What is up with people's obession with UGA? (Atlanta, Savannah: chapel, best school)

[LeoAngel2020]

Where I live ALL people talk about is University of Georgia. I am a senior in high school and it seems like most( not all) of my senior class is trying to get into UGA. If not UGA then they are trying to go to Georgia Tech.
If you aren't planning on going to UGA or GA Tech after high school, then people make it seem like you are stupid. Everyone makes it seem like UGA is the best school in the state. It's the Zeus of all schools,lol.
I have lived in Georgia since I was born and never understood this.
Can someone explain? Thanks

[nortonguy]

I'm surprise you don't hear Georgia State too... The school is starting to become more popular by the minute..

It may have something to do with UGA and Tech being the largest universities in the state...

[LeoAngel2020]

When I lived in South Fulton I heard alot about Georgia State. That's the school everybody wanted to go to.
When I lived in Douglas County I heard alot about UGA and where I live now I hear alot about UGA.
No offense to anybody, but I heard alot about schools like UGA and GA Tech when I lived in majority white communities.

[912]

Georgia Southern is the party school for white metro Atlantans who don't wanna go to UGA or GT (too close to mommy & daddy...yet close enough to Savannah).

Adults who are overly fixated on UGA haven't moved past their 1980 National Championship & the good ole days of Vince & Herschell.

Q: How do you spot a UGA graduate?
A: They DON'T have UGA bumperstickers all over their car!

[testa50]

UGA is right up there with University of Florida and UNC Chapel Hill as one of the best large, public research institutions in the Southeast US that isn't specialty-focused like Georgia Tech. Since you live in-state, and thus have a yellow brick road leading you straight to free tuition there as long as you stay focused on academics, there's certainly good reason to be excited about it; in Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, South Carolina, or Mississippi, you'd have to pay to go to a less-highly acclaimed school. Ditto people who want to go the math/engineering route and have the pontetial to go to Tech for free--Tech students will have plenty of classmates from around the country who are paying $100,000 (over four years) for the same education. It's like a Ferrari worth of benefit for living in Georgia. Sweet deal, huh?

The football is a separate thing: Georgia is just like Alabama, Florida, and all the other major southern schools with a rabid fan base, both among alums and non-alums throughout the state. Georgia Tech has plenty of fans as well, but a smaller living alumni base and a much smaller cohort of non-alums who are just fans of the university.

Of course, the HOPE scholarship has made UGA so competitive that there are other options in-state that are filling the gaps. Georgia State, namely, has made enormous leaps to become a solid four-year university. You'd need not be ashamed to have gone there by any means, if that's what ends up happening.

[cwkimbro]

I think alot of the hype in the general population at large is over sports, party school atmosphere, cool college towns, etc...

But, to the high schoolers out there in the state of Georgia... If you want to take advantage of in-state tuition and the Hope scholarship it is clear UGA is the flagship university of our university system. GT is the best engineering school.

This isn't to say there aren't other good schools worth looking at. GSU has several strong programs as people have mentioned.

I think more students use to consider Clemson, Auburn, Florida, and UT more than they do now. The Hope scholarship really created a huge incentive to stay in-state. I don't know if they have it set up now, but since Alabama has fewer people... Auburn use to have a special tuition rate for students from GA compared to other out-of-state students. They originally needed access to a larger population to achieve certain academic and enrollment numbers. With that said it is easy to find Auburn Alumnus throughout Atlanta. I remember I graduated with some people whose parents went to Auburn and they were big time auburn fans.

There is a reason the smaller neighboring states (Alabama and South Carolina) has one of their most successful universities near the GA border. It can access a larger pool of potential students.

[912]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

There is a reason the smaller neighboring states (Alabama and South Carolina) has one of their most successful universities near the GA border. It can access a larger pool of potential students.

Clemson and Auburn were established when Atlanta was still smoldering, if not beforehand (Auburn beforehand, Clemson after wards). Your claim doesn't make any sense.

[Stars&StripesForever]

Originally Posted by 912

Clemson and Auburn were established when Atlanta was still smoldering, if not beforehand (Auburn beforehand, Clemson after wards). Your claim doesn't make any sense.

I think that what he is saying is that people in Georgia take advantage of both Clemson and Auburn, seeing as they are in very close proximity to the Georgia state line. I've noticed that many people in Gwinnett and the northeastern areas of the metro send their kids to Clemson, whereas many people in the western and southwestern metro area send their kids to Auburn. Of course, state schools are by far more common choices.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by 912

Clemson and Auburn were established when Atlanta was still smoldering, if not beforehand (Auburn beforehand, Clemson after wards). Your claim doesn't make any sense.

Well you have to remember a few points...

-Atlanta/Decatur predates both universities. Even though the civil war took its toll on us... it doesn't mean people didn't exist in these areas and Atlanta was still a natural hub in the south before and after the civil war. They would have never became as large as well respected without the recent economic/population might from the Atlanta region.

-Auburn didn't even reopen after the civil war until 1866 and it didn't become public until 1872. While Atlanta was hurting, so was Auburn and most of the South's universities and government and religious institutions.

-Back then it was just the East Alabama Male College. You have to ask why Alabama's second major university evolved out of the East Alabama Male College rather than a number of other small religious universities that were created in the states throughout the south. In both cases the states could have had their second main university pop up in another region of the state other than near the borders of GA.

Don't get me wrong... I'm not taking Auburn away from Alabama or trying to say Georgia/Atlanta has more to do with Auburn than Alabama... Merely for Alabama to have two large universities of that stature... that early in their history when the state had a smaller populated... it needed to be able to open up more to students from a neighboring state that was more heavily populated. In Auburn they had that... It could serve the state of Alabama well, but also access a wider pool of students/resources to grow as a strong university.

I think currently about 15-20% of Auburn's new students every year are from Georgia, especially Metro Atlanta. That is about 1 out of every 5 or 6 students. And that is in the Post-Hope era, which has caused university enrollments of in-state students to skyrocket in GA. In the past those numbers were probably higher for Auburn's students.

End effect... There are alot of Auburn and Clemson fans in the Atlanta region and they aren't all from people who moved from South Carolina or Alabama for a job.

[Big L]

Originally Posted by 912

Q: How do you spot a UGA graduate?
A: They DON'T have UGA bumperstickers all over their car!

Just about every UGA alum that I've worked with did not have anything UGA-related on their vehicles. Most of the vehicles in the parking lot that haVE UGA stuff on it tend to belong either to those that went to other in-state school or those that didn't attend college at all.

One of the funniest UGA rides that I have seen was a truck that I was behind in the parking lot of Town Center Mall. It had two UGA flags, a UGA sticker in the back window, and a Bulldog magnet on the tailgate. What made it funny is that it also had a Kennesaw State Alumni frame around the license plate.