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I am considering graduate school at GSU because it does not seem so competitive. However, my friend keeps telling me how much I'll hate Atlanta and how I will really miss El Paso. She keeps telling me that Atlanta is far more dangerous than El Paso and that the people are very unfriendly and rude. She also is worried that I'm going to get jumped and robbed. I mean come on, is Atlanta really that bad for living? She also says that the MARTA seems really unsafe to ride alone. I want to hear it from those who live in Atlanta how living really is like. Also, my parents have a lot of biases about Atlanta too. It seems like a very nice and very clean city to me. I've been to the airport and the airport is so nice and clean. But what about the city? How is it like? How is living in Atlanta vs. living in El Paso? To me, El Paso is old, dirty, sketchy, and very ghetto and ugly. Atlanta can't be worse, or is it? I've only heard South Atlanta is worse than El Paso, but that is only one part. Seeing South Atlanta from the plane, it looks really ghetto, but the entire city is not like that, is it?
I am considering graduate school at GSU because it does not seem so competitive. However, my friend keeps telling me how much I'll hate Atlanta and how I will really miss El Paso. She keeps telling me that Atlanta is far more dangerous than El Paso and that the people are very unfriendly and rude. She also is worried that I'm going to get jumped and robbed. I mean come on, is Atlanta really that bad for living? She also says that the MARTA seems really unsafe to ride alone. I want to hear it from those who live in Atlanta how living really is like. Also, my parents have a lot of biases about Atlanta too. It seems like a very nice and very clean city to me. I've been to the airport and the airport is so nice and clean. But what about the city? How is it like? How is living in Atlanta vs. living in El Paso? To me, El Paso is old, dirty, sketchy, and very ghetto and ugly. Atlanta can't be worse, or is it? I've only heard South Atlanta is worse than El Paso, but that is only one part. Seeing South Atlanta from the plane, it looks really ghetto, but the entire city is not like that, is it?
Has your friend ever been to Atlanta? (maybe she just experienced Delta Airlines service!) Atlanta is one of the friendliest big cities in the country. Parts of Atlanta are bad, but they're nothing like Juarez.
I wouldn't describe Atlanta as clean, but it really is a very beautiful city, especially in spring and fall.
It is not realistic to compare the Atlanta Metro area with a population of 5.5 million to El Paso Metro with 1 million.
With any large metro area, there are sketchy areas. Your friends and family sound like they are making generalizations based on the size of the city or limited experience with the area.
I honestly like Atlanta better than El Paso. Most of El Paso feels really unsafe and very sketchy, except the west side. Not sure how it's like in Atlanta, but I really am considering GSU for grad school.
Well I wouldn't trust an online poll listed in an Atlanta (or El Paso forum). That will clearly be biased.
I think you should visit Atlanta for yourself and compare. Atlanta is a region of nearly 6 million. It has a great deal of socio-economic differences across the region. It has a good many lower wage jobs related to the industrious nature of being an inland trading hub (ie. there is a HUGE amount of transfer warehouses here).
However, it also a huge white collar city and financial center with a very affluent population. There is a great deal of money in the Atlanta region. Now this comes with a pro and con. It puts money into making region nice and offering amenities, but it also means you're competing with affluent people to live in the nicer areas. In other words it drives up prices and pushes students into bad areas, more expensive areas, or areas further from campus.
You can find plenty of nice areas of Atlanta to live that are not sketchy. You might have to compromise on where you live and you should strongly consider finding roommates to live here as a student. I went to graduate school at UGA and loved the fact I was in a small city overrun with college students and things were extremely cheap.
Lastly, you're going to graduate school. That isn't just getting a traditional college degree where you are spoon fed information and a great deal of core information is taught similarly among many other universities. Rather you are entering a phase of education where students focus on intellectual development in how to start contributing to our upper education's knowledge base (ie. research). You should be going to one of the best programs of the field you're studying that you can get into (Ignore the overall university profile, but focus on the program within the university you will be in). GSU is actually extremely competitive in some fields and not in others.
Unless you're going into a professional based program, like some MBAs, medical, or law programs, I would focus more intensively on your field of study, topics you specifically want to research, and where the top published professors are for those niche topics. This should really drive your decision more.
The difference for professional based programs is that you might want to be in a school near where you want to end up (ie. if you want to pass the bar in Georgia a law school in Georgia or nearby with many graduates going to Georgia will help you get to know Georgia law more intimately. The MBA programs in GA will lead to more personal interconnections with people working in top Georgia businesses, than a school in California)
Well I wouldn't trust an online poll listed in an Atlanta (or El Paso forum). That will clearly be biased.
I think you should visit Atlanta for yourself and compare. Atlanta is a region of nearly 6 million. It has a great deal of socio-economic differences across the region. It has a good many lower wage jobs related to the industrious nature of being an inland trading hub (ie. there is a HUGE amount of transfer warehouses here).
However, it also a huge white collar city and financial center with a very affluent population. There is a great deal of money in the Atlanta region. Now this comes with a pro and con. It puts money into making region nice and offering amenities, but it also means you're competing with affluent people to live in the nicer areas. In other words it drives up prices and pushes students into bad areas, more expensive areas, or areas further from campus.
You can find plenty of nice areas of Atlanta to live that are not sketchy. You might have to compromise on where you live and you should strongly consider finding roommates to live here as a student. I went to graduate school at UGA and loved the fact I was in a small city overrun with college students and things were extremely cheap.
Lastly, you're going to graduate school. That isn't just getting a traditional college degree where you are spoon fed information and a great deal of core information is taught similarly among many other universities. Rather you are entering a phase of education where students focus on intellectual development in how to start contributing to our upper education's knowledge base (ie. research). You should be going to one of the best programs of the field you're studying that you can get into (Ignore the overall university profile, but focus on the program within the university you will be in). GSU is actually extremely competitive in some fields and not in others.
Unless you're going into a professional based program, like some MBAs, medical, or law programs, I would focus more intensively on your field of study, topics you specifically want to research, and where the top published professors are for those niche topics. This should really drive your decision more.
The difference for professional based programs is that you might want to be in a school near where you want to end up (ie. if you want to pass the bar in Georgia a law school in Georgia or nearby with many graduates going to Georgia will help you get to know Georgia law more intimately. The MBA programs in GA will lead to more personal interconnections with people working in top Georgia businesses, than a school in California)
But location depends on if your going to be happy or not. Atlanta seems like a city where people are happier. El Paso is a city where most people are depressed because they do not want to be there. So GSU is competitive? It did not seem competitive when I looked up the school. However, you are right, the program counts more than the location.
But location depends on if your going to be happy or not. Atlanta seems like a city where people are happier. El Paso is a city where most people are depressed because they do not want to be there. So GSU is competitive? It did not seem competitive when I looked up the school. However, you are right, the program counts more than the location.
Absolutely.
You really need to do some research. You go to graduate school to be a professional or educator in researching a specific topic. Once you know what you're doing there might be 3 or 4 different places that are competitive choices that you can get into, but you really need about in the right place academically.
What you will discover is out of the several hundred top major research universities they all have a few things that are more exceptional at than other things. The school might have put more money into a particular program or happened to end up with a tenured professor that happened to become the top scholar of a niche topic.
GSU traditionally has a really good Public Affairs schools in the country. They also rank very highly in niche topics, like Health care law (#3). This isn't surprising given its close proximity to the CDC. I noticed even at UGA the Journalism program is the go-to place for Health Journalism & communication for similar reasons. The Chair of the Knight Foundation in Health and Medical Journalism research is at UGA. The Journalism school at UGA also has the Center for Health and Risk Communication. This is a hyper-niche thing and is designed to address some real needs, but it isn't common of most schools to have this one niche. Most schools take on niches others don't. In doing so, they become a go-to place if you have niche interests for your future. So UGA is the go-to place for that very niche topic, which I am just using as an example since I know of it.
GSU also ranks #5 for insurance studies in the business school.
Yet they rank #117 for chemistry #72 for economics and #111 for Physics. (ie. a big university program with a decently funded program,but not highly competitive)
So it is important to research where your niche is and select from the top 3 or 4 programs you can get into. (you'll find it increasingly harder to get into top programs... even niches). You will also want to cast a wide net. Don't just apply to top 10 programs. Apply to a couple top 25, a top 50, and a safety not as high ranked program. Where you can get in and the ranking and research focii can drive your decisions. Your choice might not end up being Atlanta or El Paso, it easily could be between Austin, Madison Wisconsin, or Indiana... It is a bit difficult to research and as problematic as ranking guide like US News are (the rankings I use above come form it), it is a starting point to seeking out more detailed information.
And to add an extra layer of complexity... I haven't even gotten into cost comparisons, availability of assistantships, etc..
I am considering graduate school at GSU because it does not seem so competitive. However, my friend keeps telling me how much I'll hate Atlanta and how I will really miss El Paso. She keeps telling me that Atlanta is far more dangerous than El Paso and that the people are very unfriendly and rude. She also is worried that I'm going to get jumped and robbed. I mean come on, is Atlanta really that bad for living? She also says that the MARTA seems really unsafe to ride alone. I want to hear it from those who live in Atlanta how living really is like. Also, my parents have a lot of biases about Atlanta too. It seems like a very nice and very clean city to me. I've been to the airport and the airport is so nice and clean. But what about the city? How is it like? How is living in Atlanta vs. living in El Paso? To me, El Paso is old, dirty, sketchy, and very ghetto and ugly. Atlanta can't be worse, or is it? I've only heard South Atlanta is worse than El Paso, but that is only one part. Seeing South Atlanta from the plane, it looks really ghetto, but the entire city is not like that, is it?
Really all of south Atlanta is not ghetto. Makes me wonder how you got a Bachelors as you must have learned something about hasty generalizations in school.
Your friend is either hating or she doesn't want you to leave El Paso. She probably is too lame to jump out there and try something new so she is trying to drag you down with her. I call those people "dreamkillers"
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) Atlanta is one of the friendliest big cities in the country. Parts of Atlanta are bad, but they're nothing like Juarez.
