The Hope scholarship covered my nieces 4 1/2 year ride at Georgia Tech. Even paid for the cost of books.

Let me rephrase, this is not a free ride for everyone. It is for everyone that qualifies and is a Georgia resident with a high enough GPA.

My husband and I are considering moving to the Atlanta area also with our 16 month old son. We were looking at Peachtree City, as it seems very nice and has good schools. How did you come across the Cobb county area? Are the schools better there? If anyone has any comments on Peachtree City positive or negative I would appreciate it. We are NY ers who cannot afford it any longer! I am somewhat concerned about raising our son in an environment that may not offer as much culturally but we thought that we could give our son a better quality of life in that area. Any comments?

I think Atlanta is not being represented fairly. The city is a lot more sophisticated than people think. The High Museum cannot compare in anyway to the great art museums and it doesn't try. It has a great section of southern art and ideas, I would take any out of town visitor there. I live in Virginia Highland and do not have children but I often see parents walking thier children to the beautiful PUBLIC middle school down the street from me. There are also three movie theaters (two art) within a one mile radius from my apartment.
To enjoy this city you have to give it a chance and be open minded.

This is something that erks the heck out of me! Heres the facts the media only mentions in "fine print". Georgia has SIXTY SIX PERCENT of its students taking the SAT. Almost FIFTY PERCENT of the states had less than TWENTY PERCENT taking the test. TWENTY FOUR PERCENT of the nation has less than TEN PERCENT participation!! Come on folks, this is "simple math" so to speak. Very oblique imho.

Stiil love Hotlanta and always will! I lived in the suberbs of 2 metro areas, Philly and NYC. Had to say for over all quality of life(housing prices, weather, good airport) and friendly people, Atlanta wins hands down! It is No wonder so many corporations made their headqtrs there! Good jobs are not hard to find IMO. My son has a great job there!

Again, I feel the need to state accurately what the Hope Scholarship in Georgia covers and does not cover because it does not cover ALL college costs.

The Hope pays tuition, and fees (such as transportation and health fees). It may or may not cover the cost of books and supplies; those expenses are capped at $150 per semester.

Other expenses such as meals, incidentals, and room rent are not covered. Therefore, I would not term the Hope a free ride by any measuring device. It does help greatly; without it, many deserving students would have a very difficult time finding the money to fund 4 years of college.

For Hope scholars, the pressure to maintain grades is considerable. Each Hope scholar must maintain a 3.0 GPA which is evaluated every 30 semester hours. That way a bad first semester does not always doom a student by causing him or her to lose the Hope the first year.

It also puts pressure on grade inflation.

How hot does it get in Atlanta? Is it unbearably hot and humid and for what period of time during the summer?

Atlanta never gets really unbearably hot and humid, IMO. It's not nearly so bad as New Orleans, for example. You can find the facts re average highs and so forth by searching the web---it certainly never gets into the 100's, and anything over the mid 90's is exceptional and not usually sustained.

August tends to be the worst, mostly I think because we've had warm weather at that point since April and are sort of getting tired of it. Fall lasts a long time, with real winter (such as it is) not really starting until after Christmas.

You will have air-conditioning here, and you will start using it much earlier than seems appropriate: we've already used ours a few times this spring as I sleep better when I'm cool.

You'll also dress with an eye to comfort---women tend to forego stockings unless they work in a very formal office.

Peachtree City is considered a nice community, but a long way out of town, and on the south side of town at that (good for the airport, bad for everything else). You might want to consider in-town options if you're interested in art, restaurants, etc. If you're considering an in-town neighborhood you'll want to work with an in-town real estate agent who know the different neighborhoods.

I am not sure what the beef is with the Hope scholarship but I can tell you that it certainly paid for all of my husband's expenses when he was getting his BA and MA. Yes he did have his own place to live so he did not need to worry about housing and food, however, the fact that his books (yes it covered 100% of his books) and his tution were paid was a major bonus.

Having just moved from Atlanta, I was pretty sure the Hope Scholarship is only eligible for undergraduate degrees. And how $300 a year covers all book expenses with today's textbook prices is beyond me.

Still, it's a pretty good deal for residents looking to go to a public school while taking advantage of mathmatically-challenged lottery players.

As to the original question, if you're considering either living in Atlanta proper or elsewhere in Fulton county, be ready for unresponsive, inefficient and quarrlesome local goverments. There's a lot of poverty in Atlanta and Fulton and the local governments are reluctant to enforce quality of life laws. Things are slowly getting better with the new mayor and police chief, but there are still lots of rich vs poor, white vs black and slum lord vs homeowner battles going on there.

We chose Cobb county because the schools in Marietta, Kennesaw, and some other areas are so highly rated. I have spoken to a few people I know who have moved to that area, and they say great things about Cobb and Cherokee. Cherokee is just a bit too far out of town for us. Any big city is going to have issues of poverty, crime, and some schools that are less than desireable. We just want to be in an area with warmer weather and more affordable housing. I am not too big into arts, but with the Six Flags parks, Children's Museum, aquarium, and other child friendly entertainment, it seems like a perfect fit for our lifestyle.

Last time I checked, the most important part of a higher education was the education half and not room and board. I'm not sure where the degree was given for room and board but I'm sure there must be one because it seems to be very high priority for you to keep pointing out.

Being that I've put one stepchild through college, in the middle of putting another through college, and am staring down the barrell of another, I'd love to have some of my kids higher education paid.

I'm sure if you asked someone who really wanted a college education, they'd tell you they would figure out a way to pay for room and board.

No wait, I got my last job because I can pay my rent and feed myself.

I do not think Hope pays for graduate degrees anymore but it did at the time. I agree with GoTravel in that for us, we would have had to pay for our housing and food regardless of whether he got his degree or not so that was not important. What was important was that his tuition was paid. It did cover his books because we shopped around and bought used books when applicable.

We're originally from Chicago area, moved to Tampa, decided we had "over-corrected" in our search for warmer weather...then got the opportunity to move to Atlanta 6 years ago.

This area is beautiful, especially in the Spring when they say "Atlanta is wearing her prom dress." Right now we have millions of azalea bushes and dogwood trees in bloom everywhere. Atlanta is lucky to get both the northern and the southern plants blooming here!

The topography is wonderful, too. Lots of hills, curvy roads, forests and streams. Not flat-as-a-pancake like Florida.

We might be a few hours away from the ocean, but we have a wonderful resource in Lake Lanier. About 500+ miles of shoreline, virtually no commercial development, lots of trees, and many boat ramps. If you like the mountains, the Smoky Mountains are only about two hours away. A great weekend cabin getaway.

Restaurants and shopping are great. Many innovative restaurants in Midtown and Buckhead areas.

We live in Forsyth County (About 25 - 30 miles north of the city) where taxes are low and there is a small town atmosphere. My husband (a realtor) found us a fantastic 3 acre wooded lot with a creek in back where we built our dream house. All this only two miles from GA-400, a major road into Atlanta. I think you will love it here. We feel that we found our true "hometown".

I did the opposite -- lived in Atlanta and relocated up north. Granted, it was several years ago, but I've been back to Atlanta a few times since then and found it to be pretty much the same as when I left, except bigger and busier. I always found Atlanta to be a city in search of an identity. It's in the south but not really southern. It has no natural water to speak of (Lake Lanier is manmade). It has no sense of history -- a major portion of Atlanta's income is from conventions and they spare no expense making the city look as glitzy and modern as possible at the expense of quaintness and "soul".

I'll defer to the High Museum, but that's not something you'll be visiting every day. Atlanta is much more about the World of Coca Cola than the High Museum. Your typical day will be spent in your new home with all the modern conveniences in a sea of Walmart, Target, KMart, shopping malls and fast food. If you work any distance from your home be prepared for a major traffic filled journey.

The black/white thing definitely exists there -- one group lives way out in the suburbs to the north and other to the south -- but for the most part it's a subtle, unspoken thing. Nothing is overt.

Overall, all the people are very friendly.

There is a good bit of crime for a city of its size (not sure where they are statistically, it's probably better now) but, like everywhere else you just have to know where not to go. In your day-to-day living you'd have to be plain unlucky to be a crime victim in Atlanta.

The weather is generally good with a few very hot and cold days but pleasant most of the time.

Don't worry about finding a home -- there are nice ones all over in all price ranges, but try to pick one near your job in an area with good schools. If you can pull it off, you'll probably like it.

Personally if I had it to do over, I would've lived in Tampa, the oppressive summer heat notwithstanding. They're on the water, have plenty to do in the way of sports, great restaurants and you're not far from the Keys, Miami, Orlando, Daytona or Tallahassee -- something good in every direction.