I know this thread is old. My son is looking at The Citadel and UNG. Would love some pros/cons for both. He does have ROTC scholarship to The Citadel and I sure wont mind visiting there, but UNG is closer to home and I am seeing lots of positive things about this school. Please forgive me since I am a newbie. Guess I will learn the lingo.
Thanks!
DS was accepted to Citadel, Norwich and UNG. He is now a freshmen cadet at North Georgia. Incidentally, he pretty much ruled out Norwich because he isn't a big fan of cold weather. So why did he choose UNG over Citadel?
* In-state tuition benefit for out-of-state cadets. He is 100% committed to serving his country as an Army officer, so investing in his future, even if he didn't get a scholarship, was a priority for him. He could afford the investment in UNG even if he didn't get a scholarship.
* Since all he ever wanted to do was become an Army officer, and UNG's Corps of Cadets is focused on training Army officers, he liked that focus. This was confirmed when he visited the school in his senior year for NLC weekend.
* UNG has a government flagship program to train Army officers who would be fluent in a strategic language on top of their major. DS was interested in majoring in International Affairs with fluency in a strategic language. Citadel did not have such a program. DS saw an investment in a bachelor's degree that would result in language fluency as a solid education investment leading to a more predictable post-Army career path. If he had gone to Citadel, he probably would have "settled" for majoring in criminal justice or history, and while there's nothing wrong with that if that's your major, it wasn't his first choice. His ultimate long term goal is diplomatic relations, I think. The plan is that he begins intensive language training this summer, continues with two back-to-back language classes next fall, then spends next spring in a study abroad program, taking classes at a foreign military academy overseas, and then doing an internship at a foreign company. He would continue his MS classes at UNG throughout that time away from campus via online learning, and he would PT with cadets at the academy. Capstone year would be spent abroad as well. (So, by the time he commissions, he would have spent a year and a half abroad.)
* DS loves to go hiking and camping and he loves the mountains. At UNG, you can literally walk out your dorm and go hiking, camping, caving, kayaking and tubing in the mountains near campus, or you can hang out with cadets who have cars and travel to state parks and mountain camping in practically endless supply in Georgia, Tennessee, NC and Alabama. The school loans out top-quality gear for free. My DS has been camping, hiking or caving on every "open" weekend that he's been there, except for the couple of open weekends I visited or prior to major test times. (Sometimes, those camping events are tied to a military extracurricular he's involved in and it includes an intensive military training and education component. See next bullet point.)
* DS wants to be a Ranger; the Ranger training school is only a few miles away from UNG. He participates in the mountain training extracurricular group, which is intense. It uses a similar training plan as the mountain phase of Ranger school. At times he has hated it. At times he loves it. But he knows with 100% certainty that he is becoming smarter and stronger because of the mental and physical intensity. It's not for everyone, but if your goal has to do with infantry, trying out for one of the military training groups once first semester is over might be something to check out.
* DS likes the fact that UNG has non-cadet students, and that he can, at times, feel as though he's just a regular college student playing ultimate frisbee out on the drill field in civvies. First-semester freshmen cadets have more rules and restrictions than everybody else, but upperclassmen wear uniforms M-F till 5, but after that they can wear civvies, just like in the regular Army. (Those rules would be different on closed weekends and other special occasions, of course.) He has classes, intramurals and extracurricular activities with cadets and non-cadets, and as such, cadets get many opportunities to display and practice their leadership skills in the classroom and in extracurricular activities on campus -- just like in the real world. There is no "athletic elite" at UNG either; cadet leaders tend to take on campus-wide leadership roles. Many of the cadet company leaders are also officers in fraternities, sororities and other non-cadet ECs like the Habitat for Humanity chapter and SGA.
* Dorms at UNG are modern, renovated, technologically functional and safe.
* DS has liked and been challenged in his classes so far. This semester is like college nirvana for him -- by luck, he got into a plethora of classes related to his major, and he likes and gets along with all of his professors and he says he's doing fine, grade-wise, right now. I know all of his semesters won't be so perfect, but it is nice that he's having such a good semester academically. He's happy and challenged mentally. That makes me happy.
* PT is competitive, and this creates an atmosphere where PT becomes a necessary part of daily life rather than any sort of drudgery. It could be just his company, and his personal PT goals, but my take on it is that DS truly enjoys PT and the competitiveness. His company is extremely proud of their cumulative GPA, PT scores, company leadership and inspection scores.
* There is a large percentage of cadets who are members of the National Guard, and many cadets with prior service and deployments, contributing to the general campus atmosphere of a training ground for military leaders. Most cadets who are planning to commission take extra classes resulting in a military leadership minor.