UGA vs. GA Tech Biology?

[trjohnson1]

<p>Now, I know these probably aren't the most talked about schools on CC... but I just wanted a few opinions, if not from first hand experience, from educated guesses, on the biology programs of these two schools.</p>

<p>GA Tech the more rigorous and respected school (I would imagine), and it has an engineering focus, which I would guess overflows into the sciences, such as biology.</p>

<p>UGA is less rigorous; however, I would be willing to bet biology is one of their better departments, since they have a well-funded ecology department, and I assume some of these funds must affect the biology department as well.</p>

<p>If anyone knows from personal experience or otherwise, any comments are greatly appreciated.</p>

[belevitt]

<p>[Faculty:</a> Biology](<a href=“http://www.biology.gatech.edu/faculty/]Faculty:”>People | School of Biological Sciences | Georgia Institute of Technology | Atlanta, GA | Georgia Institute of Technology | Atlanta, GA) This is Georgia Tech’s faculty page in Biology.</p>

<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.biosci.uga.edu/personnel/faculty/index.html]Faculty[/url”>http://www.biosci.uga.edu/personnel/faculty/index.html]Faculty[/url</a>] This is UGA’s faculty page in Biology.</p>

<p>It looks like Georgia Tech has about 35 faculty in their biology department whereas UGA appears to have 7. I think that alone probably answers your question. However, you should take into account that you may find your major in a different, but related department eg. UGA School of Ecology has 25 profs, whereas GA Tech doesn’t seem to have an ecology program.</p>

<p>Undergrad science will be virtually the same at all large universities as far as all the pre reqs go - bio, gen chem, ochem, analytical chem, pchem, genetics, biochem, physics, calc, stats etc. but a better program will offer a greater breadth of courses in science topics that are interesting to you. A better undergrad science education is also going to include opportunities for research/internships. </p>

<p>I can’t imagine how an overall focus on engineering would influence the operations in a department like biology. People interested in that interface would be in the biomedical engineering dept studying stuff like stress and strain or whatever it is that engineers do.</p>

<p>Finally, don’t talk about a department being well-funded. That is meaningless in this context. Science funding at large universities comes from [mostly] NIH grants and is awarded to faculty based on research proposals. The institution does pay some portion of a faculty member’s salary for teaching a course but funding is not relevant in this situation.</p>

<p>I don’t know these two institutions well but I can tell from the perspective of a scientist who has worked at a number of universities, you should make this decision based on legitimate information from emails with professors, department websites, course listings and info from current students.</p>

[mitan_da1]

<p>If your into research GaTech has the better research program. UGA has a good biology program partially due to the agricultural nature of the school. But I know it does have a broad biology program and I would choose it.</p>