Meet Augusta University’s Class of 2030 

Augusta University welcomes the Class of 2030, which includes undergraduate students from the local CSRA, the continental United States and overseas. Meet the newest additions to the Jaguar family, who will now call AU home for the next four years.

Names 

Olivia is the most popular female name, shared by 10 students, while Ethan is the most popular male name, also with 10 students. Patel is the most common last name with 15 students, while Brown is the second most common with 13 students. 

Hometown breakdown 

AU welcomed 404 local students from the surrounding seven counties, with 301 from Columbia County and 73 from Richmond County. Of those students, 150 are from Evans, Georgia and 107 are from Augusta. Despite so many locals, the average domestic first-year student traveled 95 miles to call AU home.  

Overall, this year’s class represents 14 U.S. states – with 20 from South Carolina and six from Florida – and nine countries.  

Jaguars from afar 

Four students have traveled over 8,000 miles from South Africa, specifically from Tshwane, Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa. Since there is no direct flight from South Africa to the local Augusta Regional Airport, the shortest direct flight from South Africa to the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport takes around 16 hours.  

South Africa is known for natural beauty, rich history and cultural diversity. It is home to 12 official languages: Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi (also known as Sesotho sa Leboa), Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga and, since 2023, South African Sign Language. 

South Africa is home to many familiar names, including Nelson Mandela, Charlize Theron, Tyla, Elon Musk, J.R.R. Tolkien and Desmond Tutu. 

Ages 

The youngest of the incoming first-year students is 16, with seven students born in 2010. As members of Generation Alpha, here are a few highlights of that year:  

• Instagram launched in October 2010.  
• The iPhone 4 launched and introduced FaceTime and Apple’s Retina display, selling more than 1.7 million phones in its first three days. 
• Movies like “Despicable Me,” “Tangled,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1,” “Grown Ups,” and “Dear John” premiered. 
• Television series like “American Pickers,” “Undercover Boss,” “Shake It Up,” “Good Luck Charlie,” “MasterChef,” and “The Great British Bake Off” premiered. 
• 21 sites were inscribed on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s World Heritage List, including the Australian Convict Sites (Australia), Bikini Atoll Nuclear Test Site (Marshall Islands), Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (Mexico), Central Highlands of Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka) and the Churches of Moldavia (Romania). 
• Mattel launched Monster High dolls. 
• Bruno Mars’ “Just the Way You Are” reached number one on the music charts. 

The oldest student in the incoming class is 25 and was born in 2001. As a member of Generation Z, here are a few highlights of that year: 

• Movies like “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,” “Shrek,” “Ocean’s Eleven,” “A Knight’s Tale” and “Spy Kids” premiered. 
• Television series like “The Office” (U.K. version), “Scrubs,” “Lizzie McGuire,” and “Smallville” premiered. 
• Alicia Keys released “Fallin” on her debut album. 
• Apple released its first iPod. 
• Wikipedia launched in January 2001. 
• The original Xbox was launched. 
• “Grand Theft Auto III” was released. 
• 31 sites were inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, including the Old City of Acre (Israel), the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex (Germany), Tsodilo (Botswana), the Alto Douro Wine Region (Portugal) and the Royal Hill of Ambohimanga (Madagascar).  

Popular alma maters 

The local high school bringing in the largest enrollment of first-year students is once again Greenbrier High School in Evans, Georgia, with 90 graduates. 

The non-local high school with the largest enrollment is Brookwood High School in Snellville, Georgia, with 22 graduates.  

Academic averages 

This year’s class includes 167 students with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average from high school. The average grade-point average is 3.65. 

Top majors 

The top declared majors for the Class of 2030 are biology with 232 students, pre-nursing with 211 students, cell and molecular biology with 131 students and business administration with 78 students.