Private colleges, unlike large public institutions, can be a great option for students wanting a more intimate campus experience, more personal attention from excellent professors, and more immediate access to support services. Here is our list of the best private colleges in Georgia.
Georgia has 70 colleges and universities, 38 of which are public institutions, and 36 of Georgia’s top colleges offer online degree programs. The University of Georgia, located in the city of Athens, is the largest, with over 35,000 students. Those attending Georgia State University and Georgia Southern University will enter into a friendly athletics rivalry. Tuition at Georgia State costs $9,000, and at Georgia Southern, $6,000. Of the 20 religiously affiliated schools, Emory University has both the highest tuition, just over $50,000, and student population, with over 13,000 in attendance. Whether you’re looking to earn your associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree, Georgia schools offer plenty of options.
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Students can earn degrees in religious studies, business, social work, law, and computer science. Those looking to attend technical colleges can also choose from a handful of schools that offer two-year degrees in medicine, nursing, and education. Part of the University System of Georgia, Atlanta Metropolitan State college is the state’s most affordable college at $3,000, and its students can major in fields like mathematics, criminal justice, and philosophy.
The Blue Ridge Mountains, oak and hickory forests, and the Atlantic Coastal Plain all make their home in Georgia, but the state’s most notable landform is the Okefenokee Swamp, the largest such water-mass in North America. This diverse landscape in The Peach State provides Georgia’s college and graduate students with a beautiful backdrop for an education.
Georgia also offers a loan repayment program for qualifying graduates in the medical field through the Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce. Check out the best degree programs and top career paths this southern state has to offer.
Public and private colleges and universities operate under different business models. Public colleges and universities are owned by the state and receive both state and federal funding to operate. Private colleges and universities are private companies with private funding. If you’re looking at the pros and cons of private vs. public colleges, consider that many public colleges provide diverse course offerings, influential professors, and an excellent return on your investment.
Public colleges are schools that receive most of their funding from tax revenues. As a result, the cost of a bachelor’s degree at a public university is often lower than the equivalent cost at a private college — especially for students attending a public school in their home state. Attending a college in-state is usually the cheapest option. Private universities and colleges can be very competitive with their funding opportunities, so do not simply believe that private colleges are always going to be more expensive. According to National Center for Educational Statistics, the average annual cost (tuition, fees, room and board for full-time students) at a public university was slightly over $20,000. In contrast, private universities cost, on average, nearly $43,000 annually. But in the end, the cost of college comes down to each student’s academic and financial situation.
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great! If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence in their fields of study.
Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is freer from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
To rank the influence of schools, we first determine the influence of scholars and professionals based on the number of citations and publications they have had over the past 10 years. In addition to publications and citations, we consider the web links to and from these sources, and the page views of those sources. We then match the influential people to their alma maters and institutions of employment, so that their influence is attributed to those schools. Our machine-learning Influence Ranking algorithm produces a numerical score of academic achievements, merits, and citations across Wikipedia, wikidata, Crossref, Semantic Scholar and an ever-growing body of data. If you are interested in exploring how and why we rank by influence, explore our methodology in more depth.
This list is composed entirely of private colleges and universities that offer bachelor’s degrees. We’ve identified 24 private universities in Georgia. To be included in the list below of the best private universities in Georgia, schools must be fully accredited, private, non-profit institution, and must offer a broad range of bachelor’s degrees.
Tuition + fees
$55K
Acceptance
19%
Graduation
90%
Student body
13K
Median SAT/ACT
1445/32
Emory University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$29K
Acceptance
77%
Graduation
56%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1081/20
Morehouse College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$28K
Acceptance
53%
Graduation
75%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1155/24
Spelman College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$39K
Acceptance
78%
Graduation
73%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1255/27
Mercer University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$24K
Acceptance
59%
Graduation
42%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1010/18
Clark Atlanta University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$44K
Acceptance
68%
Graduation
72%
Student body
1K
Agnes Scott College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$26K
Acceptance
60%
Graduation
51%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1030/19
Wesleyan College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$43K
Acceptance
67%
Graduation
51%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1195/25
Oglethorpe University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$39K
Acceptance
77%
Graduation
70%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1205/27
Berry College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$30K
Acceptance
65%
Graduation
44%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1040/20
Young Harris College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
92%
Graduation
41%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1030/20
Brenau University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$15K
Acceptance
75%
Graduation
8%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
870/15
Paine College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
60%
Graduation
44%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1074/21
LaGrange College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$23K
Acceptance
71%
Graduation
43%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1030/20
Shorter University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$18K
Acceptance
59%
Graduation
29%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
905/16
Andrew College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$21K
Acceptance
58%
Graduation
49%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1035/19
Toccoa Falls College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$38K
Acceptance
98%
Graduation
68%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1215/26
Covenant College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$22K
Acceptance
35%
Graduation
33%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
995/18
Point University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$26K
Acceptance
99%
Graduation
35%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1075/22
Reinhardt University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$23K
Acceptance
97%
Graduation
35%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1040/20
Truett McConnell University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$28K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
43%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1060/21
Piedmont University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
35%
Graduation
45%
Student body
<1K
Thomas University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$22K
Acceptance
53%
Graduation
39%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1020/19
Emmanuel College ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$19K
Acceptance
98%
Graduation
15%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
965/18
Brewton–Parker College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Many of our 2022 undergraduate focused rankings look considerably different than 2021. That’s because we took a fundamentally different apporach. For 2021 we utiulized our Concentrated Influence algorithm, designed to take away the size advantage larger schools have when we rank their faculty and alumni’s academic influence. Concentrated influence highlights smaller schools that are proportionally as successful as larger universities at cultivating influential alumni and faculty.
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