Elizabeth
The best thing about UGA is the city, the football, and the campus! In my opinion, the school is the perfect size, but I was looking for a large school. There are over 30,000 students that attend UGA.
The one thing I would change is the minority population - there are not a lot of minority students attending the school and I think that keeps students from inter-mingling with students are different from themselves. I would also change homecoming - it's really not that big of a deal at UGA.
When I tell people that I go to UGA, their responses differ depending on where I am. Within Georgia, UGA has a great reputation. In recent years, the requirements for acceptance have drastically risen - many alumni agree they would never have gotten in if they were students now. With the HOPE scholarship for in-state students, Georgia has kept some of the best and brightest in the state and UGA is their best option. Elsewhere in the South, UGA has a great reputation - often for its football. Elsewhere in the U.S., the university doesn't have much of a name for itself, but I think that is going to change with the entrance requirements increasing and the fact that we were the only public institution to have two Rhodes scholars this year.
I spend most of my time on the central and north part of campus. This area has the Student Learning Center (a new building with study rooms, classrooms, a coffee shop, and computer labs). Next door is the Tate Student Center where a lot of organizations' activities take place as well as the campus movie theater. Tate 2 is currently under construction and the students can't WAIT to see the completed project. In addition, the center of campus has the football stadium. North campus is the most beautiful part of campus and houses the law school, main library, business school, and numerous other colleges.
Definitely college town! There are over 30,000 students in Athens attending UGA. In addition, we have the greatest college music scene in the country!!
UGA's administration works hard and does great things for UGA, but they have an air of superiority and do not seem to have casual relationships with students. They really should come down off of their pedestal and mingle with the students. In addition, the Student Government Association doesn't accomplish much, so students often feel entirely separated from the campus administration.
The biggest controversy on campus is currently a list of sexual harassment charges against a professor in one of the colleges. In addition, the basketball team has had three or four players dismissed from the team leading to the review of the men's coach. Also, a year or two ago, a freshman died in a dorm from alcohol and cocaine; this led to strict changes in residence hall rules as well as the idea of probation after each alcohol offense and expulsion after the second.
There is so much campus pride it's ridiculous. It is most often shown through our football team, but you will always see students in UGA gear, they all have UGA stickers on their cars, some have state UGA license plates, and they all hate schools that wear orange :)
The most unusual thing about UGA is the music scene - there are so many great bands to have come out of Athens and that tradition continues today. Whether it's Tasty World, The Georgia Theater, or 40 Watt - a student can always find a group to go listen to!
The one experience I will always remember was my senior year trip to St. Simons, GA with some friends for a 5-day vacation over Fall Break. Our fall break coincides with the Georgia vs. Florida football game in Jacksonville and there is a huge beach party and student population that is in St. Simons. Then, everyone takes buses or drives to Jacksonville for the game on Saturday. It's just one big party for the week - AND we won this year!! Go Dawgs!!