Our daughter was admitted to Honors College at both UGA and South Carolina. She is interested in Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science but practically is undecided but plans on STEM with business. She wants to study abroad and we are OOS (NJ). We have visited both and returning to UGA next week for a scholarship interview. South Carolina is cheaper, but both are within financial budget. Initially she preferred SC but knows UGA is ranked higher but seems to have concerns that UGA kids will be less inclusive to a kid from NJ. Would love input! TIA 
@billythegoldfish may be able to help. Their D is at UGA. believe they live in the northeast.
I think I’ve said this before, but being from OOS (Northeast- actually NJ) has been ZERO issue for my daughter at UGA, aside from travel time. she enjoyed sorority rush week and found it exhausting but non-toxic, and all her friends got into sororities they wanted (there are prob a few exclusive ones that cater to old South blood). she has gotten into the clubs she wanted, including election to the student government.
there is a large group of kids from NY/NJ and she seems to be in that group, but she definitely has plenty of friends from Atlanta and other parts of GA, and this group grows as she gets more involved in more things.
it is not an issue. as I suspect it is also not at USC, although I have no knowledge on that.
flying to school has its problems, for sure. but being treated differently isn’t one of them.
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Yes you have said this before…
To the point about rushing, she isnt planning to do that, at least not in the fall. So wondering if NOT being in a sorority will impact her ability to make friends.
Why would UGA kids be less inclusive? Less geographically diverse yet - but it’s a big state and even if many come from the ATL, it’s a big city so most everyone will need to meet new people.
I think in general, making friends is hard in life - some do well, others don’t.
Some go to friendly places and struggle. Others go to big places, where maybe it’s harder because you see so many kids - and meet a ton.
I’m not sure that should be a concern - because you don’t know how one would do at either - and a lot may depend on their first year roommate or who lives next door or who they bump into at a club or who they sit next to in class.
U of SC has neuro. UGA seems to have Cog Sci.
Has she checked the curriculums?
The campuses are different - so I can see preferring one vs. the other as mine did - but it looks like what she’d study will also be different - so she might dig more into that as well.
Best of luck with her interview.
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hmm so that is a harder question. I still think the answer is she won’t have a problem making friends. it’s really a pretty non-judgey environment. everyone is friendly and wants to meet people, Greek or not.
and she is in honors, right? so that gives her a built-in social network off the bat, and they have social events.
I also think it’s worth looking into some of the summer orientation things, Camp Bulldog or Thrive.
I do wonder, though, if her plan is to live in one of the high rise dorms (Russell, Brumby, Creswell), if she might feel a bit left out if she isn’t rushing, since so many of the kids around her will be. If I had a kid in Honors but not rushing, I might encourage her to live in the Honors dorm (Meyers).
There are also plenty of cultural or service-oriented fraternity/sororities.
It’s not that Greek life is so dominating, it really isn’t, but it does require more effort to make a social network without it (not just at UGA), and if your kid lives in the high rise dorms then she might just have to be Ok with her hallmates heading out to socials and formals without her, although she is probably welcome to tag along most of the time.
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as far as your kid’s area of study, UGA’s psychology is only offered as a BS (not a BA), and tends to lean towards the science side of things, plus there is this:
Cognitive Science at UGA seems neat, too. It’s much more multidisciplinary.
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Thanks for finding that (I couldn’t at UGA). Their major finder was hard to use and when I put in Neuro, it pulled up Cognitive.
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Have her get on the Instagram for admitted students. My D24 (Atlanta area) posted a profile weeks ago and has already met up in person with her amazing new roommate! Neither is at all interested in rush, and you can indicate things like that in a positive way on Instagram.
Neither is in Honors—they are visual art and psych majors, and looking forward to living in the high-rise dorms
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PS D24 wants you to know that it looks like a lot of Greek life on Instagram, but the way to get “cool” people to DM you is to make a post ( because a lot of the cool people haven’t made posts yet)
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She is working on picking pictures for the post 
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A little late to this one, but my son got into both UGA and South Carolina. We are from North Carolina. UGA was more expensive, and USC was closer so it made it a bit easier. Anyway, he is presently a Biology major and has taken an Intro to Psychology which he really liked there.
Initially we were captivated by rankings, until we finally concluded that these are both excellent flagship schools with great professors and research.
On your point of inclusivity- USC does have a great deal of people from NJ, not sure about UGA but I would guess that is the top 5 ranked state behind, SC, NC, GA, PA at USC.
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