Beyond the obvious size difference, what are some other comparisons or differences to be made between the 2 schools.? Both would be out of state for us but looking for Southern options and both schools have been suggested.
Georgia college and Southern are quite different. Ga College is modelled on a small liberal arts college. Kids I know that attend love it! The students from our high school that attend Southern go with the hope of transferring to UGA. Very few actually do.
If you want southern football- Ga college doesn’t have a team.`
I haven’t visited either. Milledgeville I hear is a cute Southern town- antebellum homes.
Have you looked at Elon?
Most of my sons friends that went to Georgia Southern were party kids and those that went to Georgia College were more studious - that’s a very small sample but I’ve heard Georgia Southern is quite the party school. Both are in the middle of nowhere - Statesboro and Millegeville.
Thank you @sally22 for the response. My son would like a school with football but a basketball team is more important to him so no football isn’t a dealbreaker. We are looking at a variety of schools (he is just starting his junior year so we are trying to get ahead of the game) but he really wants to go south (We are in Southern VA). He has a broad range of schools on the list for now but with the exeption of University of Delaware, he is looking for warmer weather as he is passionate about golfing and fishing.
He is a B student so he is a little more limited in choices. Elon would be a great option if I thought he could get in. We know local students got into many great schools but did not get into Elon. At least around here, it has the reputation as being a harder school to get into.
What about a university of South Carolina?
Is money a factor or can you pay the OOS cost of attendance?
Here is the list as of now (consists of some definites, some maybes and some reaches). He only wants to appy to one in state school so oos tuition is inevitable for us.
U of Delware
Virginia Tech
University of Kentucky
U of North Carolina- Wilmington
College of Charleston
University of South Carolina
Clemson (reach)
Louisiana State U
Auburn U
U of Georgia (reach)
Georgia Southern
Georgia College and State U
Eckerd College
You may find this tool useful in doing a quick and dirty comparison between schools:
You can add and delete schools as needed. Check out the funding and faculty tab, it will list how much $ is being spent per student, the % of full-time faculty and the student to faculty ratio.
In Florida, if you’re interested in Eckerd College, you may want to also check out Stetson University and Rollins College. Also Florida Southern College and perhaps even Flagler College.
Florida publics are comparable to Georgia’s, so you may want to take a look at a few.
If you’re interested in LSU, you may want to take a look at the Mississippi schools (Ole Miss and MSU). Both schools are popular with out of state students, offer decent OOS merit, fairly low OOS tuition ($21K to $23+K) and take “B” students.
Good Luck!
University of North Florida or Flagler might work. Flagler has a golf team.
What’s his major? It would be helpful to list his stats as well.
I live in Georgia (Atlanta) and I can’t for the life of me wrap my head around the idea of an out of state kid wanting to go to either of those two schools.
There’s nothing wrong with them, but it’s where all the in-state kids who didn’t qualify for the HOPE scholarship or did qualify but didn’t get into UGA, Tech, or GA State go.
The prevailing opinion is that they’re “fine”, but even the in-state kids don’t aspire to go to them, and that attitude of “settling” or “good enough” is evident when you’re there, especially at GA Southern. GCSU’s attitude is better, but they are not busting their butts on academics.
87% of kids going to UGA last year were in-state. The competition is pretty fierce (again, because of the HOPE and Zell scholarships making the school so affordable for in-staters).
One of our good friends has a daughter going to the University of South Carolina. Their international business school is notable, and she’s enjoying herself there.
Looking at your list, I’d recommend Auburn if he has the stats. Amazing school spirit, insane football, and good scholarships and academics.
Georgia College and Georgia Southern are schools with very, very few out-of-state residents. Culture shock for an 18-year old Yankee freshman could be profound because those regions of the state are very different from metro Atlanta or even Augusta or Savannah. Milledgeville is really in the middle of nowhere. That’s not to say it’s unpleasant. Besides Georgia College the nearest institution of any significance is a state prison. While Georgia Southern is only about 1 hour from Savannah, it is indeed quite a world away.
That said, you can get a very solid education at Georgia College and I imagine it can offer the stereo-typically bucolic small town college life if one looks for it. I do not know much about Georgia Southern, but its winning football team makes student life in Statesville somewhat comparable to other southern large public campuses…say, a poor man’s Auburn, Tuscaloosa, Clemson, or College Station TX.
Oh, I see that the OP lives in southern Virginia. Southside perhaps? Well, that part of Virginia is not so different culturally from Milledgeville, although I doubt there’s as much commerce an industry surrounding Milledgeville as there is in the entirety of Southside Virginia. For example, there’s likely no equivalent to Smithfield Foods Company in middle Georgia.
Thank you for all the information about both schools (and a few others). I had never heard of either college before digging in on the search. They both sounded like they had some good points, but I can see where they might appeal more to a specific type of in state student.
As far as the list I gave above, we were hoping to narrow it down vs expanding it, so I am glad to see some positive comments about a couple of them. LSU was a maybe bc I thought it would be a good match, but at 16 hours away, we think its a little too far. Eckerd was our other maybe because it is much smaller than he wants but the water and outdoor activities are a huge draw for him. So as far as size, Rollins, Stetson and Flagler probably would not work (FYI, my husband and I both gradutated from Flagler and loved it but I know it is not the right fit for my son).
He loves anything outdoors, but as far as golf, it would be more of a hobby or intermural option for him vs joining the school team. Because of his love for the outdoors, he is gravitating towards majors such as environmental science, fisheries science or even something agricultural. That is why we are looking at Land and/or Sea grant schools.
As far as where we live, we are within 30 minutes of the coast of Virginia Beach and 1 hour from the Outer Banks beaches of NC. He would love to be near the ocean or large lakes for fishing and hopes to join a school fishing team as well.
Has he considered Christopher Newport University?
@whenhen, CNU is only about 45 minutes from our house and down the street from his grandparents house, so that is a little too close for comfort for him but thank you for the suggestion.
If he wants to be near the ocean or likes golf, I recommend a close look at College of Charleston . There is no football, but has basketball, baseball, golf, and soccer . It is an urban campus , so if he wants a self contained , traditional college experience , it may not be the best choice . Although, it may warrant a closer look.
@carolinamom2boys, C of C is on his list. On paper, it has so much of what he wants, but because it in not a traditional campus, we are going to visit at some point to see if it would work for him. We are focusing on Southeastern schools and as a B student, I am hoping his options are not too limited.
What’s his GPA? A B student can mean a lot of things. It could be a 3.0 or 3.5. Both will qualify him for different merit aid. What are his test scores ACT or SAT? With that information people can point you in the direction for merit for his stats.
He is starting off his junior year (at a small college prep private school) with a 3.2. He is not a great test taker so we started with an SAT tutor at the beginning on the summer which we will continue with throughout the school year. He will not be taking any AP classes this year so that he can keep his grades up, but he plans to take an AP science class his senior year (either APES or AP Bio) and possibly and AP English class (AP Lang). He prefers a larger school but I have explained to him to that coming from a school of 550 k-12, a school with more than 3,000 kids will feel huge to him.