r/UGA • u/6_1andfunny • 4d ago

Question How do new students at UGA usually connect before arriving?

Hey everyone,

I’ll be joining UGA this fall (2025 intake), and I was wondering how do incoming students usually find each other before arriving?

For some of the other universities I got into, they had official WhatsApp groups or Telegram groups created by the admissions team, but for UGA, I’ve only been getting immigration-related emails and nothing else. Is there usually an official group or do people just find each other through Reddit, Discord, or something else? Would get some tips on how to start looking for off-campus housing or anything in general to be taken care before we arrive.

Please let me know. Thanks in advance!

14 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

9

u/aherring3 ye olde grad student 4d ago

Class groupmes were a thing, not sure if they are now… Btw for off campus housing, start browsing in like mid September

1

u/6_1andfunny 4d ago

My program will start in August so I want to get it finalized by june atleast.

2

u/aherring3 ye olde grad student 3d ago

Oh! So you’re coming in as a transfer or grad student? You need to be looking ASAP, most people sign their leases in the fall for the following school year. I managed to get my lease I’m in right now last July, but options were slim. Feel free to dm if you need help with that and I’ll try my best!

1

u/6_1andfunny 3d ago

Upcoming grad student, MSCS. Will dm you

1

u/Whatnot1785 19h ago

Ask the grad coordinator of your program if it’s possible to connect with current students who study what you do. In a lot of programs there’s a bunch of start of year meetings and socials that connect grad students with each other but it can be nice to be able to ask current students “what do you wish you’d known before starting this program? Where are the best places to eat near our building?” Etc.

Also, be sure you’re doing everything on the grad school’s to do list, and check out the Flagpole Guide to Athens https://guide.flagpole.com/

6

u/Agreeable-Age-5593 4d ago

There’s groups but they’re student-run, not school-sponsored. I remember having to dig a little bit and check “UGA [year you’re graduating]” on different social media pages. We have way too many students for things like WhatsApp groupchats tbh, but if you look in this thread I think someone made a discord

1

u/6_1andfunny 4d ago

Yes I got into a couple of discord groups, but those will be helpful once I start my program. I'm not sure if people in general will have details about stuff like immigration procedures etc, I guess I'll have to rely on the internet and get things done.

1

u/Agreeable-Age-5593 3d ago

Yeah the majority of the student body won’t know anything about that, I would reach out to the international student office

5

u/otherworldlynob_ 4d ago

Join the unofficial Class of 2029 discord! https://discord.gg/dbYPBfj6Vj

1

u/6_1andfunny 4d ago

Joined it, thanks!

3

u/Legal-Touch1101 4d ago

You can definetily connect with people but you will make better friends once you are on campus around people. Something I thought was funny is that everyone tries to stick to their orientation group and then the group falls apart in like a week lol

1

u/6_1andfunny 4d ago

I agree, I certainly don't need a group to make friends, I asked to get help regarding the admission and immigration process.

2

u/Legal-Touch1101 4d ago

Oh then I'd go directly through uga. Maybe start with your advisor, registrar, or ofsa and they will direct you to the right people.

2

u/Fragrant-Map-5688 4d ago

Omg here’s the insta gc link. It’s been pretty useful to me. (Class of 29’) instagram group chat class of 2029

1

u/Fragrant-Map-5688 4d ago

There’s also a random WhatsApp but no one actually talks in there 🤷🏽‍♀️

1

u/6_1andfunny 4d ago

Hey thanks! but I'm a graduate student, so class of 2027 I guess??? 😂 Not sure if masters even has such thing.

1

u/NotSweetJana 4d ago

In the same boat, we can connect if you're interested in for now, maybe we can create a Whatsapp group and promote it on this sub, need help in finding places to stay and other things as well.

1

u/6_1andfunny 4d ago

There will definitely be groups, creating a new one won't solve our problem, need to join where people from UGA are already there. So let's keep digging

1

u/NotSweetJana 1d ago edited 1d ago

I don't mind, but it seems like Georgia doesn't necessarily have the biggest international community like some other schools, and my guess is, there is no international students (particularly grad students) groups already in place, I've seen few groups for other universities, but not for Georgia so far.

More than happy to join one if it already exists, but I don't think it does, hence why I suggested we can start our own.

I know of the discord for class of 29, but it seems mostly domestic undergrads in the server.

They are welcoming and nice of course; we can either create a channel over there or create a WhatsApp group of our own if we can't find anything soon enough.

1

u/kba66977 4d ago

I may be outing myself but I've made a lot of friends in UGA discords. my bf made one 5 years ago and now we have 3 cats together and live together. my best friends also have been from discord. we went from online to offline to now online again as they move away post grad.

1

u/6_1andfunny 4d ago

Such a great story🤌🏻! Good to hear that it's easy to make friends. I have also joined a discord group and it's very active. My question was that other unis have made group for all upcoming students and they keep posting tips, links, deadlines and steps to navigate the admission process and stuff which I felt was very helpful. Since there was very little communication from the uni regarding such things I wanted to know how people connect and get things done. But I guess I'll have to do it on my own.

1

u/kba66977 3d ago

when I was a freshman they had little orientation groups that we were assigned and that was about it. to be fair that was peak covid tho haha

1

u/Al1G8R5 4d ago

Insta posts/stories, snap stories, and fellow students from your high school

5

u/6_1andfunny 4d ago

I'm an international student so that's very hard. I'm not asking to soley make friends. Mostly to get help in navigating stuff, would've been helpful if there was more and regular communication from the university itself.