Colleges and universities in Georgia provide businesses with a steady stream of talent. More than 50,000 students graduate each year from the Georgia university system, the state’s private universities and technical colleges. In metro Atlanta, one-third of adults hold a four-year college degree, well above the national average of 27 percent, providing a concentration of intellectual capital for organizations of all sizes.
To ensure that top students maximize their potential, Georgia offers the HOPE Scholarship, which pays college costs at any public institution in Georgia for the highest achievers and provides tuition support at accredited private colleges as well. This unique, merit-based scholarship program has awarded $6.2 billion in aid to outstanding students and has been instrumental in keeping the brightest young minds in Georgia.
Businesses seeking to relocate to Georgia or recruit out-of-state workers to Georgia locations find that higher education is a selling point:
- Two public universities in Georgia earned a top 25 spot in U.S. News & World Report’s 2011 rankings - the University of Georgia and the Georgia Institute of Technology - making Georgia one of only four states with more than one school in the top 25.
- College participation remains on the rise: public and private enrollment in fall 2011 exceeded 318,000 students, continuing the steady enrollment increases in Georgia institutions since 1998.
- Georgia has 51 four-year colleges and universities, as well as 35 technical colleges. The 20 public and private colleges and universities in the Atlanta region all participate in a cross registration program that allows students at any institution to take for-credit courses at any of the other campuses.
- Institutions in the Atlanta region rank in the top 10 metro areas nationally in nearly two dozen categories of higher education measurements.
- Students chart their course in higher education using Georgia 411, ensuring that they earn the right degree to contribute to the field they choose.