Georgia Highlands College
| Address: | Georgia Highlands College
3175 Cedartown Highway, SE
Rome, GA 30161 |
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| Type: | Two Year College |
| Phone: | Main: 706-802-5000 Admissions: 706-295-6339 Financial Aid: 706-295-6311 Compliance, Ethics, and Reporting Hotline: 877-516-3436 |
| Website: | www.highlands.edu |
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| Links: | Mission Statement Apply Online Directory Degrees & Majors Authorized Library Compliance, Ethics, and Reporting Hotline |
Institution Overview
Georgia Highlands College is a two-year college that serves as a point of access to the University System of Georgia. Students commute from 10 counties in Northwest Georgia to campuses or sites in Rome, Cartersville, Marietta and Carrollton. Founded as Floyd Junior College in 1970, the college has more than doubled its enrollment in the last five years, and now serves more than 4,000 academic and 5,000 continuing education students annually.
The student body is primarily female (66 percent) and the median student age is 24. As a commuter college, the institution draws from Floyd, Polk, Chattooga, Gordon, Bartow, Cobb, Paulding, Cherokee, Douglas, Carroll and Haralson Counties in Georgia. It also attracts students from eastern Alabama and southeastern Tennessee.
The founding campus in Floyd County sits on 226 wooded acres, with a scenic 56-acre lake where students jog, picnic and study. In Cartersville they can attend newest campus, which is equipped with the most current learning technology. Since the Cartersville campus opened in 2005, enrollment has nearly tripled there, giving that location the highest enrollment of any GHC site.
Georgia Highlands’ students are enrolled in 48 transfer and career programs leading to two-year associate degrees, many in health-care fields. The most popular majors are nursing, business and education. The nursing program has recently expanded, adding a new cohort in Marietta and enabling the college to graduate 150 license-eligible students each year. GHC also maintains a cooperative agreement with the University of West Georgia, so that students on the Floyd campus can continue at that site and earn their bachelor’s degree in early childhood from West Georgia. Additionally, the college offers cooperative programs with Coosa Valley Technical College and North Metro Technical College.
Students may participate in a variety of extra-curricular programs, including academic, social and political organizations, student media and intramural sports.
When the first classes were enrolled in 1970, students came mainly from Floyd County. The citizens of Floyd Country had provided infrastructure funding and other support by approving local bond issues for construction. As the college expanded to meet the needs of the region, the need for a name change to reflect this status became apparent, and in April 2005, Floyd College became Georgia Highlands College.