ couldn’t agree more!</p>