Uhhh, I’m from Atlanta and I disagree with this conception, particularly for Georgia Southern. I knew and still know a lot of high school kids - even kids who qualified for HOPE - who really wanted to go to Southern, especially as UGA gets more competitive to enter. Southern is really the only other non-HBCU Georgia public university with big football culture like UGA, but a lot of average/B students know that they’re not super competitive for UGA (or Georgia Tech). But Georgia State was too urban and they wanted a traditional/stereotypical college experience. So they wanted to go to Southern. My sister-in-law is a college junior and she really, really wanted to go to Georgia Southern - it was her first choice college. (She ended up at Albany State, a public HBCU, and she loves it there.)
That said, I do have to say I don’t see the point of paying OOS fees at Southern or GCSU when there are so many fine public universities in Virginia (especially GCSU, given that it doesn’t have big sports at all). If he wanted a small public liberal arts college-type place, there’s Christopher Newport University and the University of Mary Washington. Other big schools in Virginia are Virginia Commonwealth, James Madison and George Mason. VCU and JMU seem to have relatively robust athletics programs - not quite UVa or Virginia Tech level but still promoting school spirit and such.
I could see the argument with big sports/traditional type schools like LSU, Clemson, UDel, Auburn, and UGA, because they’ll give him an experience he couldn’t get at home if he’s not competitive for UVa or Virginia Tech.
My son is applying to both as safety schools. As @MotherOfDragons suggests, they are where the in-state Georgia students go when they can’t get into UGA or Tech. That’s not to say they are bad schools. My son has several friends at GCSU right now who were good students at his competitive high school and love it there. When they want football, they road trip to Athens for the game. The campus is pretty, but small and is split into a main campus with beautiful old buildings and quads and a new west campus a mile or so away with a nice wellness center and spanking new dorms.
GA Southern has a rep as a party school and it is not considered particularly rigorous academically, although they have an honors program that can shelter better students a bit. They have also been investing money in GA Southern to expand the campus and draw a better caliber of student. Right now, most affluent B+ students with an SAT over 1200 are heading out of state to places like Clemson, Auburn, and Elon. I’m sure both GA Southern and GCSU would like to capture more of those GA students and keep them in-state.
The admission stats and graduation rate at GCSU are better than GA Southern’s, so if you’re considering one, I’d go for GCSU.
Perhaps this is too small, but we visited UNC Asheville and I loved it. They are very outdoorsy, the campus is beautiful and the academics are quite good.
GCSU is a nice school - son has many friends who got into UGA but didn’t like the SEC atmosphere - it’s not for everyone. GCSU is like a small liberal arts college - although Millegeville is kind of out there. My son spent 5 summers in jazz band camp there.
Another Georgia parent here to second the notion that not many in-state students would aspire to Ga Southern or to Ga College. Those without aspirations settle in and do least possible effort and enjoy the party life. Those with bigger aspirations work hard to be able to transfer out to UGA.
Some students might want to go to Georgia College, but find the small town isolation tough after being in Atlanta metro area and having so many opportunities so close by. Some Ga So/Ga College students transfer to Georgia State in downtown ATL, since it is much tougher to transfer into Ga Tech or UGA.
I love Clemson, it is isolated but not far from a small town, and that small town is not too far from Greenville SC. Clemson may be tough to get in, and they do NOT offer out of state merit aid to very many oos kids. Auburn is a great school, but they only offer a few top scholarships, and no automatic merit aid like U of Alabama does. For those reasons, my D took both Clemson and Auburn off her list. My nephew attends Auburn as an in-state student and loves it there.
UNC-W has grown in reputation through the years and is now regarded as a “real” choice, not just a safety. I would research what UNC-W has to offer your child.
Hey! LSU really sounds perfect. A lot of the guys he would meet would fish and most of the guys I knew at LSU played golf. I don’t want to totally generalize because the great thing about large public universities is the diversity of people. Also, the golf course was conveniently located on campus and green fees were cheap, so it was a popular thing to do after class on a pretty day.
Thank you all for the information. We have taken both GA Southern and GSCU off of the list and kept UGA on as a reach for my son. It may end up coming off as too much of a reach. @geauxagain, LSU was on the list for a long time because of all it offered and the fact that it my son had a good chance of getting in. It only came off because of its distance from home (over 16 hours), but it may be worth looking into again. If it has everything he wants, it may be worth the travel time for him.
I’ve been lurking here forever and had to register to respond to this. I realize a lot of folks are here looking for the “best of the best,” but I agree with commenters who take issue with the disparagement of GCSU and GA Southern. There are compelling reasons to attend both, and like any school, you get out what you put in.
Full disclosure: I have a kid at GCSU. Said kid is a great student, got into UGA early decision, and decided a school that size simply wasn’t right for her. Can you go to GCSU and just party and plod along and survive? I’m sure. Or you can do what she’s doing, which is get yourself a nice merit scholarship, join the Honors Program, take advantage of alllll the other opportunities there to stand out and/or make a difference, and emerge from college with a great education and an impressive resume. And while your friends at giant universities are sitting in classes of 300+, you’re doing it in classes of 10 and 20 and having dinner with your professors.
My other kid is currently looking at “top” schools. I see the value in those, too, but I don’t think we need to dismiss smaller/lesser-known institutions as inferior. It’s just different, and really depends on what your student needs.
FTLOG, we’re not “disparaging” either school. They are what they are, and it makes little sense for an out of state kid to pay out of state tuition to go to either one of them.
I like GCSU, and have several friends with happy kids there. But they are in-staters, and love the Georgia culture.
I have yet to hear of one happy kid at G Southern, and there are several kids in my current Uni (UNG), that transferred from G Southern to get away from the party atmosphere. Stories of kids bringing water bottles full of vodka in to class to either start the party early or continue the party are the topics of conversation from these transfer kids. Maybe that’s a self-selecting group of kids who didn’t like that school, but I’m of the opinion that learning should come way before partying, and they agreed, which is why they transferred.
So I’m not a snob about in state georgia directional colleges. But an out of stater has to realize what they’re getting themselves into. Especially one who isn’t used to deep south culture.
I know I posted originally about the differences between GSouthern and GCSU, but as some of you seem to have first hand knowledge of UGA, I was wondering if you could fill me in on the general vibe and campus life there.
We visited with D15 her junior year and D18 tagged along, but it was a disappointing visit and what was once high on her list came off all together. We knew she had lost all interest when she didn’t even want to buy a t-shirt. We visited 7 schools in all and UGA was the only one that gave most of the tour by bus vs a walking tour. It made everything feel very vast and spread out and the buildings we drove by (not sure if they were dorms, classrooms, or administrative buildings) were old and run down looking, i.e…broken blinds and some graffiti. The whole tour felt rushed and impersonal.
That being said, it seems to have everything my D18 is looking for in terms of majors, programs, sports, activities, city life, etc. I don’t know that it is worth visiting again as it would be a reach for my son, but I also hate to count it out based on our first visit.
GCSU and GaSo are culturally southern, and aren’t rigorous schools (GaSo is notoriously party-oriented). There’s nothing wrong with wanting to attend a certain school, but there’s also nothing wrong with pointing out the differences that exist. Nobody I saw was making fun of GCSU…it’s simply that it’s not a top choice for a lot of people, and the two people I know at GCSU were decent HS students that were just bad test takers. Most of my friends attend Georgia directionals/regionals (Georgia State, Kennesaw St, UWG, GaSo, Valdosta). The school’s have stereotypes/reputations, and if I asked my friends about them they wouldn’t deny them.
Also note that different Georgia high schools key in on different directionals. I went to a majority black HS in the metro, so GSU and KSU were pushed more. An old friend I know that went to a suburban/rural HS had GCSU and UNG as their main feeders.
Yeah I didn’t know what to refer to it as, since it isn’t a flagship or a directional. I was gonna just have it out separately but it seemed like clunky wording.
UGA is definitely big, when I spent a few weeks of my summer there I found it exhausting to get around. I think your assessment of it is accurate, but everyone I know there likes it. I don’t think there’s any reason to revisit if it’s any inconvenience to you, because I don’t think UGA is extremely different from other flagships, but if you happen to be in the area it couldn’t hurt to revisit.
GSU has now merged with some of the other local smaller school (Perimeter college, etc) and now has over 32,000 undergrads. GCSU is known as the state LAC. It a cute school. The immediate shops on the street in front of campus are cute. The rest of Milledgeville could use a little fixing up. Ga Southern is in a pretty rural area, which tends to lead to partying and such.
My nephew went to both schools. He was sure he would like GSU, but it just wasn’t his cup of tea - too big. He transferred to GCSU and did like it better. It’s an individual thing, though.
Georgia State University (in Atlanta and just merged with Perimeter College) and Georgia Southern University (in Statesboro) are two different schools. I’m no longer sure which one is being referred to as GSU.