<p>Can anyone recommend good colleges/universites in Florida?</p>
<p>Your advice is greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>New College of Florida might be worth looking at.</p>
<p>I agree with New College of Florida, but it is very liberal so be sure you'd be happy in that environment. University of Florida, Florida State University, and University of Miami also come to mind.</p>
<p>Well Univ of Florida is ranked the highest in the state academically but is also very tough to get into. Univ of Miami is also a great school but it is private and without a big scholarship, it could break the bank. Look at Univ of N. Florida in Jacksonville which is a gem of a school and was rated #5 in Princeton Review this year for best values for state colleges. Smaller school with approx 15,000 students in a beautiful part of Jacksonville too. Good luck.</p>
<p>UF = Ranked 47th overall in US News</p>
<p>Is in a 4 way tie for the 12 best public university</p>
<p>Ranked 53rd in the world in a International Raking</p>
<p>Only costs around 3k if you are instate</p>
<p>UF is the best in the state.</p>
<p>What exactly are you looking for? Big? Medium? Small? </p>
<p>Univeristy vs LAC? Big city or small town? Tropical or four seasons? </p>
<p>What are you interested in studying?</p>
<p>Give us a little more info.</p>
<p>UF is a very solid public with a diverse collection of top-50 programs. FSU, in the state capital, has several highly ranked programs as well. New College rounds out the publics with quality programs in a LAC environment. For a large private in a semi-urban setting, U Miami is a good choice. Rollins is US-News' top-ranked "southern masters" university, and offers a good option as a small private LAC.</p>
<p>U Florida is currently ranked 50th in the 2006 USNews undergraduate ratings. It's tied with Syracuse University. It accepts 53% of all who apply, as of 2004, the latest data. A 53% acceptance rate is hardly hard to get into. </p>
<p>U Miami, a private school and thus considerably more expensive than either Florida State or Florida, is actually substantially more selective than UF, with an acceptance rate of 42%. U Miami is currently rated 55 in the 2006 USNews undergraduate rating.</p>
<p>Florida State is rated 109 in the 2006 USNews undergraduate ratings. It currently accepts 65% of those who apply.</p>
<p>Regardless, this data means little overall. Go to the university that has what you want, where you want to stay for 4 years, at a cost you can afford.</p>
<p>If you have an idea what you'd like to study, the answer with regard to universities in Florida, will become fairly easy to find.</p>
<p>Chip meet shoulder ;)</p>
<p>Actually in the 2007 US News ranking that was leaked out (and the pages were scanned and are correct).</p>
<p>UF was ranked 47th and is in a four way tie for the 12th best public university.</p>
<p>Here is the 2006 FTIC profile:
Middle 50% of the Class</p>
<pre><code>* High School GPA of 3.9 - 4.4
* SAT of 1220 - 1390
* ACT of 26 - 31
</code></pre>
<p>The 2007 US News Rankings</p>
<p>Uf - 47 (+3)</p>
<p>Um - 54 (+1)</p>
<p>Fsu - 110 (-1)</p>
<p>parent2noles...you have so many good insights, why do you come up with stuff like "U Miami is substantially more selective than UF". That just isn't so....you cannot compare acceptance rates alone to determine "selectivity". Schools like Michigan and Case-Western wouldn't be selective either by that measure alone. US News and Barron's both rate UF in their "Most Selective" category....and UF is widely considered more selective than UM.</p>
<p>A fair question, rogracer. I'm not sure you'll like my answer, but I call them as I see them. I argued for UF over UM in the other thread, but in this case I have to side with UMiami in terms of selectivity of FTIC kids. I guess I made you happy there, and dunkaroo happy here. </p>
<p>In the larger scheme of things I don't think this makes that much difference, much is my view of the rankings business (a for profit business) in general. Most of this is an exercise of general perception.</p>
<p>Historically, UMiami is a school with an out-of-state student population, generally from the northeastern US. UF (and FSU for that matter) are traditional Southern, residential universities that draw very strongly from Florida. In the past, northern schools were regarded as preparing kids better for college than southern schools. Here, UMiami has a better national reputation than UF due to this heritage. This is changing somewhat as of late, but not too much. Bias against Southern schools still exists. UMiami is not a 'Southern' school; it's a Yankee school that happens to be in Florida. </p>
<p>Secondly, both are comparably rated by USNews right now. While I don't agree with the ratings game as I said, perception shows them very similar in FTIC stats. While those of us with attachments (your son and my daughters) to these schools like to split hairs on such stats, others don't really care too much. They're close enough. UMiami's 42% on a similarly sized group of kids beats UF's 53% in terms of perception at least; and maybe even in terms of fact as they have a larger national drawing base, historically, than UF.</p>
<p>So, if we add the two, in the mind of someone not attached to either school we get my assertion UM is more selective. An FSU grad with ties to UF, too, saying that.</p>
<p>Parent2noles...you stated that "UM is significantly more selective than UF".<br>
It is not. Based on the standard metrics for selectivity...GPA..SATs...students in the top 10%, the edge goes to UF. Show me a single college guide that shows UM as the more selective of the two. I don't think you can.</p>
<p>Overall, go with University of Florida and University of Miami. Although Miami has a lower admittance rate, the admitted at University of Florida have higher stats. Therefore, Florida is more difficult to get into.</p>
<p>FSU used to be the third school, but recently University of Central Florida has been closing in as far as academics go.</p>
<p>Stetson has a great law school. </p>
<p>Personally, I can't really recommend New College of Florida, although its a great liberal arts school, it doesn't have a respected reputation compared to the other schools in Florida.</p>
<p>Just curious, whats the opinion of Florida International University?</p>
<p>UCF's academics, in terms of graduate program rankings are not close to Florida State in any category except Engineering. To suggest that UCF is closing in on FSU is quite a superficial view of a 150 year old university. </p>
<p>It's also incorrect.</p>
<p>Rogracer, we're talking about perceptions. I know you want to tease out the metrics and establish your point, and you may well be correct. It doesn't matter in this context. If one wants to live by these stats, then they get what happens when another enitity does a more skillful job with them in the arena of sales, which is what all this stat-publication stuff is all about. </p>
<p>Consider BoredPirate's point, for example: 'UCF is now approaching Florida State because {for an extremely brief period} the FTIC stats are close'. If you believe this, then the entire worth of a major Carnegie Research I university (Florida State) boils down to the GPA and SAT score of the most recent freshman class. Forget graduate programs, and everything else. It's all one category. Frankly, it's just foolish to be so focused on this.</p>
<p>As an alumnus, it's hard to believe we actually nag the FSU administration about such nonsense; only because ninnies trumpet this stuff to us and seek competitive advantage. It's not just FSU that does this - why does UF have the university ranking program? It's to watch, manage and hopefully influence this stuff. You can bet it's there as a reaction to alumni complaining about stats. In contrast, I recently visited Yale University. I was struck by a lot of older football and sports posters where the subliminal point was being courteous and a gentleperson as opposed to an in-your-face outpouring of superiority. </p>
<p>I've said this before, I guess it bears repeating - there are only two major research universities, in terms of ranked graduate programs in Florida. I'm sure you'll agree this is where universities make a difference:</p>
<p>U Florida and Florida State (UF gets the #1 slot, now, because they have the most ranked graduate programs) This includes law school - UF #1 FSU #2 as of late.</p>
<p>U Miami is a distant third, but they have the #2 or #1 med program.</p>
<p>The 'directional' schools:</p>
<p>UCF is not close and is probably behind USF, which has the #3 med program.</p>
<p>NCF is a nice, small specialty school.</p>
<p>FAU, FIU, UWF, UNF, FGCU and the other private schools all have some nice programs. </p>
<p>In general - if a university fits for a student, they're the best in Florida for them.</p>
<p>Interesting that you talk about perception because what I have perceived about Miami is that it is like SMU in Texas. Student population of around 50%out of state, mostly from the north. BUT, it is made up of rich, snobby kids with popped collars that drive BMW's for girls and gas guzzling SUV's for guys. The kids are smart, but not smart enough to get into the northeastern schools that the kids at the top of the class are going, so they pick other schools (including these two southern schools) where there will be enough people exactly like them to make them feel comfortable and superior of the riff-raff surrounding them at "lesser schools" Now, this is totally generalizing, but this is perception. AND, I have to add that I am an SMU grad, so am very well acquainted with the stereotype.</p>
<p>Understood.</p>
<p>If I'd had money in college to have a BMW, or any car for that matter, I'd probably be inclined to pop my collar and sniff at the great unwashed too.</p>
<p>But, were that so, I'd not be able to write here and 'diss' such arrogance today. </p>
<p>Enjoy life! :)</p>