If you are hoping to motivate her I would take a serious look at Agnes Scott. Women's colleges historically do a very good job of producing graduates who do well in careers and who are far more likely to go to grad school. My best and smartest professor at Emory went to Agnes Scott.

Had had several friends whose kids went to Georgia College and loved it and have done well, ditto Berry College and Shorter.

What exactly do you mean by 'housing is important'? Does that mean she wants a private dorm room? An apartment?

Does she want an urban school, suburban school, small town school? Is she interested in Greek life?

Almost everyone I know who has gone to Berry or North Georgia College loves/loved it.

Berry College is a residential college so almost everyone lives on campus. I don't think there are any social fraternities or sororities on campus. Students work in the dairies, horse barns, gardens, ground-breaking, offices, etc. As I understand it, most students have an on-campus job. I think I would have loved Berry. I know many people who have gone there or go there and all but one loves it.

North Georgia College is located in a beautiful area (as is Berry). There is a beautiful river very close by to float or tube, beautiful hiking trails and some of the best biking in Georgia. There's a military school there, which I think is interesting. My dad was in the military, so I like that atmosphere. My daughter went there for a year and I loved it there. The girls on the floor in her traditional style dorm were very close. When my daughter went there, there were no sororities or fraternities on campus and no rush the first semester (as I remember), so the students had a chance to get to know each other before Greek rush.

My daughter did not like North Georgia College. There were not many restaurants, theaters, etc. I personally saw very few planned activities, university events, etc. and my daughter said there weren't many. I asked at orientation for parents and at parents weekend about that and was told by the staff and volunteers that there aren't many. My daughter loves Georgia Tech, where she is now. She loves the urban environment, the coffee shops. She loves all the places to study on campus, the diversity of students, the planned activities, the wonderful gym and pool, etc. There is always something going on on-campus at Georgia Tech it seems like. I personally would have loved North Georgia College but it was not a good fit for her. She loves the mountain and thought she'd love the small town and small university, but she didn't.

Good luck whatever your daughter decides.

Two good resources are Princeton Review and College Prowler. What I liked about Princeton Review, is that students give their opinion about the school in terms of social life of the students teachers classes etc.
College Prowler give grades to the schools. You see where the strengths and weakness of the college.

Thanks everyone. I have researched online extensively. I posted here to see if I could get some between the lines impressions.

Daisy, when I referenced housing, I should have said non commuter school.

Most kids around here go to UGA or Southern and we don't hear much about other schools. North Georgia College is somewhere I will definitely check.

Deee, I hope you and your daughter will visit the North Georgia campus in Dalonegha. The students there are so nice. If your daughter decides to go there, I would encourage her to choose one of the traditional dorms near the drill field and apply for housing as early as she can. The traditional dorms fill up early, the housing department told me. The young women in the traditional style dorms seem to make friends easily in that setting. It's not quite as easy in the apartments.

Have fun!

I would love to work in a dairy or horse barn.

Deee, you may find that smaller private schools are more willing to work with students who have less than stellar credentials if they are outstanding in some non academic area. I know Oglethorpe in Atlanta has accepted students with particular theatrical or musical ability even when those students were not applying to an audition program. And don't forget that up to half the students have scores below that school's average test scores and GPAs.

College selection is usually the first adult decision a young person makes and the process can be very stressful!

I don't know if you want Atlanta specifically, but if you are interested in teacher education, Georgia Southern (near Savannah) is a good option.

She mentioned GA Southern as one of the default choices of students in their area.

West GA produces a lot of teachers, we know one young kindergarten teacher who graduated in '10, but they have grown exponentially over the past ten years and the school may be bigger than your daughter wants.

I know two people who both went to Berry in Rome, GA.

One was a gal who I taught kindergarten with her first few years out of college. She majored in Early Childhood Education and their program was very much hands on, which is great. She was/is a great teacher but she had a very idealistic view of public education. Everything had to be hands on and she spend so much time creating consumable materials everyday for her class of 30 (at that time we had large classes), which were all gone by the end of the day and she would go home and do it again for the next day. It didn't take her too long to realize what she had experienced in their student teaching in their small town/campus program was not the real world. I was her peer teacher and we worked together well, as I was also a hands on teacher but knew what to do and how to mesh teaching styles. She is still in education, though not in our town here. I think she works with children with dyslexia, as she also had that problem.

The other gal majored in Animal Sciences. I am not familiar with that program, although some of her classmates went on to Vet school. She was very involved with horses and that was why she went there.

{{!gwi}}

This post was edited by mboston on Sat, Jan 3, 15 at 19:54