University of Georgia - Athens vs. University of North Carolina Chapel Hill (Atlanta: headhunters, high schools)

[jematl]

Originally Posted by mrpanda

Any chance the Hope Scholarship will be still available when my two boys apply for college 16 years from now? because Mr and Mrs Panda would like to retire in our early 50s.

Instead of betting on Hope still being around, an alternate plan could be for you or your wife to get a job at Emory. After ten years employment, your children will get free tuition.

[rapier7]

UGA doesn't even compete with GT in the rankings. It's a great state school, but it has no national reputation besides its increasingly mediocre football program. Trying to compare it to UNC is laughable.

Georgia Tech is in a better position to gain in national prestige simply because our curriculum, however limited, weeds out a lot of people who go to college for the "experience" rather than an education. Every major offered requires at least 2 semesters of calculus. I think it's the only national university in the country who can make that claim.

Full disclosure: I'm a recent Tech grad.

[Listennow32]

Originally Posted by rapier7

Every major offered requires at least 2 semesters of calculus. I think it's the only national university in the country who can make that claim.

Full disclosure: I'm a recent Tech grad.

Thats because it is a technical school -_-.. Please tell me how 2 semesters of calculus will help someone with a degree in sociology, human geography, Journalism, or any other humanities major. Oh wait! You can't because Tech doesn't have those majors.

[spacelord75]

Originally Posted by rapier7

UGA doesn't even compete with GT in the rankings. It's a great state school, but it has no national reputation besides its increasingly mediocre football program. Trying to compare it to UNC is laughable.

Georgia Tech is in a better position to gain in national prestige simply because our curriculum, however limited, weeds out a lot of people who go to college for the "experience" rather than an education. Every major offered requires at least 2 semesters of calculus. I think it's the only national university in the country who can make that claim.

Full disclosure: I'm a recent Tech grad.

Yes, because having been in the real world for about 13 years now, I have used my calculus skills a grand total of zero times. And why do going to school for the experience and going to school for an education have to be mutually exclusive? Why not do both. I didn't even apply to Tech because I wanted a true "college town" experience and still got a great education.

[Columbus1984]

Originally Posted by rapier7

UGA doesn't even compete with GT in the rankings. It's a great state school, but it has no national reputation besides its increasingly mediocre football program. Trying to compare it to UNC is laughable.

Georgia Tech is in a better position to gain in national prestige simply because our curriculum, however limited, weeds out a lot of people who go to college for the "experience" rather than an education. Every major offered requires at least 2 semesters of calculus. I think it's the only national university in the country who can make that claim.

Full disclosure: I'm a recent Tech grad.

Wow that's laughable!

[PeteyNice]

Georgia Tech's campus reminds me of NYU. The campus seems to be integrated in to the city without its own campus. I just drive by it everytime i drive up north on 85... but haven't been inside the campus itself.

Tech's campus is more like Columbia. It is in the city, sure, but much more self contained. Unless you are going somewhere at Tech it is unlikely you would drive through it. Personally, I like that better. Tech's campus has the leafy glossy guidebook feel but look out in any direction and you see a skyscraper reminding you that you are in a city.

Thats because it is a technical school -_-.. Please tell me how 2 semesters of calculus will help someone with a degree in sociology, human geography, Journalism, or any other humanities major. Oh wait! You can't because Tech doesn't have those majors.

Logic, one of the things you learn in calculus, is useful no matter what field you pursue.

Also, "human geography"? Do you learn why the brain is always at war with the heart or something?

[Mishap]

Human Geography sounds like it is one of those majors that you've really got to have a passion for and go into graduate study/research or else you're guaranteed unemployment. It's probably why UGA does so poorly in the Payscale salary rankings:

Best Colleges, Best College Majors, Best College Degrees

That said, engineering salaries are definitely a lot better. I was making more than the mid-career UGA grad 1yr out of GT. I can see why UGA wanted to get into the engineering game.

UGA definitely has come a long way as well. I remember in ~93 my SAT score from the 7th grade was solidly higher than the median of UGA freshmen. It wasn't even on my list of colleges to apply to despite both my parents having grad degrees from there and having spent the my life up to 1st grade in Athens. Maybe it was the fact that my dad had to go to GT to get another grad degree to be employable that had an effect on my decision. My parents did own a liquor store adjacent to UGA that apparently did pretty well minus constant robberies though.

[testa50]

Apparently super smart tech grads have never heard of GIS?

Geographic information system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[spacelord75]

Originally Posted by Mishap

Human Geography sounds like it is one of those majors that you've really got to have a passion for and go into graduate study/research or else you're guaranteed unemployment. It's probably why UGA does so poorly in the Payscale salary rankings:

Best Colleges, Best College Majors, Best College Degrees

That said, engineering salaries are definitely a lot better. I was making more than the mid-career UGA grad 1yr out of GT. I can see why UGA wanted to get into the engineering game.

UGA definitely has come a long way as well. I remember in ~93 my SAT score from the 7th grade was solidly higher than the median of UGA freshmen. It wasn't even on my list of colleges to apply to despite both my parents having grad degrees from there and having spent the my life up to 1st grade in Athens. Maybe it was the fact that my dad had to go to GT to get another grad degree to be employable that had an effect on my decision. My parents did own a liquor store adjacent to UGA that apparently did pretty well minus constant robberies though.

The ironic thing about posts like these is it just solidifies the pompous image and irrational devotion to rankings and numbers characteristic of Tech-homers. Let's see....

1) Self-agrandizing statement of mental superiority? Check
2) Reference to arbitrary ranking? Check
3) Passive aggressive use of anecdotal evidence (what the hell did they major in anyways)? Check
4) Obsessed with talking about UGA (what does this thread even have to do with Tech?)? Check

On a side note, I am really sorry that your parents' liquor store was subjected to so many robberies. I know the mean streets of Athens can't compare to the safety utopia that surrounds Tech.

[Mishap]

GT is a comparison point on salaries. Lot of GT grads remain in GA along w/ UGA grads. UGA is going into engineering b/c it's not able to pull more students to bump their selectivity which is so crucial in all those other arbitrary rankings. The salary comparison is probably more valid than any other ranking based on reputation or student happiness. It doesn't account for schools in high COL (Harvard et al don't generate massively better salaries) but between schools in similar locales and degree mixes it's perfectly valid. If the point of college is to increase salaries/earning potential, then there's far less difference between UGA/UNC/UF/GSU than there is GT.

The fact is you have a fairly decent contingent at UGA and tons of liberal arts schools that have students getting degrees in leisure studies, historical fiction, all other non-sense and being perplexed as to why they can't get a job that pays enough to move out of their parents' house. UGA has plenty of very smart people attending now thanks to HOPE and other scholarships/initiatives. If they train them for engineering, sciences, medical, etc, I'm all for it...if they all wind up doing nothing but getting an art history degree and no leads on jobs, what's the point?

20 yrs ago UGA was far worse academically and I did have a higher SAT than your avg UGA freshman despite having nothing more than a Gwinnett County 7th grade education. How was that academically rigorous? How many of those students would qualify to get into UGA law today? It was first and foremost a good 'ole boy, old south party/football school whose greatest claim was a football team that got caught passing athletes that couldn't actually read and then firing the whistleblower that called them on it.

Never said GT was relatively safe...UGA ain't exactly utopia either though. See the AJC today. College campuses invite crime...young people w/ money = easy targets no matter where they are. Like I said my parents couldn't get 9-5 jobs despite having UGA graduate degrees which is why they had a liquor store. They closed the liquor store and got us out of Athens when my dad got a corporate gig after finishing GT.