Need help picking a city!! (Atlanta, Columbus: private schools, universities, living in)

[lwwtlw]

My husband and I want to move to Georgia but we have no clue which city to choose. We want to be close to a college so that we can finish our degrees, have no longer than a 35 minute cummute to major cities, and live in a safe community and be priced on a college student's budget. Are we being realistic?

[JLA]

Truthfully, Georgia only have one major city, Atlanta. It will have all that you desire, but the commute might be a nightmare. You did not specify your majors. Atlanta has two large public university (GA Tech and GA State and several outstanding private universities (Emory, Moore House, Spelman, Mercer and a few others). Of course if engineering is your choice, then it's a no brainer, GA Tech hands down. Medical there are actually two good choices Emory and Moore House. Augusta has the State larges public medical school and Augusta State University and several small private schools. Macon has a Mercer, which offers Law, Engineering and medicine, but it's a private school. Macon State College is also located there and several other small private schools. People who resides in Macon can give you more detail. Columbus has two large school within 35 minutes drive, Columbus State University and Auburn University. Auburn offers practically all disciplines except law and medical, but to take advance of its instate tuition you must live in AL. Columbus State offers instate tuition to neighboring AL county residents (Lee, Russel, Chambers and few others). One other city worth mentioning is Athens (UGA, need I say more?). If you are going to be on a college students budget, then you still can survive in Atlanta, but Athens or Columbus will be much cheaper. Hope this help. It should at least get you started.

[TakeAhike]

There are other branches of the university system which includes UGA located in different regions of the state.

--Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, with campuses in several metro locations
--University of Western GA/Carrollton, GA, about 2 hrs west of Atlanta
--North GA College/Dahlonega, GA
--Valdosta State College or maybe University/Valdosta, GA--close to the FL/GA line
--Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA/in the Savannah area

and a dozen or so more scattered across the state.

[Motion]

Originally Posted by TakeAhike

--University of Western GA/Carrollton, GA, about 2 hrs west of Atlanta

Actually from Carrollton to Fulton County is about a 40min drive.

[TakeAhike]

Originally Posted by Motion

Actually from Carrollton to Fulton County is about a 40min drive.

'The straight line distance between Atlanta and Carrollton is approximately 40 miles or 64 kilometers.'

That's good to know.

I don't think I would like to drive from Atlanta to Carrollton every day regardless. Living in the metro area it can sometimes take me 30 minutes to drive a few miles if there has been a major traffic problem somewhere.

It would be easier to commute to Athens, imo.

[matt8325]

Originally Posted by TakeAhike

There are other branches of the university system which includes UGA located in different regions of the state.

--Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, with campuses in several metro locations
--University of Western GA/Carrollton, GA, about 2 hrs west of Atlanta
--North GA College/Dahlonega, GA
--Valdosta State College or maybe University/Valdosta, GA--close to the FL/GA line
--Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA/in the Savannah area

and a dozen or so more scattered across the state.

Carrollton, GA is 2 hours west of Atlanta ? You can get from Atlanta to Birmingham in 2 hours. It's about 45 minutes from Carrollton to Atlanta.

[matt8325]

Originally Posted by Motion

Actually from Carrollton to Fulton County is about a 40min drive.

Umm, no. It's about 20 minutes from Carrollton to the Fulton County line. And when I say Fulton County line im talking about extreme south Fulton, not Atlanta.

[terrence81]

Yeah Atlanta is the only major city in Georgia. Atlanta has Georgia state university where you can be in the thick of everything or Kennesaw State which is more suburban or you can try Georgia Tech. Of course there's University of Georgia in Athens but that's about an hour from ATL from my understanding. If being in the city is important then I'd say Georgia State or Georgia Tech is your best choice.

[teletrofono]

Possibly Lawrenceville or Kennesaw. There's only one major city in Georgia and it's the worst for commute time. If you take it out of the equation, the whole state opens up to you- not that there's much in that though. If you can stomach Georgia, Milledgeville or Valdosta would work for cheap.

[TakeAhike]

Originally Posted by matt8325

Umm, no. It's about 20 minutes from Carrollton to the Fulton County line. And when I say Fulton County line im talking about extreme south Fulton, not Atlanta.

If I were the OP and I chose to attend the University of Western GA I would live in/around Carrollton.

According to Google it would take almost 11/2 hours to reach Carrollton from my area of Atlanta. I would add at least an hour to that to allow for unexpected emergencies.

IMO, it would be better to find a school in metro Atlanta and go from there.