Out of all the schools I have been accepted to, my remaining choices are Stetson (De land, Fl) and Florida Gulf Coast University (Fort Meyers, Fl). I have been awarded an annual $40,000 scholarship to Stetson University as well as the medallion scholarship from Florida Bright Futures. I am also apart of the Pre-Paid Florida College Plan for state schools which covers the cost of tuition at Florida Gulf Coast University along with Florida Bright Futures. Thankfully, I am financially covered at both schools, making this decision that much more difficult. Stetson is a much smaller and more prestigious university while Florida Gulf Coast is a larger university but still has that smaller atmosphere in the classroom. I have visited both schools and plan to shadow a student overnight at Stetson next week after recently visiting an open house there a few weeks ago. I am from Miami, FL and Fort Meyers is two hours away while De land is 4-5 hours away. I would like to work in Disney World during my years away at school and De land is only 45 minutes away. I have a 3.2 weighted GPA overall but I currently have a 4.1 this year. (I did poorly freshman year and took several AP/H courses to bump up my GPA). There are obvious reasons to attend Stetson but something keeps me from jumping at the opportunity. I am afraid of the small student population affecting the social atmosphere of the university. If any one knows from experience or second hand what the social atmosphere at stetson is like, let me know! (May 1rst deadline is in a little over two weeks)
I personally have a house 15 minutes away from fgcu and everyone from there I have talked to has loved it. I will definitely consider attending there and the area is really nice. It is not necessarily a college town but since it is growing every day you will definitely have fun. The on campus lake there is awesome for students and I know people there love it.
Also I should also add that I have so many interests. I have applied to each as undecided but I am leaning more towards Marine Science/Biology, Psychology, Sociology, Theatre (would minor not major) and I am highly interested in studying abroad.
I went to FGCU and it was pretty boring. From what you are saying honestly you will have the same “small” school experience at FGCU. Everyone gets drunk 24/7 and if you dont do that it’s very boring. I’m sure more people have said that about FGCU as all my friends did too. They also dont have the most for opportunities like Stetson would. You have to think of the future as well as the experience there you know? You have to balance it. 2000 kids at stetson is really enough because 14000 at fgcu feels like same from what ive seen now that I’ve been to art schools which have roughly the same amount as stetson. Oh and since you want to work at disneyworld, its kind of a no brainer.
Why exactly are you stuck on not choosing stetson? I mean other than the small school thing?
Unless you are in a frat/sorority FGCU is pointless. but i did enjoy their intramurals so if you’re into that make sure stetson has it as well.
Honestly, to me, it’s a no-brainer. Go with Stetson.
I grew up near Stetson. Deland is a small town, but it’s not that small. It’s not the most exciting place, but it does have a little historic “down town” district with some places to hangout.
Deland is about 30 minutes from Daytona Beach and less than an hour from Orlando. FGCU is a bit of a commuter school, so even though it’s “bigger,” that doesn’t mean that it’s going to have great social atmosphere. Stetson is small, but it’s a traditional school, where almost everyone lives on campus.
The only way I would pick FGCU over Stetson is for financial reasons.
Completely agree with SweetheartCroc.
So I wrote something for another thread that might help you in the decision. I’m copying and pasting it for ya so some wont make sense like the cheerleader part and stuff like that but its basically telling the whole experience of the school anyways. Hahaha.
"Hi there,
I went to FGCU for my first two years of college and I really did enjoy it.
SPORTS/MAJORS
I was sad to leave but they were cutting a ton of majors (you might want to read their documentation on which are getting cut) because they are trying to fund a football team. You want to be a cheerleader… Which sport? Because clearly, FGCU doesnt have football unfortunately but basketball is alright even though their team is awful now. I was there for the sweet 16 run and it was quite the adrenaline rush. When the students actually decides to support the teams, it’s a blast… But if none of the teams are good, then its kind of boring. Except for girls basketball, they have been consistently awesome but barely draw 50 people to the games.
SOCIAL LIFE
Onto the social part and this is coming from a girl who tried it all because I wanted to make the best of it all. FGCU’s “fun” heavily depends on greek life. I started off thinking HELL NO and I made GDI friends and lived happily as a GDI. Then I somehow became friends with sorority girls and it was a big group of them that just took me in and they begged me to join their sorority, so I did. After about 5 months of that I realized I was right with the HELL NO statement. Just not my thing. So if you are into sorority, go for it! It really is fun and you meet tons of people. Just be careful at frat parties because I had good friends in frats and everytime I went to a party they warned me about certain pitchers not to drink from because they were drugged. (being completely honest because us girls have to watch each others back). And this is for all the girls that read this thread in the future, that happens at all schools. Its not a myth, it HAPPENS.
Other than Greek life, Fort Myers is extremely boring. I mean at first it’ll be exciting because you’re in college, meeting new people and its a huge rush! But after a while it gets pretty boring and you stop meeting as many people. You can check other threads and probably draw the same conclusion. The bars get sketchy and weird (except for blu, probably the most fun but guys awkwardly watch you dance because they have one thing on their mind lmao). Denny’s will be your go to (open 24/7) but be careful, lots of cops on ben hill griffin at night.
TEACHERS
You HAVE to use rate my professor. If you dont you will get awful teachers because the sign up process is almost impossible. I’m sure that’s the same at all colleges but we would pull all nighters clicking the refresh button during registration because it freezes the minute registration opens. That happens more with freshman but you will still get stuck with bad teachers thorughout the years if you dont do your research. (Take milner for comp 1 and 2 if you go there lol).
DORMS
This is pretty important. There are two huge parts to the dorms, the AWESOME, the GOOD and the ABSOLUTELY AWFUL TERRIBLENESS.
The AWESOME: you’ve got West Lake which you cant exactly move into until sophomore… but mostly junior year. It’s really nice and actually was owned by other people for apartment complexes until FGCU bought them, which shows they’ve gotta be good!
The GOOD: For freshman year, go for Osprey if you can or now eagles landing. I lived in osprey the year it was amazing and so nice. All freshman housing it great though so enjoy it!
the ABSOLUTELY AWFUL TERRIBLENESS: North. Lake. It is awful. DO NOT live there. There’s spiders, ants, cockroaches in every possible place. They are also really run down and crappy. You’ll have to call maintenance a hundred times and for us, they started to just walk in without knocking until we finally called supervisors because it was inappropriate (obviously) and they started knocking again.
OVERALL
After my experience there, I’d probably go with USF (STETSON FOR YOU). My friend transferred from FGCU to USF and he loves it. It’s not a terrible school, every school has its good and bad parts. I’d say visit both as well because it’s all about how it feels to you. USF definitely has more majors incase you switch. OH and really important, everyone tells you “oh you can be undecided, you dont have to choose what you want to do for the rest of your life NOW, some have changed their majors 3 or 4 times!” DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM! You’ll learn that COLLEGES LIE and this is one of the biggest lies… Once you reach 120 credit hours, they will charge you DOUBLE for each credit hour and there are 4 credit hours in an average class…
WOW so this was long, I hope it sorta helped. If you have anymore questions I’ll check back and see if I can help answer."
Hope this sorta helped.