Darton State College

Darton State College is a two-year unit of the University System of Georgia, located in Albany (population 100,000), the hub of southwest Georgia, surrounded by rural cotton, pecan and peanut farms.

Darton prides itself on student success, as measured by its two-year graduates' high pass rates on state licensing tests and their success after transferring to four-year institutions.

On the Darton campus students pursue 73 two-year transfer and career associate degrees. In addition Darton offers distance learning courses through local Channel 19 telecasts, web-based instruction, GSAMS video-conferencing, and at selected regional sites off the main campus. Darton College is a recognized leader in state distance learning initiatives, and core curriculum courses in many programs of study are available through distance learning options.

Darton's allied health and nursing programs provide southwest Georgia with most of its health professionals - including 70 percent of all the nurses in Albany hospitals and 31 percent of all registered nurses in the hospitals of 38 southwest Georgia counties.

More than half of the area's high-school graduates choose Darton College, and about 50 percent of Darton's 4,126 students are under age 24. Day students tend to be younger than the more non-traditional evening enrollees.

Cavalier ArenaThe 180-acre campus on Albany's western edge includes a 470-seat theater, state-of-the-art library, fitness center, computer labs, and sports facilities such as tennis and racquetball courts, an indoor swimming pool, a nature trail and ball fields.

A wide range of extracurricular activities includes groups such as the Cultural Exchange Club, Book Talk and the Darton Association of Nursing Students, as well as intramural athletics, league tournament athletics, community service associations and honor societies.

All students are encouraged to participate in an ample array of Georgia Junior College Athletic Association/National Junior College Athletic Association intercollegiate athletics, including men's and women's soccer, golf and swimming, women's softball and basketball, and men's baseball.

The institution was founded as Albany Junior College in 1963 and offered its first classes in 1966. In 1987, a committee of faculty, staff, students and community members chose the name Darton College. "Darton" is an old English word meaning "town by the water" - which connotes Albany's location on the Flint River.