<p>I was recently accepted to UF and just have a couple questions for any of you who may be able to answer them!</p>
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<li>I am from NJ and my mom is concerned that if I go to UF I may be in "culture shock" because the majority of students who attend Florida are in state. I don't mean to sound ignorant at all, but is this possible? </li>
<li>I know that Gainesville is sort of in the middle of nowhere. Does anyone know how difficult it is to get to and from an airport? </li>
<li>Since UF is made up of a majority of in state students, do a lot of them come home for the weekends? or do most of them stay on campus? </li>
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<p>I was also accepted to University of Miami and am coming down to visit both of them in 2 weeks to decide which will be a better fit, but if anybody could answer my questions it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!</p>
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<li><p>Most are instate because it is really selective, so students want to go to a selective, cheap school. So, yes, a lot are instate and there might be some culture shock.</p></li>
<li><p>No idea, but yes, it’s in the middle of nowhere.</p></li>
<li><p>Not a lot of people live in Gainesville, so no. Unlike NJ, where you can get from one side of the state to the other pretty quickly, Florida is hugeeeeeeeeee. A lot of the people are from South Florida, so no, they don’t drive down because it would take a lot of driving. Most of them stay on campus. </p></li>
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<p>Source: I’m an instate student who got accepted yesterday and have lived in FL all my life.</p>
<p>It’s a short taxi ride from the Gainesville airport to the campus. If renting a car, you’ll find it easy to find the campus.</p>
<p>Below are some example flights Info from Newark to Gainesville. Looks like it cost somewhere from $330 to $350 for a round trip ticket, and flights have one stop (typically in Atlanta). Not too bad, sometimes these flights to regional airports can be way over priced.</p>
<p>The state is huge and diverse, with a lot of transplants from the NE. I don’t expect you’ll experience much culture shock. It doesn’t have the same “southern” feel as, say an University of Alabama (and with over 50% of the students being OOS, Alabama isn’t as “southern” as it used to be), Auburn, University of South Carolina or Clemson. Your biggest issue will be living so far from home, which would be the case with any southeastern schools. </p>
<p>@arrozconleche
If you’ve watched Breaking Bad and you know what my user name is, then you’d understand what I mean by “ringing the bell at you.”</p>
<p>During long week ends / breaks (even 4 days of no school) you will notice:
Parking spaces become suspiciously available.
You hear absolute silence in most roads you walk.
You get the feeling to put on a stranded person costume and pretend to be the last survivor after an apocalypse.</p>
<p>The reasons I say this is because Gainesville will become so empty, your nose will bleed.</p>
<p>I don’t know about culture shock - Florida is not the south, and many of the southerners I have met since I moved to Central Florida are from southern New Jersey Gainesville is in a really beautiful, peaceful part of Florida (actually some hills up there) and maybe it is more “southern” or “midwestern” because it is off of I-75 rather than I-95. I heard a lot more “yes sirs” and “yes ma’ams” when we visited Gainesville, and that could be an advantage thanks to that proverbial southern hospitality. I left California when I graduated from high school many years ago to go to college for a while in another part of Florida (also off of I-75) and could not afford to go home at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I had many Florida friends who offered to take me home over those breaks. So, if you go to UF, just make plans to make some Florida friends :)</p>
<p>Miami - well, you are going to get the I-95 experience, which would not be so bad if more of the New Yorkers and other Northeast transplants knew how to drive Don’t get offended. I am a California native and Californians are driving snobs, because we know how to handle the freeways and consider ourselves the best drivers in the world (we are LOL), and here in Florida, I am on I-95 every day, and with all the elderly drivers who should have given up their licenses, and all the New York plates, who drive aggressively and poorly, switching lanes and tailing, well, it just drives me crazy. I have driven from home to Miami only a few times even though the drive is not that long, because I cannot stand to be on the road with those guys. You will get your familiar big city, congested experience down there, and definitely a lot of diversity, and more near-naked people - it’s hot down there! But the water sure is beautiful.</p>
<p>Congratulations on your admissions. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Thank you to everyone for your responses! I know both are amazing schools and I feel as if I would get the overall better college experience at UF rather than at the U. I am a huge fan of Gator athletics and love the school. The only thing I’m weary about is that I am out of state and Gainesville is sort of in the middle of no where. I have family in Ft. Lauderdale which is making me lean towards Miami a little bit more considering that the U is also in a metropolitan city and near a major airport which would make it easier to get to and from Jersey. There are things I like about UF that i wont find anywhere else (great school spirit & the “real” college experience) but things I like about the U (small class sizes & in a major city) so I am really torn between the two. I will be down in two weeks to visit both schools so hopefully that will help make my decision a little bit easier. </p>
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<li><p>I expect there will definitely be a culture shock. It wouldn’t be anything so bad that you should make a decision over it. It might be different than what you are used to, but I expect it would be a positive experience because the people in the South can be very friendly and polite. I am from further south in Florida and was surprised how different the culture is there compared to where I am from. But south Florida isn’t really like “the South” and Gainesville is. </p></li>
<li><p>I can’t really help you with this one, I haven’t paid any attention to airports nearby. </p></li>
<li><p>I agree with HectorSalamanca, Gainesville is SO empty on the weekends. Tons of students are from in state, and mostly from 1 or 2 hours away. I’ve walked around campus on the weekends and there’s hardly anyone there. I can’t imagine it’s that different at any other school though. If a school as big as UF is so empty on the weekends, I don’t see how any other school would be different. </p></li>
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<p>I hope you enjoy your tours and good luck!! </p>
<p>@dflorida thank you! so even on regular weekends (2 days) a lot of students go home? thats my #1 concern because I will be 800 miles from home and will not be able to come home often and I don’t want to be one of the few left on campus. Like you said, I imagine that this would be the same way with any public state universities. Im coming down to visit both, but at this point its looking like Miami might be the better fit because most of the students who attend the U are from out of state (especially the Northeast) so I know that I will not be alone </p>
<p>Approximately 7,500 students live in single-student residence halls (mostly Freshmen). Nearly 1,700 students and their families also live on campus in 980 apartments arranged in Village Communities.</p>
<p>So, close to 38 to 39,000 students live off campus. This makes the campus seem dead on weekends. Gainesville, the town, only really seems dead on long 3+ day weekends. You really want to live in one of the “Freshman” dorms, which are much more sociable. </p>
<p>Check out the UF calendar for events (including weekends):</p>
<p>I think you’ll do fine at either school. However, you will need to join some clubs and make an effort to meet new folks and form friendships. At UF, you’ll have 6,400 other freshman, all trying to do the same thing. :)</p>
<p>Yeah, even when the weekends are 2 days the campus is really empty! It’s a weird feeling that no one is out walking around, but there are still people around to hang out with. It puzzles me how it is so empty with so many students living on campus, but it’s easy to make friends here so I’m sure you will find people to hang out with on the weekends! A lot of students live off campus too, so there will be enough students in town to keep it from being too boring.
An idea would be to take a tour on a Friday morning so you can see campus while all the students are here, and stay at Gainesville overnight and just drive around Saturday morning so you can get an idea of what it’s like on a weekend. Our spring break is the first week of March, so if you want to get a true feeling of what campus is like, you would want to come a few days before or a few days after spring break is over. A lot of students can leave a couple days early and get back later, so I would just avoid visiting during that time period.
I’m not sure how valid this is because I haven’t been to UM, but I would guess that there could be more to do there on weekends because Miami is a bigger city than Gainesville. Even if a lot of students left on weekends I would think there would be things to do around town on the weekends. </p>
Gainesville is in a really beautiful, peaceful part of Florida (actually some hills up there) and maybe it is more “southern” or “midwestern” because it is off of I-75 rather than I-95. I heard a lot more “yes sirs” and “yes ma’ams” when we visited Gainesville, and that could be an advantage thanks to that proverbial southern hospitality. I left California when I graduated from high school many years ago to go to college for a while in another part of Florida (also off of I-75) and could not afford to go home at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I had many Florida friends who offered to take me home over those breaks. So, if you go to UF, just make plans to make some Florida friends :)</p>