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The University of Georgia Graduate School continued its Centennial Celebration as students of the 100th official entering class began courses on August 16, 2010.
For students who received bachelor’s degrees from UGA, more commonly known as “Double Dawgs,” this transition may come with ease. However, for other incoming grad students, this transition might take some getting used too.
Last Thursday, Daniel Suddes, a master’s degree candidate at Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, arrived in town to a friend’s cozy couch just in time for his departmental orientation.
In Athens, many apartments hold “move-in day” the Saturday before classes start, which left 23-year-old Suddes crashing with a friend until the weekend. With not nearly enough time to get settled in, he began his first day of graduate school with a parking space mix-up at his apartment and not nearly enough coffee.
“I don’t want to get towed,” said Suddes, “but I don’t want to tow anyone, because that’s not a great way to make friends.” Other than his friend who allowed him to crash last week, Suddes’ closest friend or relative lives about an hour away. However, Grady’s friendly atmosphere is one of the reasons why Suddes decided to make Athens, and UGA, his new home.
Suddes, who received his bachelor’s degree in International Studies from Oglethorpe University, a very small but renowned school in Atlanta, said that it was probably his Graduate Coordinator Debbie Sickles who helped to make him feel at home, along with other friendly Grady faces.
“The size of the school hasn’t intimidated me because I know a lot of it I’ll never see,” said Suddes, whose biggest concern about graduate school is keeping his assistantship. “I want to continue to impress everyone,” he said.
In regards to Athens, Suddes doesn’t seem too impressed. “It’s a nice town with its own atmosphere, but there’s not that much variety here,” said Suddes. The Fairfax, VA native has hopped around the South, including stops in South Carolina and Atlanta before Athens.
“Some aspects seem unusual here,” said Suddes. When presented with the $3 green fee that funds an Office of Sustainability on campus, he had questions. “I’m very liberal on a bunch of things, but the green movement is not one of them.”
Suddes also found the locally-owned businesses populating downtown as one of those aspects. “In Atlanta, there are a lot of chains and they [locally-owned businesses] are pushed to the outskirts,” he said.
While downtown, Suddes also took notice of the several bars that Athens has to offer, however, holds no interest in them. As for UGA being The Princeton Review’s newly named #1 Party School, Suddes isn’t interested in that either. “I don’t have any feeling about it one way or the other; that’s not the reason why I came here.”
It was a very different ranking that brought Suddes to Athens; the nationally top-ranked programs at Grady College. The University of Georgia was one of two graduate schools that offered letters of acceptance to Suddes.
For now, Suddes is excited about his new adventure in Athens and at UGA, and about the professors and people he is going to meet along the way.
Daniel Suddes
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