<p>Okay so my last post was regarding Florida colleges; however, the more I do research and look at reviews and such, the more I realize that besides New College...there's really not any great colleges in Florida. No offense to UF, but I have no interest in parties or football and I am reading so much on the lack of actual learning at the college in this state. Plus, I prefer urban settings. </p>
<p>I am conflicted because part of me does not want to take out huge student loans to go to a private liberal arts college like Smith or Whitman but my educational knowledge would benefit so much more.
I visited New College, but I feel that there's not enough emphasis on sciences as I would get if I went to a "sciency" liberal arts college. </p>
<p>Right now I am going to community college on a full free ride with extra money to spend for myself, but as much as I would love to go to Smith...I'm worried about the massive tuition.
What are the financial aid packages like?</p>
<p>UF is a perfectly respectable school for physics, despite the presence of the football-spectator parties and the like that you may want to ignore / avoid.</p>
<p>You can see if each school has a “net price calculator” or “financial aid estimator” on its web site.</p>
<p>Check-out SUNY Geneseo…considered by many as NY’s Public Honors College. Geneseo is a highly selective Public LAC, always ranked as a Best Value College even for OOS and it is a Science school. The Physics department is very strong and Geneseo graduates quite a bit of physics majors for its size. </p>
<p>You mention that you are interested in an urban setting and it sounds like you want a smaller college rather than a big state school. Depending on what your goals are for after college, consider one of the smaller AITU ([Association</a> of Independent Technological Universities: AITU](<a href=“http://theaitu.org%5DAssociation”>http://theaitu.org)) schools which are located in major metropolitan areas. These usually have research-oriented physics and biology programs and many of them, like Illinois Tech where I am a physics professor, give quite generous financial aid packages, making the total cost quite affordable.</p>
<p>The undergraduate education you can get at a tech school, a large state university or a small liberal arts college is very similar. It mostly depends on the effort you put into it yourself. Look for a school where you feel comfortable (size, type of student body) and which can meet your financial needs without putting you into a huge debt. Then once you decide, don’t look back!</p>
<p>I am not too familiar with Florida Institute of Technology but just looking quickly at their web page, it seems that they offer degrees up to the Ph.D. in the sciences and their faculty is good-sized. It is somewhat lower ranked in US News and it seems that it is strongly oriented toward aviation and aerospace. The university is about 50 years old and so is not as mature as some others. It is a private institution but is not in the AITU group. From what I read, it is strongly business oriented.</p>
<p>I am sure that one can get a good undergraduate education at FIT.</p>