Daniel Ogletree is a first year student at the University of Georgia. He moved away from his home county, Cook, in order to purse an economics B.A degree. When he graduated from high school he was third honor grad and star student. He has always challenged himself to achieve higher than others, so that is what he is doing now. He is achieving his goals to make his family proud as being the first one to seek higher education.

“Be prepared, it is a high intensity college. It is THE state college. It is rigorous so be ready to sacrifice play time”. This is what freshman Daniel Ogletree stated when asked what he would tell others coming to the University of Georgia. Daniel has been living in one of the apartments for a little over a semester and he had great advice to give to upcoming freshmen and some great stories to tell since moving to Athens. He has very big life plans so he wanted a college that would maximize his benefits, but also minimize the cost of out of state tuition so UGA was his top choice. He did say if he had to pick a different school it would be Cornell but not because of “The Office”. Mr. Ogletree had nothing but great things to say about the campus and had great new advice for upcoming freshmen.

When asked where his favorite place on campus was he responded with, “It is hard not say my apartment, but the Tate Student Center and the Plaza are great places to socialize and meet new Bulldogs”. When talking about off place sites to go, he mentioned the best place to shop is Kroger and that there are a lot of antique stores that are fun to go to. He also said his favorite place to dine off campus was the Sr. Soul Mexican Restaurant. He stated, “They’re great! They serve three different types of salsa with your chips and their chimichangas look like the Italian flag because of the order they put the sauces on it”. When getting back on the topic of campus living he mentioned the best advice he would give to any new bulldog. His advice was, “Don’t be afraid to walk around campus. It is a very beautiful place. Go explore, the whole place is literally a garden. Also be sure to download the UGA app because you will not survive without it. Always keep traffic in mind and know every bus stop around you”! It was very fun talking about the different activities in Athens and on campus, but one of the most interesting things we discussed was the Georgia Bulldogs.

Everyone who lives on campus or even attends the campus has their best and worst game day story. For Daniel, his best and worst game day story is the same. His story was a drunk guy came to his door and knocked on it rather hard. He walked to the door and opened it. This drunk guy started to walk in and had to be stopped. Daniel could have sworn he was more than drunk. Daniel told him he was in the wrong place so the guy left and told him and his roommate to be safe. He notified his AR, but then thirty minutes later the guy was back. This time he knocked and was in a wall squat position on a column outside Daniel’s door. Eventually the guy left, but it left a memorable game day story in Daniel’s opinion. When I asked Daniel how is campus life in general on game days he responded with, “Hectic as all hell! There are a lot of druggies, a lot of drunkies, and terrible traffic. That isn’t just for football either, that is for any sport game on campus. If you live in a dorm on campus your parking gets sold to people visiting”. Although listening to all these amazing things about the university was super enjoyable, there were a few negative things mentioned.

Before being asked anything where a negative answer was given, Daniel always mentioned that this was only his opinion and it was really just simple things and he believes it to be a great college. When asked what the worst thing at UGA is he stated, “They waste a lot of money on football. There are new banners for every game on campus. They also have a bad chemistry department because of their funding budget”. When asked about the hype that the school gets he said that the school definitely deserves it, but it is the football that gets all the hype when it should be the academics getting more. He claimed the average student would disagree with this statement, just because part of why they choose the school is because of the famous football team.

We ended the interview with telling some jokes and catching up with each other since he has come back home. He mentioned that he does miss the university and can not wait to go back. As a college student it was interesting to hear what life at another campus was like, especially coming from a best friend. Daniel is a proud Bulldog who is involved with a few things right now, but plans to join more when the school opens back open. For now though, he just focused on doing the best he can in a place new to him.