<p>Do you really think Georgia Tech is worth Out-of-State over UF In-State? Keep in mind that the Bright Futures Scholarship will basically make UF's cost almost nothing. Now I could understand MIT or Cal Tech, but not Georgia Tech.</p>
<p>I realize GT is like Top 10 in Engineering, but UF is in the Top 25.</p>
<p>My S was admitted to both Georgia Tech and UF for engineering -- he ended up choosing UF, because the difference in cost was so extreme. With Bright Futures to pay his full tuition at UF, school costs about $5700 a year for room, board and books. At GT, it would have been nearly $30K a year. He decided he would rather graduate without debt and consider GT for graduate school later.</p>
<p>^^^
Mine too. He was also a presidential scholar finalist for GT. Money wasn't the only factor though.</p>
<p>The reason that UF's population has been exploding and their admissions rate plummeting is a combination of Bright Futures and the massive influx of people moving into Florida. Former Midwestern and Northeastern kids (not to mention British) have been flooding Florida during their middle and high school years. Whereas they would have gone to XYZ Northern State or ABC Ivy, they are attracted to the decisively low cost of UF and their decent academics.</p>
<p>Whereas states such as Massachusetts or New York have super large numbers of colleges per person, Florida's is much much lower. Not much efforts have been put forth to change this either, rather just expanding the size of existing campuses such as UF and UCF to attempt to alleviate the problem.</p>
<p>Friend's S chose GT over UF for engineering. He wanted the environment. He used the prepaid FL tuition to cut bill by half. By second year, he was an RA, then TA. In short, it cost very little more to attend GT. His parents didn't visit Atl as often as other brother at UF, but still doable.</p>
<p>I don't know if it can be said that "not much effort has been made" to do anything other than increasing the size of existing campuses. Florida has a number of public universities, many which have opened in the past 50 years and a few in the past 20:</p>
<p>Florida Atlantic University (1960's)
Florida International University (1960's)
University of North Florida (1970's)
University of South Florida (ca 1960)
University of West Florida (1970's ?)
University of Central Florida (1960's)
Florida Gulf Coast University (1990's)
New College of Florida (became public 2000's)
Florida A&M (1800's)
Florida State University (1800's)
University of Florida (1800's)</p>
<p>(Don't hold me to the dates- they are estimates)</p>
<p>Some of these universities are much smaller than UF, UCF, or FSU. Those universities are just large, multi-discipline universities, and have become very popular among students. The rest of the university system will see a trickle down effect with more and more students not getting into the top three or four publics.</p>
<p>USF was started in 1956, and UCF was originally FTU. Clearly USF had a good head start over UCF, and they have had a pretty solid medical school since the 1970's I think.</p>
<p>FSU and UF were both established with the same law in 1851. They are the senior members of the Florida SUS.</p>
<p>FAMU was 1887.</p>
<p>New College was originally chartered in 1960 I think.</p>
<p>New College was originally a private, but went public fairly recently I believe (I think the property was used for a time by USF?). It's still very small, but has an excellent reputation. As word gets out, I would expect its numbers to grow.</p>
<p>Edit: </p>
<p>Just found this:
"In May of 2001, a group of lawmakers in the Florida legislature passed a bill to upgrade the status of New College in the State University System. On July 1, 2001, New College of USF became New College of Florida, the 11th member of the State University System. No longer a part of USF, New College now has its own Governor-appointed Board of Trustees. The College continues to share some campus facilities and services with USF Sarasota-Manatee. "</p>
<p>For a while NCofF was experiencing financial difficulties, which is when it became a facility used by USF.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ncf.edu/about/history.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.ncf.edu/about/history.html</a></p>
<p>GT is top 10 overall vs UF top 25 public in engineering. GT is world ranked as well so there's a big difference, but it really depends on where you want to end up. If you plan to go on to grad school anyway then it might make sense to save your money and cross the border later. </p>
<p>One interesting stat on Florida. We have 5 of the largest 15 universities in the country. Pretty much tells you we don't have enough campuses to go around.</p>
<p>I think UCF should do more to conserve the environment around the university and make it's efforts more comprehensive including more of the Orlando area. It's quite obvious that land is going in this area quickly.It's a real shame.
I think they have done a nice job in the University of Florida area of land conservation. like Lake Alice, etc. I saw an eagle on one of it's sites. But it would be good if they could do more. You can't save enough land in Florida.</p>
<p>
[quote]
If you plan to go on to grad school anyway then it might make sense to save your money and cross the border later.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>All the better engineering students these days get graduate degrees with assistanceships or even fellowships, so there is little reason to stint on undergraduate education in engineering if graduate school is the eventual goal. Go to an undergraduate program strong enough to make it likely that graduate school will be paid for by somebody else. (I have no advice about engineering programs in the southeast, but the principle of not paying for graduate school personally if studying engineering is general.)</p>
<p>UF is Top-25 overall in engineering. The gap between UF & GT in Engineering isn't that big. Doesn't justify paying the extra money to go out-of-state.</p>
<p>"I think they have done a nice job in the University of Florida area of land conservation. like Lake Alice, etc. I saw an eagle on one of it's sites. But it would be good if they could do more. You can't save enough land in Florida."</p>
<p>If you look at UF's new Masterplan you will see that they are doing their best to promote sustainability. President Machen is a staunch Conservationist.</p>