The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia. Founded in 1785, it is one of the oldest public universities in the United States.[5] The flagship school of the University System of Georgia, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public universities in the United States.
The university is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity,”[6] and as having “more selective” undergraduate admissions, the most selective admissions category,[7] while the ACT Assessment Student Report places UGA admissions in the “Highly Selective” category, the highest classification.[8] Among public universities, the University of Georgia is one of the nation’s top three producers of Rhodes Scholars over the past two decades.[9]
In addition to the main campuses in Athens with their approximately 470 buildings, the university has two smaller campuses located in Tifton and Griffin. The university has two satellite campuses located in Atlanta and Lawrenceville. The university operates several service and outreach stations spread across the state. The total acreage of the university in 30 Georgia counties is 41,539 acres (168.10 km2).[3] The university also owns a residential education and research center in Washington, DC,[10] as well as three international residential education and research centers located at Oxford University in Oxford, England, at Cortona, Italy, and at Monteverde, Costa Rica.
Student life includes almost 800 student organizations including academic associations, honor societies, debate societies, publications, cultural groups, student government organizations, religious groups, social groups and fraternities, volunteer and community service programs, philanthropic groups, and others.[11][12] The University of Georgia’s intercollegiate sports teams, commonly known by their Georgia Bulldogs nickname, compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). In their more than 120-year history, the university’s varsity sports teams have won 45 national championships, 264 individual national championships, 172 conference championships,[13] and 56 Olympic medals.[14][15]
The University of Georgia has distinguished alumni and attendees including current and former members of the United States Senate, members of the United States House of Representatives, a member of the Supreme Court of the United States, members of the Cabinet of the United States, U.S. ambassadors, U.S. governors, federal judges, state supreme court justices, attorneys general, members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, chairmen and chief executive officers (CEOs) of Fortune 500 companies, banks, and charitable organizations, plus many scholars including Rhodes Scholars, Gates Cambridge Scholars, Marshall Scholars, Boren Scholars, and MacArthur Fellows (the “Genius Grant”) winners, as well as Pulitzer Prize winners, a United States Poet Laureate, Peabody Award winners, The New York Times Best Seller list authors, Emmy Award winners, Grammy Award winners, inventors and entrepreneurs, prominent attorneys, medical doctors, scientists, academics and multiple Super Bowl champions.