New College vs University of Florida for Computer Science

<p>I am applying to colleges soon for a bachelor's degree in computer science and my two main schools I'm trying to choose from are University of Florida and New College of Florida. I would say Georgia Tech is also in the running, but it's so expensive compared to what UF and NCF will cost with Florida Bright Futures.</p>

<p>My ultimate goal is to attend a PhD program in computer science at an elite university like Stanford or Cornell. If I end up not doing the PhD program, I will do a Master's degree, so either way I want to go to graduate school.</p>

<p>I know that New College is designed to send students into graduate school (and they do it quite well - 80% of NCF grads go to grad school), but they don't have a full computer science program. They have a program called computational science which allows me to take programming classes and tutorials, but I also have to major in math, physics, chemistry, economics, or some other discipline that I can apply programming to. My main major would be one of those, and then I simply apply programming knowledge to solve chemistry problems, math equations, etc.</p>

<p>University of Florida has three programs - Computer Engineering, Computer Science (Liberal Arts), and Computer Science (Engineering). I would want to enter the computer science program in the engineering college.</p>

<p>Which school is a better choice for me? I know I can get into grad school if I graduate from UF, but I think my chances might be better if I graduate from NCF. I'd like to hear from both UF and NCF students/grads and see what they think. Does anyone recommend any schools I didn't list here? Florida State? Florida Tech?</p>

<p>I should also mention at this point I’m leaning towards UF because I can minor in entrepreneurship or business classes there. But I’ll see if anyone else has any info to make me change my mind because I really want to go to NCF, but if it isn’t the logical choice, it would be stupid to go there just because I like the liberal concept of the school.</p>

<p>Graduate of New College here–from a while ago, so maybe things have changed, but–if your primary goal of your education is this major the possibility of a minor in business, New College is not the place for you. It sounds like you know this already. If you are the practical type, definitely not. If you are the inquisitive, geeky type, an out of the box thinker, maybe.</p>

<p>The minor in business isn’t that important; it’s just something I would do if I were to go to University of Florida. It isn’t a deciding factor on which school to go to.</p>

<p>I consider myself fairly inquisitive and/or geeky, which is why New College seems so appealing. Many people at FSU, UF, etc just want to go there to get the degree. There’s nothing special about the school they choose. But New College is really the opposite - people go there because they care about learning.</p>

<p>What did you major in at NCF?</p>

<p>I’m sorry I don’t know the answer to your question. I have been looking for other information about New College of Florida and I couldn’t find any other threads that talked about it. I was wondering if there are other threads about the school and i’m just missing them somehow? (Wondering about people’s experience with science and math education)</p>

<p>ianeberle -do you have to decide now? I hear you really want to go to new college & want to be given a logical reason to go with what you want. why not apply to both & decide later? life has a way of shifting things on us, sometimes - Maybe the right decision will be obvious at that time?</p>