FSU is Underrated Compared to UFL and U Miami

Colleges and Universities A-Z Florida State University
1

<p>For you ratings fans I've posted many different ratings here about Florida State compared to U Florida and the private school U Miami (Florida).</p>

<p>While I personally dislike ratings services, I realize that many use them to make decisions (at least in part) about schools.</p>

<p>After this review I've come to the conclusion FSU is underrated, mostly due to hard-to-discern political reasons, especially when compared to UFL and UMiami.</p>

<p>If considering any of these schools head-to-head, I strongly suggest you visit each one and speak with the respective staff in detail about your educational goals. Don't use ratings services as your sole guide - they aren't accurate enough and overlook many advantages a school has to offer. </p>

<p>Remember also that ratings fluctuate annually with the success of a school's sports teams and that FSU and UFL are not meant to be clones of each other - they each have areas where they are best. Discern what is sales hype and what is meaningful.</p>

2

<p>as an incomming gator, it seems that most of your ratings are significantly biased, UF has the edge over FSU in the majority of programs offered, and in overall undergraduate program. That's not to take away from FSU though, if you look at their film and general school of arts is far and away better than UF, as is possibly political science and the odd field here and there, but I have ae feeling if we posted a FULL list of EVERY ranking UF would have the edge in at least 2/3 of them, if not 3/4. </p>

<p>Again, not to take away from FSU, it's still a good school and I'd encourage anyone to visit, the term underrated though I don't think is applicable, I don't know how poorly most people think of it but seeing those ratings has not changed my opinion at all.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the view from Gainesville, Dan. Good luck in your studies at UF!</p>

4

<p>I've lived in Gainesville all my life, and while I in no way plan to attend UF EVER... it is a great school. As far as Journalism (top 5 in the country for at least 20-30 years), Med school, architecture, business and finance, Law, etc. UF is a wonderful school and does indeed surpass FSU. However, FSU has UF in any Theatre-type major, Film (editing, directing), Creative Writing (number 1 or 2 in the country right now I believe), Music, Art, etc. You can immedeately see how the two schools are classified. And as far as who's better, that's a ridiculous argument. Just depends who you are and what you want to do.</p>

5

<p>exactly, that's the way I see it, and I in no way look "down" on FSU (Aside from the sports programs, I'll be more than willing to harass you guys WHEN we beat you in football this year) and have many friends who will attend FSU in the fall. For me, a creative major was the last thing on my mind and being much more business/engineering oriented UF was by far the better choice for me, plus the perks they gave to NMF's sealed the deal. But I'm more than willing to admit that for anyone who wants to pursue a "creative" degree FSU has some programs among the best in the country. </p>

<p>Good luck to all of you, and I look forward to watching you guys lose in football and basketball over the next 4 years.</p>

6

<p>I think that's partially why FSU is looked down upon, because arts degrees are often looked at as "not real degrees", and that's what FSU is known for.</p>

<p>which is BS but hey....</p>

7

<p>Yep - football season is coming. And the FSU/UF game is in Tallahassee this year.</p>

<p>FSU has a lot more to offer than the Film School (beastly hard to get into - what is it? 30 kids a year? That's harder than med school) or the other fine arts programs (also very tough to get into). These are called 'Limited Access' programs with good reason. </p>

<p>The listings I've collected and posted reflect a number of extremely good programs and opportunities at Florida State, including programs in physics, chemistry, oceanography, statistics, ecology and evolutionary biology, meteorology, political science, psychology, sociology, criminology, information studies and creative writing. Note that these programs not only compete with those offered at UF, they most often exceed them too. For example, why go to UF for Criminology when FSU has one of the best and oldest programs in the US? Ditto Political Science, Meteorology and so on.</p>

<p>Especially nice are the opportunites to perform meaningful research as an undergraduate. Check this out:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.research.fsu.edu/facultystaff/students.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.research.fsu.edu/facultystaff/students.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Yet another reason why academically talented students should visit FSU and speak with university representatives about their interests.</p>

<p>This is not to say UF is a slouch in it's speciality areas, like engineering and the veterinary sciences, for example. FSU's engineering program is striving, but it has a ways to go to even compete in this area with UF.</p>

<p>FSU is indeed underrated. It's a nugget of gold for those who find it.</p>

8

<p>From DRab:
parent2noles, how would the hiring of an ex-politician over an academic result in a negative rating for FSU?</p>

<p>Answer:</p>

<p>I think it caused a loss of confidence in the academic ranks thus adversely affecting the subjective portions of the USNWR ratings. It was political, in other words. He was not well received by academia (even though he has a PhD) and rated poorly. </p>

<p>This negative effect was even suggested by those opposed to the hire even before it happened.</p>

<p>I recall that FSU was rated about 64 in Nationals in 2002 and fell to 112 in the span of a year or two. This loss of USNWR 'stature' caused a ripple-effect downward trend in the quality of FTIC kids. For example, about 58% of all freshmen at FSU were in the top 10% of their hs class in 2002. In 2005 that figure fell to 26%. Equal losses in SAT scores and more also resulted. </p>

<p>While those of us out of college sneeze at such ratings, they influence kids and parents greatly. All, apparently, due to the hiring of one individual - who by the way is a former Speaker of the House in the Florida Legislature and widely known as a wily politician. For example, he skillfully took Florida State through the Mascot issue with the NCAA, and guess what? Of all the schools in the US who were so afflicted with the issue, FSU gets to keep the noble Seminole as it's symbol and even negotiates excellent relations with the two Seminole tribes who had standing to be heard.</p>

<p>Further, he negotiated or greatly influenced the transfer of the Applied Superconductivity Center from the U Wisconsin (Madison) to Florida State. I would suggest that UWM have preferred to keep that progam. Instead, it will now be coupled with the NHMFL at FSU in a synergistic arrangement. That took a bit of finesse as president.</p>

<p>More recently, we see that FSU and UF both gathered large monies from the Florida Legislature, over and above the approval of the Board of Governors, in a time when education dollars are hard to garner. Again, the FSU trustees receive a payoff from their investment in a 'recovering' politician. The USNWR now begins to creep back up...despite Wetherell.</p>

<p>Then again, we have a $630M fund raising campaign recently completed from the alumni; 63% of a billion dollars amounts to a lot of donation-type phone calls.</p>

<p>Lots of stuff like this...I recently have looked at all sorts of ratings and came to my own conclusion after analysis that the USNWR is underrating Florida State and it appears to be political in nature.</p>