<p>Hi, I'm planning to attend UF in the fall of 2010. I wanted to know more about the political science program. Is it any good? And could someone tell me more about the interdisciplinary majors, since I'm really interested in Middle Eastern Studies. Thank you :)</p>
<p>Cant tell you about poli science major but I wanted to take an interdisciplinary major(Neurobiological Sciences) but I was told that these are only offered to students in their second year at UF. For the first year you pick a traditional major and then apply to change your major later to interdisciplinary.</p>
<p>For serious political science study you really should consider the [program[/url</a>] at [url=<a href=“http://fsu.edu/]Florida”>http://fsu.edu/]Florida</a> State](<a href=“http://polisci.fsu.edu/]program[/url”>http://polisci.fsu.edu/). </p>
<p>It is the highest rated program in Florida.</p>
<p>“Serious”, “Political”, and “Science” are words that should never be used together. lol.</p>
<p>rogracer, you should also add “Florida State University” into the group that shouldn’t be used together! :)</p>
<p>Sorry I meant to say “THE Florida State University” – please forgive me p2n. ;)</p>
<p>Parent2noles has to beg students to come to FSU after FSU got ranked 50th by US news and UF 17th for public universities</p>
<p>It has become blatantly obvious UF is the sole flagship university in the state, with FSU only excelling in obscure programs nobody really cares about (creative writing).</p>
<p>lol. thanks guys :)</p>
<p>I’m also interested in neurobiological sciences, The Master…does anyone have any information about it?</p>
<p>It’s ok, someday UF will have good numbers in political science too. :D</p>
<p>Actually, I was looking around, and political science is much better at FSU than UF.</p>
<p>In all honestly, neither UF nor FSU’s undergraduate programs are anything special academically. The student body at UF is statistically superior to FSU, but outside of Florida and even inside some regions of the state, people do not actually differentiate between the two. Furthermore, unless you go on to graduate or professional school, the career opportunities for UF, FSU, UNF, USF, etc. grads are essentially identical (expect a starting salary between 30-42k, unless you major in accounting, engineering, etc.). I know that people can provide anecdotal evidence of a UF graduate who made 90k straight out of undergrad, but such students are the exception, not the norm. That being said, both schools offer wonderful opportunities to in-state students for the tuition that is charged, especially when you factor in Bright Futures. </p>
<p>^ is primarily addressed to intangiblegator and parent2noles.</p>
<p>OK…a little more seriously, since you brought up a true field of science, I assume you are aware of the McKnight Brain Institute on campus…here is a link:</p>
<p>[McKnight</a> Brain Institute](<a href=“http://www.mbi.ufl.edu/]McKnight”>http://www.mbi.ufl.edu/)</p>
<p>"Parent2noles has to beg students to come to FSU after FSU got ranked 50th by US news and UF 17th for public universities</p>
<p>It has become blatantly obvious UF is the sole flagship university in the state, with FSU only excelling in obscure programs nobody really cares about (creative writing)."</p>
<p>Man you must be absolutely miserable in real life. Not to mention that you’re completely biased and misguided on just about everything regarding FSU.</p>
<p>And Atticus is dead-on. Unless you’re talking about really specific programs (engineering/med at UF or arts/music at FSU) neither school is going to substantially prepare you any better than the other when it comes to job placement or grad school acceptances. I mean I’m from NY originally and not a single one of my friends from up north gives two s**ts about the difference between the two, or is even aware of such. Even in FL, most people down here are more concerned with how the schools’ respective football teams are performing rather than how the academics are. I’ll certainly concede that UF is slightly better all-around, but at the end of the day the average student at either school is going to get the same jobs, in the same home markets, and more or less live in FL for the majority of their lives. </p>
<p>I’ll lay it down like this: middle 50% at UF is slightly superior, but the top 10% at either of the schools is more or less identical and can do anything they want. Personally, I took the nice merit scholarship at FSU and it hasn’t deterred me from getting into the grad programs of my choice one bit.</p>
<p>srqman1, much of what you say is valid, but you are understating the difference in student quality of the “top-end” students between FSU and UF. Looking at the 2008 Common Data Set of enrolled freshman, the number of 700+ SAT scorers between the two schools is approximately:</p>
<pre><code> UF FSU
</code></pre>
<p>Verbal +700 1084 357
Math +700 1595 331</p>
<p>Those are pretty significantly different tallies…and is likely the source of what many perceive as UF’s cockiness about having “better students”.</p>
<p>i like how every other thread on this forum turns into a ******** uf vs fsu debate.</p>
<p>Interesting, did not see that… </p>
<p>Well I guess you can argue tit-for-tat with this stuff all day long. But the central thesis is that the students at either school (elite and average alike) are basically going to land the same jobs and grad school placements regardless of which school has more 700+ scorers. Both in-state and OOS the consensus is pretty clear - they’re both good (not amazing) bang-for-your-buck public colleges. The vast majority of my alumni friends at both schools, at all academic levels, are living in FL, making between 30-55k, and plan on staying here for a long time. I’m sure you can extrapolate from that for a good part of the student bodies at either school. </p>
<p>Seriously, it all comes down to your personal preferences, financial situation, etc. If I was planning on becoming a doctor or engineer, UF would have been a no-brainer. But I had no idea what I wanted to do and so I just took the money at FSU and didn’t look back. Perhaps UF would have been a better fit for me socially, athletically, whatever but for me finances were a concern and FSU offered the best package in regards to that. Essentially, UF simply wasn’t prestigious enough to justify ignoring the lesser-ranked (but mostly similar) school on a great merit package.</p>
<p>As I said, both schools are great bang-for-your-buck and will prepare you for mostly the same career/academic trajectories. We’re not comparing UF and UNF here, ya know (not that UNF is necessarily ‘bad’ but just saying)? UF is the better school all-around but it all comes down to what’s really important to you in the end. It just sort of befuddles me when alums of either school try to pretend either is substantially better than the other when there’s really nothing to prove that, outside of certain specialty programs that each college is known for.</p>
<p>Well, to be dead serious I notice more UF advocates bashing FSU than the other way around.</p>
<p>I agree with srqman. Both schools will set kids up equally.</p>
<p>Well, unlike rogracer I am pretty old and have seen the FSU-UF debates over decades. We (FSU students I knew when I was enrolled) did not find UF superior academically (except in their specialty areas like engineering and agriculture) and that bit of surge <em>now</em> may not last. As an example of this tendency to shift, FSU even had better graduation rates than UF as late as 1996: [9604</a> Inst Research Report](<a href=“http://web.archive.org/web/19970427090346/www.fsu.edu/~rsect/muppets/mup9604.html]9604”>9604 Inst Research Report) which comports with the way we saw UF in the 1970s.</p>
<p>So, I’d temper the latest UF FTIC stats surge as a permanent and ever-present superiority, because with regard to Florida State, it just is not true. The rivalry has long been close.</p>
<p>p2n…I’m pretty old too. And I have always said the UF-FSU debate doesn’t have to be us-vs-them. I would <em>love</em> it if both schools would rise in the rankings…there is plenty of room in a state this size to support at least two superior universities…and really, the state would benefit it that would happen.</p>
<p>Parent2noles, you quote the same out of date sources yet fail to have coherent analysis of the current day situation. The academic discrepancy between FSU and UF continues to grow every year, with the yield rate, acceptance rate, and quality of admitted students all showing in UF’s favor.</p>
<p>You dwell in the past due to FSU’s current pitfalls, but the situation, if anything, now resembles a paradigm analogous to Michigan and Michigan State. </p>
<p>Simply stated, FSU continues to remain stagnant in rankings while UF is climbing ever closer to a top 10 public university.</p>
<p>Have fun living in 1996.</p>