<p>We are ATL,Ga residents and my daughter has been accepted to both UGA (honors college + HOPE scholarship) and UNC-CH (but not honors). She prefers UNC-CH because she feels special there (75% of UGA is from ATL) and honored to be accepted as OOS and also likes the smaller feel to the campus.She is undecided in her major but she wants to take a combination of courses in journalism,creative writing,and business.We know UGA has a good journalism school but overall we feel her degree may be more valuable from UNC-CH in other majors,but we are unsure whether it is really worth 4X the price for her to go there.
Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Chapel Hill.</p>
<p>Is UNC a better academic institution than UGA in general? Yes, probably. Is the quality of campus life better there than UGA? Again, maybe slightly so. Does that qualitative difference extend to journalism? Not at all. Is a UNC degree more valuable than a UGA degree? Not in any career sense; only if it’s important to you to have people in social settings ask where you went to school and then casually observe “Oh, that’s a good university.” I’ve lived in both NC and GA - with all things equal I’d choose Chapel Hill, but I certainly wouldn’t suggest that the difference is worth 4X the price, unless you have enough expendable income to be totally price insensitive.</p>
<p>4x the cost to go OOS to another public? That sounds like a lot of money. How much are we actually talking about dollar wise? UNC-CH is a very fine university, but I don’t think it’s worth it to go into a large amount of debt as compared to a good school like UGA. It all depends on what you can afford to do I suppose.</p>
<p>4 years at UGA it would cost around $34 K while 1 year at UNC-CH for OSS is around $33. D really does prefer UNC-CH and we think we can afford it, but we also have another child to put through college,and in this economy you never know what may happen to finances. Want her to go where she will be happy but not sure can justify that economically.</p>
<p>go to UGA. You will save a lot of money.</p>
<p>catrobwill</p>
<p>I think you sound very reasonable to question the value. The perceived academic quality of UNC is higher than UGA. Is it worth four times the cost? I say no. UGA is a fine school and you are fortunate to have a quality public school in your state. I understand your daughter wanting to go somewhere else but it doesn’t seem like a logical plan. You are fortunate to be able to even consider this financially, but as you mentioned, you have other children to consider for college later, as well as you never know what you might face financially in this economy. Go over all this with her and help her see things logically and realistically instead of only emotionally.</p>
<p>Georgia honors is a great program. See posts by Vig180 and the recent thread about his experience in the Georgia honors program. Here is the link.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/660178-results-choosing-full-ride-state-school-scholarship.html?highlight=georgia+honors[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/660178-results-choosing-full-ride-state-school-scholarship.html?highlight=georgia+honors</a></p>
<p>Nice, enviable position to be in. UGA has a very well-respected School of Journalism, and is a great school. Their Honors program is also well respected, and their Foundation Fellows scholarship program, described in the link above, is every bit as competitive as the UNC-Duke Robertson program, from what I understand. If you want to save your money, UGA wins. If you promised your daughter she could go wherever she chose with no restiriction, then… she gets to choose, I suppose. And UNC-CHapel Hill is a wonderful school. Good luck.</p>
<p>Absolutely go with UGA Honors. To be quite honest, UNC Chapel Hill will be among the very least prestigious schools that her peers will have turned down to attend Honors.</p>
<p>The kids in Honors are exceptionally bright, driven, and ambitious. Why would you pay money to go to school when you have an amazing program with $0 tuition?</p>
<p>Thank you all for your comments. I am taking them all under consideration although I struggle with the fact that if we had not been transferred to the Atl area 4 years ago, UGA would not have even been a school she would have applied to. Now because it is such a bargain for IS it is like you are throwing $ away to go elsewhere. If we lived in another state the answer would be more clear. She is still waiting to hear from 5 other schools - but I think regardless UNC-CH is still her top choice.</p>
<p>UGA is a great school, but UNC is generally regarded as the more prestigious of the two. UNC’s journalism program is also one of the best in the nation. It just depends how much of a role finances play in all of this.</p>
<p>Actually a large number of people in journalism have degrees other than journalism</p>
<p>I have a friend who went to law school and then became a “legal” reporter (actually have two friends like this now that I think about it) and have many friends who earned BBA, MBAs or degrees in economics and write for major business publications. I have a degree in journalism and wish that I had specialized in something science related – employment opportunities in journalism would have been endless.</p>
<p>We are in GA and we too will face the same type of decision next year (I hope presuming he can get into UGA). He really doesn’t want to go – mainly because he hates that fact that he will know anyone there. </p>
<p>What I am thinking, and what we have discussed very briefly so far with him, is that if the school is different enough from UGA we will give serious consideration to it. However, no big SEC or other Southern Big State U is going to be that different. However, because I left the South to go to a big state U, we will consider options that are in the Midwest, Northeast, etc even if they are Big State U.</p>
<p>Several students at my son’s school have gotten into Michigan, USC (California not SC), UNC, etc this year and they are going to GA. We also have a friend whose child will probably be turning down several Northeastern schools for the Honors Program.</p>
<p>Today I had lunch with a friend whose oldest got in and attended UGA and went straight to graduate school. Her college fund was used to pay for graduate school and she won’t have any debt when she finishes this summer. The next child couldn’t get into UGA and he is at an out of state school. Graduate school will be totally on his own dime because the college money is being spent now.</p>
<p>A lot depends on how you feel about finances and your own financial situation.</p>
<p>I know a young woman from my neighborhood in Chicago who recently graduated from UNC. The first thing she had to say about it was that she found it difficult socially the first two years because students tended to run in their high school packs. I don’t think she was overwhelmingly impressed with it academically, either. Just one story, of course. I was surprised by her take. She is now in Law School at Wash U.
I’m guessing that at Georgia, Honors students tend to hang with Honors students.</p>
<p>The post by vigo about a state school experience seems to be specificallyabout the Foundation Fellows Scholarship at UGA. This is a much different experience than just UGA Honors College. Would be interested to hear about those in Honors at UGA to see if it has lived up to their expectations.</p>
<p>Well, does she like football or basketball? Just kidding. Our family expects to be in a somewhat similar situation (solid in-state versus a somewhat more desired out-of-state scenario). I would think your particular financial situation is the key driver. In my case, I have been able to set aside the funds needed for each child to be able to attend an OOS public. If son goes to in-state instead, the excess (some of the funds are already “his” in a custodial account) can be used for graduate school or to get him off to a good start financially in life. So I think in our situation it can, and will, come down to his choice. But if things were not so squared away financially, and based on my knowledge and experience with the schools, I’d be pushing for UGA undergrad followed by grad school at UNC (or elsewhere). I think it really comes down to the ins and outs of your family financial situation. I’d hate to see the family really strained, or going into debt (if not for this kid, for the next one), or foregoing grad school, simply to choose the Tarheels over the Dawgs (especially in journalism and business, where UGA is relatively strong).</p>
<p>well odds are she will change her major (a very large percentage do) but i dont think unc is 4 times as good an institution so perhaps its not worth it to pay 4x as much (unless you can afford it and your next kid wont go to college for another few years.)</p>
<p>I vote for Georgia. You are talking about $100k -think of the educational experiences she can get by just using $25k on educational extras. Study abroad etc.</p>
<p>I also bet the in state kids at Georgia are every bit the academic equals of the in state kids at North Carolina. Where NC gets the nod is the out of state kids are most likely better students than the out of state kids at Georgia. So you are only talking about 16% of the student body.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about UGA, but UNC’s business and journalism programs are both among the best in the nation.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, your daughter could also apply for the Honors program once at UNC-Chapel Hill – I have two friends who have gotten into Honors that way.</p>
<p>But if cost is a factor, that’s certainly understandable – and the difference in academics won’t be that huge, especially with UGA honors. </p>
<p>It’s the “vibe” / proximity to campus that seems to be the biggest difference.</p>