<p>Gee, I was hoping this thread was brought back with an up-date from the OP. He was so gung-ho on Indiana at this time last year. Alas, no posts on this forum since April 2008.</p>
<p>kathiep, I was hoping the same thing! If SoCal can somehow hear us (LOL), inquiring minds would love an update!</p>
<p>I'm the mom of a teen girl in Florida and I have numerous nieces and a nephew who are now attending Florida public universities. </p>
<p>UF is #1 in the state and as you may not know, is among the top 3 NATIONALLY in terms of academic achievement for public universities. It is our flagship college and is now taking a large number of OOS students (to help build up the coffers). Here in the state, it is a "given" that unless you are an IB graduate or you have an an inordinate number of AP classes under your belt and an average 30 on your ACTs, you aren't going to UF.</p>
<p>SECOND on the list is FSU. For many years FSU had a bad reputation as a "teacher's college" but in the past 5 years the reputation has changed--all those 4.0 students with 28 ACT average scores who can't get into UF are now going to FSU. </p>
<p>THIRD on the list is UCF in Orlando, which has gone from being a "Mickey Mouse" college (pun intended) to "highly selective" in just three years. UCF now has a stellar reputation--even to the point of beating out FSU in some fields. </p>
<p>I won't mention New College (Sarasota) which outranks all the above.</p>
<p>My biggest caveat to anyone with hesitation about a Florida school: if you truly dislike the hot weather, don't come to Florida. Unless you love watersports and/or you enjoy sweating, it's probably not going to agree with you. But if you LOVE the heat (like my daughter, an avid watersports athlete, who is consdiering ONLY Florida and Hawaii schools) then it's a great choice.</p>
<p>You need to visit a school before you can know what it is truly like. You have to actually walk the campus, not just read about it online or in the glossy brochures. Meet some students and see if they make you feel comfortable. Does OOS mean the mainly the midwest for IU? The ethnic diversity may not be what you are used to.</p>
<p>Indiana Dunes is on Lake Michigan, totally inaccessible for all practical purposes for IU.</p>
<p>You indicate the academics aren't your biggest concern. What makes you think you will do well enough to actually graduate? Eventually you have to do the college work, regardless of where you are.</p>
<p>Florida weather is not ideal. They have humidity which can make heat feel a lot worse than the desert like humidity of SoCal. They have rain in Florida. The climate is different than southern California's, it could shock you. It is also much greener and has a lot going for it that CA doesn't, just in case people think I favor CA.</p>
<p>Do you intend to attend classes or hang out at the beach? Be wary of distractions. I'm sure most students at any school who graduate will be spending more time studying than partying.</p>
<p>^^^wis 75 this is a thread from 2/08 and is not current.</p>
<p>I have several friends who are FSU alum. Among them is a high ranking military officer, a speech pathologist, a lawyer and the owners of two successful companies.</p>
<p>It is a good school, inspite of what a few people would have you believe.</p>
<p>Honestly, you'd be nuts to spend an extra $24,000 to attend IU over Florida State, unless IU is just your dream school. </p>
<p>FSU has a much higher freshman SAT average than IU, for example:
FSU: 1265 See: FSU</a> Highlights
IU (Bloomington): 1210 See: Campus</a> Profile: Office of Admissions: Indiana University Bloomington</p>
<p>The bias by some against southern universities is breathtaking at times - and disgusting.</p>
<p>Save your money for grad school.</p>
<p>As a business school professor, I'd most definitely want my kid to go to IU over FSU for a business major.</p>
<p>I think I would go with Florida State University over Indiana University.</p>
<p>Those SAT averages are irrelevant. IU is much stronger in business.</p>
<p>This is the thread that never ends, it just goes on and on my friends.... Cause socal started posting it, not knowing who he was, and people keep on posting back not knowing that it's old.... :)</p>
<p>Both are good in business, both are party schools, both focus a lot on sports. </p>
<p>So, with that said, they are similar schools and attending either can go one of two ways: being a standout student or being lost in the crowd and being "just a number."</p>
<p>Going to either would be fine, but if you are from California and already are used to the nice weather, I would go to IU and "switch it up" </p>
<p>Go to IU- better school anyways</p>
<p>Just a minute- this post is from 2006!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>Socal where did you actually go????? You need to tell us!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>As I mentioned 12 posts ago, SoCal has not posted on this site at all since April of 2008. My guess is he picked a college and changed his log-in name.....</p>
<p>This is the thread that never dies....</p>
<p>FSU has a very nice and highly rated College of Business as well: <a href="http://www.cob.fsu.edu/pdf/cobfastfacts.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.cob.fsu.edu/pdf/cobfastfacts.pdf</a></p>
<p>Sorry, I simply cannot fathom spending an additional $24K for the difference in magazine rankings between these two CoBs. One could take the savings realized by attending FSU and invest in any number of highly ranked business grad schools. </p>
<p>FSU is an excellent bargain and was recently rated 5th nationally as Best Value public by USAToday and Princeton Review as well as 15th nationally by Kiplinger's Best Values in Public Colleges. IU came in at 40th, as I recall.</p>
<p>So, SoCal, where did you finally go?</p>
<p>Alright, I’m going to be brutally honest. The fact that this is even a discussion is laughable. Indiana University (IU) is miles ahead of Florida State University (FSU) when it comes to trying to obtain quality employment in the working world with Fortune 500 Companies. I graduated from the University of Michigan, and I’ve literally had instructors make jokes about the education at FSU. I have a large network in Chicago who all work for Fortune 500 companies and understand the hiring process. They favor degrees from Big Ten/Big East schools in Chicago, specifically Northwestern University, University of Illinois, Michigan State University, Indiana University, and the University of Michigan. People in Chicago make fun of SEC schools and southern schools in general, particularly FSU (yes, I know it’s an ACC school). People with FSU degrees battle the bias of being perceived as less competent, not as educated, and not up to the business standard looked for in potential entry level applicants. I’m not saying there aren’t some very intelligent individuals who attend FSU, but in reality it is perceived badly up North. People know about the Florida education system and how they give grades away at their public schools and are being educated by substitute teachers being paid minimum wage with high school degrees. People understand that FSU is mostly the leftovers of UF. UF is perceived as an average to above average school up north, but not nearly on the level that they rave about it in the Southeast. I’m sure FSU has the better looking woman and the football is much better, but in conclusion, if you want a nice little job in a call center or working for some sunshine wage or underpaid teacher wage then by all means attend FSU. It’s a great school for restaurant jobs, call centers, and clothing stores at the mall. If you want your highest probability of attaining real quality employment from a Fortune 500 company, then by all means IU is the better school to attend hands down.</p>
<p>^Instead of honest, I suspect you are merely brutally biased. :eek: </p>
<p>Will it never stop?</p>
<p>Many times I have witnessed shocking examples of such bias on this board and posts like these are really beyond belief. I suppose this is likely more an example of a state u grad from a dying state lashing out at states in somewhat better shape. Competition, I suppose, or maybe a burning disbelief at being beaten at home for a football game (FSU vs U Michigan - 1991).</p>
<p>SAT scores and grades don’t matter - unless YOUR school has the higher averages, then I suppose it becomes validation for some incredible lack of objectivity.</p>
<p>Still, it would be stupid to spend an extra $24K for IU over Florida State.</p>
<p>The Florida schools are becoming a perfect example of SAT scores being a meaningless indicator as their school are so uinderfinanced it’s funny.</p>
<p>From the COHE today</p>
<p>"Bad budgets are old news in the Sunshine State. While colleges across the nation are coping with the recession, public universities in Florida, a state with finances that resemble a Ponzi scheme, have spent years doing without.</p>
<p>Ask Paul Outka, an assistant professor in Florida State University’s highly regarded English department. But don’t call him on his office phone this fall. He won’t have one anymore — it’s among the latest victims of cost-cutting.</p>
<p>He says he prefers forced frugality to its alternatives.</p>
<p>“You get rid of the phone lines and you save some of my comrades,” says Mr. Outka, who has had a ringside seat at one of the worst financial catastrophes in higher education today.</p>
<p>The recession hit Florida early, and in a big way. Without an income tax, state government has long depended on property and sales taxes. As real estate and tourism have tanked, however, the state’s annual revenue has shed more than $12-billion from a 2006 peak of $74-billion. But Florida’s conservative politicians have remained steadfast in refusing new taxes. They also fought to keep the university system’s tuition at rock-bottom levels.</p>
<p>The result for the state’s 11 public universities has been cutbacks in state money, which have led to gutted programs, faculty departures, low salaries for professors, and the nation’s highest student-to-faculty ratio. University leaders say this is by far the worst chapter in a long history of chronic underfinancing.</p>
<p>Mr. Outka got there just in time for this round. Described as a rising star by colleagues, his hiring was a coup for the university, which lured him away from the University of Virginia in 2007, as the cuts were beginning. In addition to having his phone line removed, Mr. Outka has had to ration his copier paper and sits in a non-air-conditioned office on weekends. He has too many students to meet with any of them individually until at least their junior year, and he never teaches classes smaller than 35 students.</p>
<p>“They wanted us to take out a bulb from our fluorescent lights,” he says during an interview in his spartan office. He points to two reams of paper on a shelf and says, “There’s my stash.”</p>
<p>The creative-writing program lost two professors whom their colleagues described as “extraordinary.” Neither is being replaced. David Vann, a best-selling author, left for the University of San Francisco, and Mark G. Cooper went to the University of South Carolina.</p>
<p>The department’s chairman, Ralph M. Berry, says the university has worked hard to head off attempts to hire away talent, sometimes through counteroffers or well-timed raises. But those two departures, he acknowledges, were a major hit. “We’re just doing without,” he says. “It’s really nip and tuck.”</p>
<p>Mr. Vann has nothing but praise for Florida State’s English department and his colleagues there. But the low pay, rare raises, and looming threat of layoffs sent him out on the job market this year.</p>
<p>He will start this fall as an assistant professor at San Francisco. Reached by e-mail (he was hiking in Australia’s outback), Mr. Vann says the new job will pay 50 percent more than he made at Florida State, and more than most full professors make there. (The average salary for Florida State’s full professors is $103,000, while assistant professors earn $69,000, according to the American Association of University Professors.)</p>
<p>“It’s amazing to see what FSU has done with so little funding,” he says. “It’s a great university, and it’s terrible to see how quickly its achievements can be torn apart.”</p>
<p>What’s laughable Michgrad, is that SoCal has not posted on this site at all since April of 2008. </p>
<p>Why does this thread keep re-surfacing with people responding as if the OP is still a HS senior picking out a school?</p>
<p>A lot of bitterness and misinformation in this thread. </p>
<p>I’m sure FSU grads are really concerned about what people in the Rust Belt think about them. I bet they’re all dying to work for those thriving Fortune 500 companies in that paradise known as Detroit.</p>