<p>Please tour yourself!</p>
<p>My wife and I visited NCF this past weekend. I saw no filth or graffiti. We did not go into the Hamilton Center which houses the dining hall and student center nor did we go into the dorms, however. The story may be different there.</p>
<p>My wife did comment that the grass was less than lush green, but, being from Naples, we understand that, absent irrigation, the greenness of the grass is a function of rainfall. The "winter" and spring are low rainfall months, while rain is (overly) abundant in the summer.</p>
<p>The area around the college does not appear to be a bad one. It's located on Tamiami Trail (US 41) which once was the main highway between Miami and Tampa. The Sarasota airport is adjacent to campus on the east side of 41. There are some residences immediately north of campus that appear to be middle-middle class homes. They do not have bars on the windows that are ubiquitous in the Miami area.</p>
<p>The landscaping of US 41 is minimal. I would rank the overall appearance of the US 41 area north of campus as not nearly as nice as US 41 in Naples, but better than US 41 in Fort Myers. We did not drive south of campus on 41.</p>
<p>My wife and I both attended older universities located where there are hills and lots of deciduous trees; NCF does not have the same campus "feel" as the schools of which we are alumni. But it is very nice and Sarasota Bay is breathtaking.</p>
<p>I guess it's a matter of economic priorities, though: lush grass or low student:faculty ratio.</p>
<p>We met a professor, Dr. McCord, who could not have been more gracious. He was happy to answer our questions about NCF even though he was not then (Sunday afternoon) on-campus for admissions purposes.</p>
<p>I highly recommend you visit for yourself and seek out input from the people you meet on campus.</p>
<p>Our D may be your D's classmate this fall. My D "would probably fit right in" as well.</p>