First let me say that I attended Georgia Southern in 1990-1995 and i'm sure that things have changed over the last few years somewhat, but after speaking with students who have gone there in recent years, I feel my opinion is still pretty accurate. I really have mixed feelings about rating this school. When I was 18 and looking to go to college, as with most high school seniors in the Atlanta area, I wanted to attend school where I was away from home, but still was close enough to visit on the weekends for money or a home cooked meal. GSU is located in just under a three hour drive from Atlanta, is a medium sized school, and was where a good number of friends from high school were going. GSU is an inexpensive college, so it definitely fit my budget, which makes it a great choice for many students. It's not known for being an academically challenging school, so those who never really applied themselves to the fullest of their potential would be able to get in. One of the selling points was that it had a good football team, a good Biology department and was a "fun" school.

I have absolutely nothing bad to say about the quality of education I received. The Biology and English departments are as good as any other state school, if not more so, and the School of Education is ideal for anyone wanting to become a teacher. In 1990, GSU had just become a university, so there was a huge growth spurt that the school was ill prepared to handle, so the one downside was the large student to faculty ratio. Hopefully, that has gone down some.

One of the best experiences of Georgia Southern was dorm life my freshman year. Personally, I think it should be mandatory that all freshman live in a dorm, because it teaches you to live and interact with people of all cutlures and backgrounds. I lived in Johnson Hall (a girls dorm), and to this day, I stil keep in touch with friends I made on my floor...Those friends helped to create memories I'll always cherish.

The campus at Southern has expanded immensely. On my last visit, they had added quite a few buildings to the South part of campus, in addition to much needed and fought over parking spaces. It's a pretty campus, with the student union only being about 15 years old, it's a nice and safe campus to enjoy the outside scenery, especially Sweetheart Circle, a treelined one way street that surrounds a part that from an arial view resembles a heart.

As far as the social life at GSU, well that's where people begin to get into trouble. Fraternity and Sorority life is always going to be a part of campus life and although the fraternities and sororities on campus do a lot of fundraising for local and national charaties, there do have somewhat of a negaative party stereotype. If you are a parent reading this and are nervous about your child joining a Greek organization, please be assured that hazing is strickly frowned upon and that there is a strong emphasis placed upon recieving and maintaining good grade point averages. Underage drinking is a common problem in Statesboro, so it's not like it's just a problem in Greek Letter Organizations. A frank discussion with your future student is the best way to establish ground rules as to what you expcet of your soon to be college student.

I suggest to parents that they realize that GSU is not Harvard, Yale or an Ivy Leauge school by any means. Southern is known as a party school. No matter how hard you may think your child will study or how good of a student he or she was in high school, be prepared to see some lower grades. Why? Alcohol runs rampant at this school, and don't begin to think otherwise. In 5 years of living there, I, nor a single one of my friends was ever carded for alcohol. Keg parties happen every weekend, and regardless of the day, there is always drinking going on. Think Animal House...That's Georgia Southern. Hopefully the Statesboro Police have cracked down on DUI's, because that, in addition to drugs, were so prevalant when I was there. One of the reason for the drinking is that there's nothing to do in Statesboro. It's a podunk college town with no social activities other than eating or drinking. Until your Junior and Senior year, the classwork isn't too hard, so a lot of students wind up making bad decisions.

This is why I'm reluctant to give it a higher recommendation. Academically it's great, but once the partying scene sucks you in, to a good nummber of students, academics really don't matter anymore.
I speak from first hand experience. If I had to do it all again, I might reconsider my decision.

Recommended: No