Emory University, the University of Georgia and the Georgia Institute of Technology: According to one set of rankings, these are the three best colleges in Georgia.
The 2015 Niche Rankings — the product of Niche.com, a "reviews and insights" website focused on neighborhoods and education — graded more than 1,000 colleges and universities "based on more than 50 statistics and nearly 12 million ratings from 300,000 students."
Specifically, the statistics were drawn from "various government and public data sets," and the ratings came from opinion-based survey responses across 20 topics from students and recent alumni, according to the site's methodology. Factors in the rankings were: academics grade, student survey responses, campus quality grade, loan default rate, athletics grade, diversity grade and others.
In addition to a top 100 in the nation, Niche also ranked the best colleges by state. Georgia's top 10:
- Emory University
- University of Georgia
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- Georgia Southern University
- Berry College
- Georgia State University
- Spelman College
- Savannah College of Art & Design
- Georgia College & State University
- Mercer University
At No. 1, Emory earned an A+ for both its academics and diversity, and As for campus quality and the party scene. (The only blemish? A C+ for athletics.)
See the full list of the state's best colleges here.
Colleges such as Agnes Scott University and Oglethorpe University were scored well (A- and B+ overall, respectively) but did not receive a numerical ranking. This could be because they did not have a minimum number of full-time undergraduate students or because they "lacked one or more of the required factors," according to Niche.
Georgia schools also show up on several other Niche 2015 rankings: UGA comes in at No. 7 in a national list of the best campuses, with a campus food grade of A+, a campus housing grade of B, a technology grade of B and a campus quality score of 4.3/5, according to 414 survey responses. (Georgia Southern comes in at No. 55 on that same list.) UGA also ranks No. 3 on the list of best party schools.
Emory was also noted as the No. 48 hardest school to get into; UGA was ranked at Nos. 24 and 35 for the most attractive guys and girls, respectively; and the University of North Georgia landed at No. 53 on the list of safest campuses.
