School me on schools (Georgia State colleges) (Atlanta, Marietta: home, construction)

[bruceg]

So, my son is a senior. 4.0 GPA, good SATs. Wants to work in either bio-medical research or psychology. Budget is limited, so we're sticking to the Georgia university system. Started applying late, so we missed the window for UGA. He's applied to KSU in Kennesaw, Southern Poly in Marietta, University of West Georgia in Carrollton, Georgia Regents in Augusta and Georgia State in Atlanta.

Any alumni from any of these colleges? Any pros and cons? We're planning on visiting all 5. I'm thinking we'll strike Southern Poly off the list as it is merging with KSU and will probably keep the engineering emphasis - meaning a biology or psych major might end up at KSU anyway. We were going to strike Georgia Regents off the list, but Health Sciences university at GRU sounds like a solid choice once core requirements are met. We may still strike it off the list, as we live in Marietta and my son is thinking of staying in a two hour radius so he can come home on weekends (meaning the four other univerisities are still close enough geographically).

Where have you gone, and what have you liked about it?

[ChefRamsey]

Great source of info:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ia_(U.S._state)

Avoid GSU if possible. Georgia Tech and UGA are great picks. GA Tech being obviously superior in many of the comparative programs(except biology..go to UGA without a doubt. Not even Emory competes)

Emory is overpriced..but a great pic if you can afford it. North Georgia is decent..it merged with Gainesville State which is a plus or a minus depending on you. GA Southern is a party school with fewer respectable programs(you can be a party school and still have very respectable programs i.e. UGA, Florida, Ohio State, Wisconsin, UT-Austin), KSU is a good pick..they're merging with SPSU. Lots of construction on campus..lots of shiny new buildings. GCSU is a decent pick. West GA isn't a good fit for him..I don't think. His peers would be waaaay lower. Then again, we don't know how many AP classes, honors classes he took or what SAT score he had.

I'd say KSU, GCSU, North GA or GSU.

Id really say KSU. Being in Marietta, it's ideal for you.

[dblackga]

KSU is definitely up-and-coming, it's the 3rd largest university system in Georgia, has grown quickly and is developing a good reputation. It's not on par with UGA or GaTech yet, simply because it is still establishing its reputation in many fields and lacks graduate level degrees in many, but most students who have attended KSU as an undergraduate feel that the school has prepared them well. It also has more of a "university" feel.

Georgia State is still considered primarily a commuter school, even though there are students who live on-campus. The lack of a "campus", per se, can be a drawback. The science programs at Georgia State are about on the same level as KSU; give or take a few notches depending on the precise discipline. Psychology is considered a social science, not a "hard" science like biology or chemistry. GSU does have in place masters and Ph.D. programs in Biology and Psychology, which would on the surface indicate a more robust program than one with just an undergraduate and perhaps a masters. (However, just because a school HAS a Ph.D. program, doesn't mean that it actually has students in it, so take it with a grain of salt.)

University of West Georgia is smaller than either KSU or Georgia State -- about 9,000 undergraduate. It was rated by Princeton Review as one of the best southeastern colleges. It has an interesting psych program. It's only an hour away, so relatively easy to get back home.

I think you're right about Southern Poly -- the merge with KSU basically makes it "Marietta campus" of KSU. Nothing wrong with that, but if KSU is already on your list, I think Southern Poly would be low on the list. Don't know much about Georgia Regents, but with the medical school there, I'd assume that their life sciences departments would be fairly strong.

A small word of advice, even though you didn't ask: Try to discourage your son from coming home every weekend if he ends up living on campus. Part of the experience is learning how to live on your own with the rest of humanity. Running home every weekend for laundry and food tends to dilute the opportunity to socialize on weekends. When I was in college, my parents told me that I couldn't come home before mid-terms in October. It was a little lonely the first week or two, but I quickly found friends, and by the time October came around, they had to drag me home :-) On the other hand, my roommate went home every single weekend -- and when she finally had to stay one weekend in October to study for mid-terms, she was lost and miserable -- few friends, because she ran home to be with her "real" high school friends every weekend, she didn't know how to live on her own. She ended up quitting after her first year because she didn't feel like she was a "part" of the school -- and that's because she wasn't.

[LizellaJacket]

For Bio-Medical, Georgia Tech is the way to go. The fact that you didnt even look at them initially is mind boggling. It is one of the top engineering schools in the nation and they have a bio medical engineering complex. The Bio Medical Engineering degree is ranked 2nd in the nation.

Stats & Rankings | The College of Engineering at Georgia Tech

[dblackga]

Originally Posted by LizellaJacket

For Bio-Medical, Georgia Tech is the way to go. The fact that you didnt even look at them initially is mind boggling. It is one of the top engineering schools in the nation and they have a bio medical engineering complex. The Bio Medical Engineering degree is ranked 2nd in the nation.

Stats & Rankings | The College of Engineering at Georgia Tech

I think they missed the application deadline. There's something else going on here that I can't quite put my finger on. NO KID "misses" a college application deadline of a school they are interested in. Those deadlines are engraved on their brain.

[bruceg]

My son attends an online public charter school. He is in the first graduating class. As the first graduating class, the school had very little info about PSATs, SATs and college applications, or perhap we weren't paying attention. They also offered very few AP courses, making Georgia Tech and UGA questionable. I'd expect next year's graduating class to have better information, deadlines and more AP courses. It's not a major issue. My son decided where he wanted to go and is accepted.