Atlanta is home to some of the nation's best universities and colleges. The most prominent is probably Emory University, located just east of downtown in Druid Hills. Emory is a private research university with a top medical school, and is home to the excellent (and free) Michael C. Carlos Museum of Art and Archaeology . There are two undergraduate colleges, Emory College and Oxford College (in Oxford, Georgia); graduate and professional programs include the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Medical School, Law School, Goizueta Business School, Woodruff School of Nursing, Allied Health School, and the Rollins School of Public Health. Admission is highly competitive.

In the heart of downtown is Georgia State University, a predominantly commuter university without a centralized campus. Georgia Tech, just across I-75/85 from midtown, is one of the US' best tech schools, and is also a basketball powerhouse.

Among the most distinguished of Atlanta's educational institutions are Morehouse College (men) and Spelman College (women), the best-known historically black colleges in the United States. Morehouse and Spelman are part of the Atlanta University Center, a consortium of historically black colleges that includes Clark Atlanta University and Morris Brown College.

Atlanta is also home to Agnes Scott College, a women's college located in Decatur. Specialized colleges and universities in the Atlanta area include the Columbia Theological Seminary, the Art Institute of Atlanta, and the Atlanta College of Art.

High Schools: In addition to the public school system, Atlanta is well-supplied with private high schools of all types. Well-known parochial/religious high schools include St. Pius X (Catholic); Marist (Catholic); W.D. Muhammad (Muslim); Landmark School (Evangelical Christian); and Yeshiva High School (Jewish). The best-known of the prep schools are Woodward Academy, the Westminster Schools, Pace Academy, and the Lovett School. The Paideia School, Atlanta's 'hippie prep school' is a funky cousin to this group. All the schools in this category are expensive and highly competitive.

Elementary Schools The City of Atlanta operates a struggling public school system; conditions are somewhat better in the county school systems, particularly the wealthier Cobb and Dekalb counties. The City of Decatur runs an excellent small system of public neighborhood schools. Atlanta abounds in small Catholic elementary schools; the junior editions of the prep schools above take in large numbers of wealthier students.