Florida State VS. University of Central Florida?

College Search & Selection
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<p>Okay there has been a serious debate brewing about which institution is actually better.</p>

<p>FSU was founded in 1851, has a $550 million endowment, has numerous ranked Graduate Programs, has name recognition, and has lots of famous alumni.</p>

<p>Florida</a> State University - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>

<p>UCF was founded in the 1963, is an Urban Campus, has a $116 million endowment, has no ranked Graduate Programs, and has not produced many alumni. They do however have a descent engineering program, and just rescently got a Medical School.</p>

<p>University</a> of Central Florida - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</p>

<p>--Please settle our debate..... Which one is better???</p>

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<p>Please non-Floridians only…</p>

<p>We don’t want any bias…</p>

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<p>wowwwwwwww</p>

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<p>Hint: to be taken seriously by the “academic world,” don’t cite Wikipedia as a source.</p>

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<p>I am floridian but I am not biased. I would say FSU is right now, but UCF is a very on the move university. UCF I would say has the advantage of location, its in Orlando, more options for things to do, and closer to the population centers in florida. While I don’t reallly like UCF’s location there are many kid who really like its closer proximity to home. My friend got into UF but chose UCF because he said its CS program was better, he liked the orlando area better, and it was much closer to south florida. FSU is a much more established university but many don’t like that its way up in the panhandle. IE until a few years ago UCF wasn’t even well known even within Florida, but last year as many kids from my school went to UCF as those that went to FSU. I really think as UCF becomes more established its location will give it a competitive advantage over FSU and maybe many many years down the road UF.</p>

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<p>“don’t cite Wikipedia as a source”</p>

<p>I agree, but I needed to give a quick reference. What source would you suggest?</p>

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<p>skibird your post is somewhat condescending he included wikipedia to help those unfamiliar with the universities get the gist of each school and while wikipedia is not always entirely accurate, he’s not asking us to write a research paper on the universities, he’s asking us to give our opinions. Besides most of the info seems pretty accurate.</p>

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<p>This is not a joke. It’s seriously being debated.</p>

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<p>I’m totally biased towards Florida State, but even so FSU’s better, now and in the future. :)</p>

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<p>As a Floridian, I can tell you that every single person I talked to who didn’t get into UF or didn’t apply there (and wanted to stay in Florida for financial reasons) chose FSU over UCF this year. This is not true for all people, obviously, it’s just my personal experience. Last year, we had a few more people choose UCF, but I think the trend shows FSU>UCF in most of our student’s minds.</p>

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<p>FSU is slightly better than UCF, although UCF has keenly been on the rise.</p>

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<p>Depending on your area of interest, I’d say you’d be crazy to choose UF over FSU. Each has undisputed areas of strength in Florida.</p>

<p>There’s no comparison between FSU, a state university and UCF a state regional university. Sure, UCF has improved on some FTIC stats and progressed from a US News Tier 4 to Tier 3, but so FSU has increased in the same stats and is still ahead of UCF.</p>

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<p>Let’s consider some differences that make FSU a better academic university than UCF. I’ll go along the format of my earlier remarks (this was copied from another post).</p>

<ol>
<li>Better Academics- Established by a 10 point SAT score difference?</li>
</ol>

<p>SAT score is only one rather simplistic factor. Here are some additional things to consider: The faculty-student ratio is better at FSU (fsu-21.3; ucf-28.8; uf-21.7). This means smaller classes and better chance of work with faculty. FSU has a better faculty-student ratio than UF, btw.</p>

<p>Overall GPA is higher at FSU than UCF.</p>

<p>FSU has higher freshman retention and graduation rates than UCF and is best in Florida at retaining minority students - better than both UF (only by a fraction) and FAMU.</p>

<p>FSU has an Honors program that allows early entry for extremely well-qualified students into the medical and legal professional schools after undergraduate preparation. FSU actively encourages undergraduate research (my daughter participated in this and will be published for basic research in biochemistry as an undergrad) - see: [fsu.edu</a> | Honors Medical and Legal Scholars Programs](<a href=“http://honors.fsu.edu/medical_legal.html]fsu.edu”>http://honors.fsu.edu/medical_legal.html)</p>

<p>The notion that UCF has “better sciences” than FSU is false. If UCF has any advantage over FSU, it is in engineering - that’s it. Not chemistry, physics, biology, or whatever else. Here are FSU rankings in the Arts and Sciences: [FSU</a> Highlights](<a href=“Rankings | Florida State University”>Rankings | Florida State University) Note that Taxol, an effective anti-cancer drug, was developed at FSU, not UCF or even UF for that matter. FSU also has the vast majority of the National High Magnetic Laboratory (a program FSU and UF won through peer-reviewed competition from MIT) in Tallahassee. The Mag Lab (see: [National</a> High Magnetic Field Laboratory](<a href=“http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/]National”>http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/) ) is the ONLY national laboratory in Florida. FSU is equal to, or better than UF in physics. Meteorology is another notable FSU strength in the sciences, and is a nationally well-regarded program - see: [Academic</a> Programs - Florida State University Meteorology Department](<a href=“http://www.met.fsu.edu/index.pl/acprograms]Academic”>http://www.met.fsu.edu/index.pl/acprograms)</p>

<p>We should note that FSU is the historic liberal arts university of Florida. This is why FSU has professional, world-class programs in the Arts and controls the State Art Museum of Florida (see: [The</a> John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art-Sarasota-Bradenton-Tampa-Florida](<a href=“http://www.ringling.org/]The”>http://www.ringling.org/) ). For rankings, see: Music - [FSU</a> Highlights](<a href=“Rankings | Florida State University”>Rankings | Florida State University) , Theatre and Dance - [FSU</a> Highlights](<a href=“Rankings | Florida State University”>Rankings | Florida State University)</p>

<p>In Business, UF ranks better than FSU, but only in certain areas. For FSU’s rankings in Business see: [FSU</a> Highlights](<a href=“Rankings | Florida State University”>Rankings | Florida State University) Note that this includes the famous FSU Hospitality program, rated in the Top 5 nationally.</p>

<p>By now, you’re starting to understand so here’s the link where you may peruse all the rankings: [FSU</a> Highlights](<a href=“http://www.fsu.edu/highlights/rankings.html]FSU”>Rankings | Florida State University)</p>

<ol>
<li>Tradition- Of what? Oh yeah, Football.</li>
</ol>

<p>See Academics, above. Also see where FSU won the Alpha Chapter (this means the first chapter) of Phi Beta Kappa in Florida. Alpha is at FSU (1935); Beta is at UF (1938); whoops! UCF does not appear to have a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. See: [Phi</a> Beta Kappa Society | Chapter Chronology A-M](<a href=“http://staging.pbk.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Chapter_Chronology&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=1623]Phi”>http://staging.pbk.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Chapter_Chronology&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=1623)
I guess that takes care of academic traditions. FSU’s history is decently discussed in Wikipedia - see: [History</a> of Florida State University - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Florida_State_University]History”>History of Florida State University - Wikipedia) , the free encyclopedia and from the university website: [History[/url</a>]</p>

<ol>
<li>Sports- FOOTBALL</li>
</ol>

<p>FSU has won 11 national championships to date - only two of which were in football. The most recent were in Track and Field; earlier ones were won in Golf, Softball and Gymnastics. FSU has won many conference championships - see: [url=<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_State_Seminoles]Florida”>Florida State Seminoles - Wikipedia]Florida</a> State Seminoles - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://www.fsu.edu/about/history.html]History[/url”>History | Florida State University) . Sports are important to FSU as reflected in FSU’s motto of Vires, Artes, Mores.</p>

<ol>
<li>Flagship University- FOR FOOTBALL</li>
</ol>

<p>FSU and UF share this historic title (flagship) in Florida. The law that ultimately created UF also created FSU. There are no others in Florida. We should note that this has been recognized by at least one Florida governor - see: [Florida’s</a> Twenty Percent Plan](<a href=“http://www.puaf.umd.edu/puaf650-Fullinwider/handouts-AA-Florida%20Plan.htm]Florida’s”>http://www.puaf.umd.edu/puaf650-Fullinwider/handouts-AA-Florida%20Plan.htm)
and in the recent Differential Tuition Law - where only FSU and UF qualified for the 40% tuition differential.</p>

<ol>
<li>Compact Campus- If this really mattered, UF would be among the likes of FIU and FAU</li>
</ol>

<p>As the oldest university in Florida, FSU has been landlocked and forced to develop in a fairly small area not unlike older urban universities. FSU buys additional land when it can, but it is very compact and well suited to walking and bikes. Note that UCF has 16 different campuses, so you better have a car.</p>

<ol>
<li>Graduate Programs- No complaint here, but we’re analyzing undergraduate programs.</li>
</ol>

<p>Graduate programs greatly influence undergraduate programs. Many basic-level classes are taught by graduate students. This matters.</p>

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<p>I think Parent states the facts pretty good.</p>

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<p>FSU was also rated #15 nationally for best value by Kiplinger.</p>

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<p>Florida State</p>

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<p>where is the love?</p>

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<p>It’s a shame being a double legacy at UCF won’t help one bit on a med school application…</p>

<p>But I applied to FSU…just because my parents wanted me to apply to a Florida university.</p>

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<p>phonyreal-
UCF med’s inaugural cohort (fall 2009) will all recieve full tuition scholarships, pretty sweet deal, you should still apply.</p>

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<p>If someone woulf please tell me in which of the 2 i would be better off studying engineering (mainly comp and electrical)</p>

<p>Yes i know engineeringh as been mentioned before, but i want to know based on research, recognition, opportunity, etc.</p>

<p>thanks</p>