An Academic Powerhouse
The standard at UGA is excellence. As one of the nation’s top public universities, our students consistently earn national and international honors. For example, in 2023, UGA was the nation’s only public university with multiple Marshall Scholarship recipients and one of three state universities in the U.S. to have a Rhodes Scholar. We have also been named a top producer of Fulbright U.S. students for the fifth time in 11 years and a top-5 institution for Boren Scholarships.
Two significant drivers of our academic success are the Jere W. Morehead Honors College and the Graduate School.
Honors students receive the benefits of a small liberal arts college along with the opportunities of a top-tier research university. The Foundation Fellowship, our top academic scholarship, provides academic funding, stipends for travel-study, and research grants to our best and brightest. The Morehead Honors College also administers our Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities (CURO), which is open to all UGA students. Thanks to those opportunities, many of our Honors students go on to earn international scholarships and fellowships, helping to bolster the University’s academic reputation.
Graduate students elevate the University’s teaching, research, and service. And the University of Georgia’s graduate and professional programs continue to be recognized among the best in the nation. Several of our graduate and professional programs ranked among the top 10 in the U.S., including four of our online master’s programs.
Enhancing the Student Experience
As part of ongoing efforts to enhance the student experience on campus, we are launching Dawg Source, a one-stop hybrid service model that provides resources to support students from pre-enrollment through graduation in person and online. The goal is to make information about registration, financial aid, and housing more accessible to students. That way, they can focus on their studies.
Expanding Graduate Opportunities
Recruitment and retention of graduate students is a top priority for the University. That is why we launched a $250,000 Graduate Student Degree Accelerator Fund and a Graduate Student Emergency Fund to help students overcome financial challenges. In addition, we are focused on offering competitive fellowships to support exceptionally gifted graduate students.
Natalie Navarrete
AB ’23, International Affairs, Russian, and Spanish
Fueled by a bold vision for the future, 2023 Rhodes Scholar Natalie Navarrete is using her experiences at UGA to prepare herself for a career in national security. Natalie’s international affairs and policy research has taken her across the world, from England to Kazakhstan to South Korea. She came to UGA with no knowledge of Russian and graduated with a working proficiency in the language as well as academic and work experience from a Russian-speaking country.
While at UGA, she participated in multiple internships and work-study projects across the globe, including working with the United States Department of Energy in Washington, D.C., and promoting children’s literacy in Kazakhstan. Well-rounded in both intellect and experience, Natalie has used her opportunities at UGA to springboard into a thriving international career.
Natalie plans to continue her research on Central Asia during her next two years at the University of Oxford and then return to Washington, D.C., to acquire more experience in national security.
The University of Georgia invests back into its students as much as we invest in our education. Both in terms of financial support and academically enriching opportunities, I truly believe that Georgia is unmatched. I have been incredibly lucky to benefit from the attention and generosity of UGA, its unique programs, and dedicated professors.