My son would like to go South for college (as in South of our home state of Virginia) and has picked out a few schools in NC, SC, AL, and GA, but he would really like to find a great match in Florida.
He is a B student at a small college prep HS who loves any outdoor activity (his 2 favorites being fishing and golf) and after researching all of the 4 year FL schools, we have found they are too large, too small or too hard to get into.
The only school that may fit into his profile is FGCU. He likes all that is has to offer (mid sized, on the coast, Fishing Club, majors offered, etc) but a lot of comments tend to give it a commuter vibe. Would love any thoughts or comments.
Asking again, but this time also including University of North Florida. Does it also have the reputation of being a commuter school? I have read reviews that, like FGCU, it is on an upwards trend.
FGCU is commuter and has weird priorities (spent on money on football, paid for by cutting some class offerings and increasing classroom size in the first two undergraduate level classes).
Unf is more established than FGCU, stronger academically, 90% freshmen live on campus and most upperclassmen live around campus.(Fgcu average weighted GPA is 3.5, average act 23; unf’s is 3.7 weighted, Act24-25.)
Have you looked at Sewanee?
They literally own a mountain.
Denison (up north in Ohio) has a good outdoors reputation and since ourbson would bring geographical diversity he’s have a shot (it’s a reach for a B student though).
Both are test optional (submit scores if they help your application, don’t if you feel your application stands on its own and reflects your skills better.)
In Florida, Eckerd is right on the beach and has merit scholarships for good rest scores.
USF St Petersburg should be a safety for your son and has what he’s looking for, although it’s more commuter than FGCU.
FIU honors may be worth looking into.
Thank you for the feedback @MYOS1634. If I can talk him into a smaller school, Eckerd will be on the list. When we start making campus visits, I am going to set up a couple of back to back tours of small vs larger campuses (i.e., Eckerd vs UNF and CofC & UNCW vs Furman) to see what suits him best. I hate for him to rule out smaller schools w/out having visited any.
Many students think that if their high school has 2,000 students then a college will ‘feel’ the same. And they don’t want that. However, a high school only has a few buildings - many smaller schools will have 20 or 30 buildings, acres of land, residence halls (making them very different from a high school), lots of majors and this departments a high school doesn’t have… Even a small college,(~1,500) will offer a choice of 500+ classes per semester (of which students take 4 or 5!)
USF used to be a commuter school but that has drastically changed over the past few years. It is a really pretty campus. Two campuses–look at St Petersburg.
Have you considered FAU? 10 minutes from the beautiful beaches of Boca. Up and coming with academics.
A friend of ours’ son went to FGCU and liked it. He’s in law enforcement now. He’s more of an outdoorsy kid (welll, adult guy now) and I think he liked the surrounding area of FGCU.
Ironically my brother and his wife both graduated from FAU and still live in Boca. That would be the advantage to sending him to a school in Southern Florida- having family close by when we live so far away. My brother has said that the school is different from when he went there, in a good way. Better academics, a more unified campus, etc.
Great article! And interesting also that FGCU rated right behind FSU and that UNF was the last of the pack. It is always hard to keep up with everybody’s differing opinions on a school but ratings and rankings speak the most truth. I have visited Boca so many times since my brother moved there that I know the area almost as well as my own city. I have driven by the entrance to the school so many times never giving it a thought that one day I might be looking at it for one of my children.
^^us too OP. We really discovered FAU when my younger son started dual enrollment. And we drove right by there most days.
They still have some work to do, but it’s definitely a gem of a campus. It’s not so big you feel lost, yet it’s big enough that there is a little something for everyone.
And also, for the record, my 3 best friends and I have come to Boca for a 5 day getaway every summer for the last 14 years. I am still chuckling at the irony of you recommending FAU.
Keep in mind that the Performance Based Funding Model is ranking schools based on how well they improve, versus that schools goals. Each school may have different goals. It’s not comparing FAU to FGCU, but FAU against it’s past performance.
For example, FAU’s 6-year graduation rate was 48.4%, which is a 3.4% raise. This earned them an improvement score of 6. On the other hand, UNF’s graduation rate was 54.0%, which is a -0.8% decrease over the previous year. This earned them an improvement score of 0.
Doing well on the scorecard, means a school is improving (and will be rewarded with additional funding from the state).
For anybody that had bookmarked this thread, I wanted to follow up since we payed a visit to FGCU about 2 weeks ago on our spring break.
The student ambassador in charge of our tour group told us flat out that it is a commuter school. She backed up her statement by saying that 2/3 of the students were commuters. And if that wasn’t specific enough for us, she followed up with the statistic that out of the 13,000 students at the school, 10,000 were commuters.
That was the point where my husband turned and whispered to me, ‘yep, we are done here’.
My S18 liked the campus, but who wouldn’t like palm trees and a rogue alligator sunning itself by the freshman dorms.
I’ll put in a plug for FSU. I know you said it’s “too big” but I have to say we ALMOST didn’t visit there for that same reason. So glad we did, it’s a great school! (Also added UF to our list, although that’s harder to get into) FSU campus is beautiful and plenty of students are there on the weekends. FSU does have a fishing club and places to fish nearby. (the coast isn’t as far as you’d think, just as FGCU’s coast isn’t as close as it appears!)
Also, they have a First Year Abroad program (with some very fine FSU fully staffed year round campuses in London; Florence, Italy; Valencia, Spain; and Panama.) If your son went with the first year abroad program he would then qualify for in-state tuition for his remaining 3 years. That would be a big savings! Classes are taught in English.
@Trisherella thank you for the info on FSU. The school is not too big for him but he does not have the grades to get in. FSU had a lot that met my son’s wants and needs and made the 1st very preliminary list at the beginning of the process, but came off after the round of 1st cuts because of my son’s low B average and very average test scores (I call them average bc they were great for him, but they would be considered very below average for most of the cc posters).
He does not want small so schools like Rollins, Stetson, Eckerd, Jax U, etc… didn’t make it past the 1st cut either. UF, FSU and UM are accepting students way above his qualifications. That left us with schools like FGCU, UNF, UWF, UT, etc. And none of those seemed like great options for him whether because of the commuter factor, or a lack of things that were of interest to him.
UNF business school isn’t half bad, and they do require freshman to live on campus and purchase a meal plan (which helps a bit with the “commuter factor”). Still, it is mostly Jacksonville kids. UCF and USF have become much less commuter schools (many of my son’s classmates in Jacksonville are heading off to UCF), but they both have also become more selective. Most of the other in-state publics, with the exception of New College, are much like FGCU.
@Gator88NE I appreciate the feedback. You confirmed all that I have read about the other Public FL colleges.
I think unfortuantely, all FL schools have come off the table with one slight possibility and that is Flagler College. We spent a few days in St Augustine at the end of our spring break and I scheduled a tour as a ‘just humor me’ moment. It is definitely too small for what he wants, but… he loved the campus, the buildings, the city of St Augustine and the abiility to walk the whole city. The tour was VERY personalized and from campus he walked to the intercoastal, the Fort, breakfast, lunch and dinner, etc. and thought it was fanstastic.
That being said, I think when he visits other larger campuses (in other states) with a lot of activites and amenities, he will forget all about Flagler.
I live about 15 minutes from FGCU, my sister and brother in law went there, so I know a thing or two.
FGCU is not a commuter school. The social life is just not as established as other FL Universities like FSU. A lot of my high school friends go there and I know for a fact that they stay busy.
