The importance of an urban laboratory is essential for a graduate education in city and regional planning.  As one of the nation's fastest growing cities, Atlanta offers students the opportunity to learn, first-hand, about issues affecting urban areas.  Local professionals and officials look to Georgia Tech's students for assistance with numerous planning issues.  Additionally, the program's urban location offers many options for students looking for internship and co-op opportunities.  Students have easy access, via the bus and rapid rail systems, to both the richness and the planning challenges associated with any large city.

Atlanta is a city that has been able to combine considerable economic growth and vitality with its natural beauty.  The Atlanta metropolitan region has over 3.5 million inhabitants and a continually expanding job market.  The boom in residential, commercial, and office development is unparalleled.   Planners are involved in this activity in a myriad of ways, and for planners few places in the United States are more exciting.  Though the pace of development must inevitably slow, planning activity is likely to continue at a very high rate. Georgia Tech students, faculty, and alumni contribute to and are enriched by this vibrant community.

In addition, the City of Atlanta offers a wide range of amenities: shops, restaurants, coffeehouses and places of entertainment; sporting events by major league teams in football, baseball, hockey, and basketball; cultural offerings in the visual and performing arts; and parks, wooded areas, libraries and places of historic interest. Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains at an elevation of 1,000 feet, the City has a moderate summer and a mild winter climate, ideal for outdoor activities year-round.  The City's Chattahoochee River and its large lakes - Lanier, Allatoona, and Spivey - provide opportunities for swimming, canoeing, sailing and fishing.  Two hours away by automobile are mountains that provide hiking, camping, skiing and some of the country's best whitewater rafting.   Historic Savannah and the beaches and islands of both the Gulf and Atlantic coasts are a half-day's drive away.

• Corporate Guides to Atlanta: Yahoo! Atlanta, The Rough Guide: Atlanta, Digital City

• Access Atlanta Local news and entertainment

• Creative Loafing Atlanta's alternative newspaper

• Atlanta's neighborhoods: Virginia Highlands, Little Five Points, Midtown, Home Park, East Atlanta, Buckhead, Sweet Auburn, Candler Park