<p>The amount of fighting between UF and FSU in this thread is pretty amusing. </p>
<p>Both sides are pretty delusional, the UF zealots who think it is the “harvard of the south” or the FSU zealots who assert it is equal to UF in every way. </p>
<p>Both are just good public schools with one being ostensibly better than the other.</p>
<p>Univ of Maryland BC - great science program, campus isn’t that great, neighborhood’s boring in my opinion, it’s an all right school</p>
<p>Univ of Maryland College Park - big campus, library is ok at best, dorms are alright not great, the campus has a great feel to it though</p>
<p>New York</p>
<p>SUNY Binghamton - For the business kids
SUNY Geneseo - For the liberal arts kids
SUNY Stony Brook - Miserable commuter school, but extremely good science/engineering
SUNY Purchase - The “artsy” SUNY
SUNY Oneonta/Albany - Our finest party schools</p>
<p>CUNYs - Generally only attended by poor students that just want a degree</p>
<p>No Ryan, we FSU alumni think UF has some strengths and FSU has some strengths. I reject and will contest sweeping UF assertions of quality and superiority over Florida State.
;)</p>
<p>parent2noles, I think that the state of Florida and the state of Virginia have a lot in common with their two big state schools. </p>
<p>Virginia Tech vs. UVA…the (sometimes heated) discussions that go on about the quality or superiority by one over the other reminds me so much of UF and FSU. When all is said and done, all 4 schools are great public universities…</p>
<p>As long as people don’t get carried away, it does make for a fun debate, though, doesn’t it? :)</p>
<p>University of Florida - Best school in the history of the world. We should send everyone there always all the time. Partyings and academics along with athletics? How do those whippersnappers do it!?</p>
<p>New College of Florida - Its new, so that clearly means it is horrible and how could you get any studying done when all you do is smoke pot all day. Intramural ultimate frisbee isn’t played in a eight billion person stadium so it clearly isn’t a real sport. The only interesting thing about Sarasota is that one museum about the circus freaks.</p>
<p>University of Miami - If only they were still good at sports. Diversified programs, especially strong in a few select areas, good balance of size, athletics/studying, and generous finaid.</p>
<p>Florida State University - Party! Party! Party! Realistically its a solid school that gets beat down by its party atmosphere (which does take away from academics clearly). </p>
<p>Rollins College - It really does snow at Rollins (cocaine problem). Underappreciated business program, but narrow in scope, and the students are too homogenous. One of the most beautiful campuses anywhere, let alone within the state of Florida.</p>
<p>University of Central Florida - Solid school, still known as an engineering school. Lags behind in other departments but a nice campus although still too many commuters.</p>
<p>University of South Florida - Was improving for a while, but recent cutbacks and economic troubles combined with an ugly campus in the middle of an urban area of Tampa make it uninteresting to most who don’t receive other benefits for attending.</p>
<p>Stetson University - Even the undergrad is known for preparing people for law school whether it is true or not. Slightly more conservative and slightly less preppy than Rollins (which it is most often compared too). More utilitarian campus.</p>
<p>Flagler College - Surfers and art majors, oh, and they’re campus is in a tourist town that gets mixed reviews.</p>
<p>Eckerd College - Can’t get past the fact that its named after the drugstore.</p>
<p>University of Tampa - Downtown Tampa Sucks</p>
<p>Embry-Riddle Daytona Beach - They fly alot, and the campus is really beautiful. Best option for anyone looking for flight schools, but subpar when looking at general engineering in other states. Hidden gem for those that can afford it.</p>
<p>Florida Tech - Some people don’t even know it exists despite the fact that it is a serviceable school for wannabee engineers.</p>
<p>Florida Southern College - Not familiar with it</p>
<p>Florida International - Commuter campus along with recent comments that they want to cut down on academics means that this really isn’t that impressive despite the more than horrible standards of admission.</p>
<p>Florida Atlantic - Not familiar with it</p>
<p>Saint Leo University - Not familiar with it</p>
<p>Florida Gulf Coast - Not familiar with it</p>
<p>Nova Southeastern University - Ugly commuter campus in Miami is my extent of knowledge of it.</p>
<p>Lynn University - Not familiar with it.</p>
<p>University of North Florida - Not familiar with it, but bad reputation.</p>
<p>Florida A&M - Ugh… I had heard rumors of them loosing their accreditation. Even the lower end publics wont send many students here.</p>
<p>Sure, it’s fun. I have family graduated from both schools. It’s a common diversion. </p>
<p>Some UF folks haven’t quite recovered from the fact Florida State is the original and oldest “University of Florida” and, by no small measure, also earned the first chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in Florida. But UF is doing ok for an ag school. Farmers are important. :D</p>
<p>Florida State University - Clearly the finest university in Florida. The oldest university with a great offering of hard and social sciences. Beautiful campus, friendly students outstanding opportunities for undergraduate research. Stellar accomplishments in the sciences in chemistry and physics, such as the commercial process that enabled widespread availability of the anticancer drug Taxol and winning the National High Magnetic Field Lab from MIT. Also known for Arts, social sciences and radical 1960s-70s students.</p>
<p>University of Florida - Best party school in the history of the world. Students are known for taking themselves too seriously and for being tazed when they fail to follow the orders of police officers. Gainesville was formerly known as “Hogtown” and describes what there is to do in town outside of the university. Binge drinking is required to maintain sanity when not watching classes on VHS tape.</p>
<p>University of Miami - Good school, very expensive. Private and sorry they joined the ACC; most students pine for older days when their teams won more games. Small classes in a rough town, but mostly attended by wealthy out-of-state kids looking for the warm weather experience. BMWs and daddy’s money required.</p>
<p>Rollins College - Pretty LAC in overcrowded Orlando area. Students have too much free time and money for non-academic diversions in the town of the Mouse. </p>
<p>University of Central Florida - Overcrowded and understaffed school, still known as an engineering school, but this will change as big engineering firms retreat from Florida due to Space Coast budget cuts in NASA. Lags behind other state schools in other departments but a newer campus although still too many commuters. Good rivalry with USF, but UCF needs to start winning to be interesting.</p>
<p>University of South Florida - Like UCF a huge regional state school with close ties to area community colleges. Distributed campus with main campus in Tampa. Not much of a college feel, but has good med school. </p>
<p>Florida Tech - Some people don’t even know it exists despite the fact that it is a serviceable school for wannabee engineers. Caters to Space Coast concerns.</p>
<p>Florida Southern College - Another small, private, pretty LAC in Lakeland. Nice choice if the big schools are just too much or too far.</p>
<p>Florida International - Large commuter school that now has a med school and law school in greater Miami-Dade county. The UCF/USF of Miami. </p>
<p>Florida Atlantic - Smallish state commuter college with the UCF/USF distributed campus concept. In between the bigger state schools and the new “state colleges” that also work as community colleges.</p>
<p>Saint Leo University - Private school north of the greater Tampa area.</p>
<p>Florida Gulf Coast - Newest state university near Ft. Myers.</p>
<p>Nova Southeastern University - Private school near Ft. Lauderdale with a law school and a osteopathic med school. </p>
<p>This is fun.</p>
<p>New York has been done a lot, but i’ll give my input.
Cornell- Great school, selective obviously. Not many people from my school even apply. In a boring town from what I hear. Ivy. </p>
<p>Columbia- More desired location. Ivy. Very few people from my school are accepted. </p>
<p>New York University- Very popular at my HS. Great location, not very “traditional” college experience. Many applicants and pretty selective. Expensive with terrible aid. Tisch and Stern is highly regarded. Many people say how overrated it is. </p>
<p>Fordham- Solid academics. Less popular than NYU but a good school. Have heard that there are a lot of required courses. Campus in the Bronx is nice, but surrounding area is terrible. </p>
<p>St. John’s in Queens- Easy to get into. Kind of a safety and expensive for it’s not so great academics. </p>
<p>Hofstra- Popular for sports. Relatively close to NYC. Pretty good school. Apparently, it’s really trying to improve and that is apparent. OK campus, a lot to do. </p>
<p>Syracuse- Great school for communication. Huge greek life. A lot of partying. </p>
<p>SUNY’s
Stony Brook- Commuter school, terrible campus and social life but academics are great especially in the sciences. About an hour and a half from NYC. Surrounding area isn’t too bad.
Geneseo- The “ivy” of the SUNY’s. Well regarded but in the middle of nowhere. More selective of the SUNYs.
Binghamton- Good school, terrible location. Lots of people around here apply.
Suny Buffalo- Party school. Good academics, decent location. COLD winters.
New Paltz- More artsy but a good school.
Albany & Many other SUNY’s- Known for partying and not so great academics.</p>
<p>New York</p>
<p>I agree with Penny Lane’s post. SUNY Geneseo is considered the “Ivy” of the SUNYs. Smart kids who are looking to save money for grad school go here. </p>
<p>Strong emphasis on undergraduate education, no TAs teaching classess and a beautiful campus makes you forget at times this is a State school. Probably the best looking campus of the SUNYs. </p>
<p>Geneseo is 30 minutes South of Rochester, 10 minutes from Letchworth State Park (check it out for those who enjoy the outdoors) 1.5 hours from Niagara Falls. The campus borders the town of Geneseo’s mainstreet which is just adorable. </p>
<p>The stronger majors at Geneseo are the sciences (pre-med), education, business, speech pathology, english, psychology, political science (pre-law) just to name a few.</p>
<p>Ah, more P2N “wisdom” to rectify:</p>
<p>Florida State University - Clearly, the University in Florida with the worst alumni inferiority complex, due to being passed by others in the rankings. Good social sciences, nice campus, most “country” students. Does important research, but constantly talking about a mag lab gets old. Veiled racism when FSU people talk about how “their” engineering program is brought down by sharing it with FAMU. Horrible PR problems of the “why Johnny can’t read at FSU” variety. Athletics come first, yet can’t even beat any in-state rival last year in football. Has not done the necessary work to shake “Free Shoes U” “Florida Safety University” monikers. Now mimics Ohio State with “The Florida State University” in ads. What should be a proud state flagship university that builds on its strengths is mired in “Me tooism” </p>
<p>University of Florida – I think they are going to re-name it University of Jonestown for the amount of kool-aid being taken…”Yes, you have 400 student lectures, yes, you can’t find a place to park your car, yes, you have TAs and online classes, yes, we treat you like a number…But you are a Florida Gator!” Bull Gator boosters now control school, they re-name main drags at the school for these old guys. The top public in state, but for what you get, you better love football and be satisfied with that…Also, hope they don’t revert to pre-1995 form in sports or you will be really bored. </p>
<p>University of Miami – Yes, it is private and the state doesn’t subsidize your education to ridiculous low levels with deficit spending. One of only two top 50 national universities in the state. Not too sorry for joining the ACC, had opportunity to beat FSU on the road and have a better W-L record then the ‘Noles this year. Small classes on a beautiful campus in Coral Gables, one of America’s wealthiest cities. Attended by great students who may get some parental help, not government help (the way it used to be done) in tuition. Do some kids drive BMWs? Yes. M-Bs too. I think I read somewhere that envy was a bad trait to have. Yes, the traffic off campus can be a bear. Oh, current UF image is Tebow and Meyer, FSU’s is Bobby Bowden and NCAA hearings, Miami’s is Haitian earthquake victims wearing “U” hats after having their lives saved at UM’s field hospital in Port au Prince. </p>
<p>Rollins College – Nice school in Winter Park, an old money, upscale Orlando suburb. Yes, combo makes Tallahassee look like a trailer park. </p>
<p>“University of Central Florida - Overcrowded and understaffed school, still known as an engineering school, but this will change as big engineering firms retreat from Florida due to Space Coast budget cuts in NASA. Lags behind other state schools in other departments but a newer campus although still too many commuters. Good rivalry with USF, but UCF needs to start winning to be interesting. “ </p>
<p>OK I left this the way P2N wrote it. I thought it clearly the shows their absolute disregard for the people of NASA and the space industry…They have made advances than your FSU Mag lab will make in 200 years…I guess only short-sighted FSU boosters revel in the demise of the US manned space program…10 years from now, CERN will blow away FSU’s Mag lab in capability. FSU people badmouth up and coming UCF all the time…THEY ARE AFRAID IT WILL PASS THEM UP IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS </p>
<p>University of South Florida – University of Temple Terrace</p>
<p>Florida Tech - Wow, P2N didn’t say it should die with NASA, so kind. </p>
<p>Florida Southern College - ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.</p>
<p>Florida International – Trying to fill a needed gap in the state education picture. Yes, it has problems, but at least its tutors are not writing papers for athletes on the state’s dime</p>
<p>Florida Atlantic – Nice area, but a little sterile </p>
<p>Florida State College - Don’t worry about GPA, SAT etc. Hey, when friends ask, you just tell them you go to Florida State. They won’t bat an eye.</p>
<p>These are my opinion of the most recognized schools in Texas.
<p>I’m surprised at how little Trinity and Southwestern get mentioned in regards to Texas. I wouldn’t expect them to be very known outside of Texas, but in-state I’d say those are the two private schools I’d want to attend after Rice. Then comes Baylor and SMU in my opinion.</p>
<p>Objective rankings to give perspective of Florida schools without shamelessly pushing one specific institution.</p>
<p>US News Rankings of Florida Colleges</p>
<ol>
<li><p>University of Florida</p></li>
<li><p>Miami</p></li>
</ol>
<p>…</p>
<ol>
<li>Florida State University</li>
</ol>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Yep, and McUFelony leads in football players arrested…27 since Coach Meyer came aboard. Latest is a real tough guy who hit TWO women.</p>
<p>Two positions is enough of a dominating lead to put up with 50,000 others, huge classes and being a number?</p>
<p>I never thought about that. Football arrests are a good criterion for evaluating colleges. </p>
<p>We should just ignore student caliber, acceptance rate, and research output and focus on non-sequitur arguments.</p>
<p>Why would any in-state student want to go to a higher ranked school (UF) for free through Bright Futures when they could spend $36,000 a year to go to a lesser ranked school. (Miami) </p>
<p>You do get smaller class sizes though, totally worth $144,000 of undergraduate debt.</p>
<p>New Jersey!!!</p>
<p>Rutgers: pretty much a back up school for everyone, but they still offer a great education and it’s pretty well known.</p>
<p>TCNJ: great school; basically the smartest kids apply there. however, it’s not really known by people outside of jersey.</p>
<p>Rowan: okay school. don’t know too many people who go there.</p>
<p>William Paterson: (aka Willie P) for the bottom 25% of the class…</p>
<p>Ramapo: actually a decent school and has gotten a better rep over the years. was Doland Trump’s second choice for college.</p>
<p>Princeton: no one from NJ goes here. obviously one of the best schools in the country and I sometimes forget it’s in NJ because literally no one from jersey even applies…</p>
<p>Ryan82</p>
<p>Kool Aid time huh? </p>
<p>“I never thought about that. Football arrests are a good criterion for evaluating colleges.”</p>
<p>Yes, when it shows who actually controls a university and their priorities…The Bull Gators re-name streets, put up plaques of post-game speeches and now want statues of Heisman trophy winners put up on UF grounds…Tell the fine CC folks where the UF prospective student tour ends…Yes, Ben Hill (Bull Gator) Griffin Stadium.</p>
<p>How about some Orange?</p>
<p>“We should just ignore student caliber, acceptance rate, and research output and focus on non-sequitur arguments.”</p>
<p>Ah, the UF Goebbels practice…Repeat a big lie enough times and people will believe it. Been down this one before:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/752422-best-university-florida-2.html#post1062971507[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/752422-best-university-florida-2.html#post1062971507</a> </p>
<p>Yep, kind of bursts your arrogant bubble when UMiami’s students are superior and the admit rate is the same or lower</p>
<p>Maybe the grape flavor is more to your liking?</p>
<p>“Why would any in-state student want to go to a higher ranked school (UF) for free through Bright Futures when they could spend $36,000 a year to go to a lesser ranked school. (Miami)”</p>
<p>Lots of reasons. They (correctly) realize UF/UM are in a statistical dead heat, but UM has so many advantages. Yes, they can use Bright Futures at Miami. Oh, nothing is for “free” however. Bright Futures takes money spent on lottery tickets by low-income Floridians and re-distributes it to middle-class Floridians so they can buy that shiny new car instead of making that EFC, hence the nickname “BMW scholarship.” All for an 840 SAT (wasn’t that Tebow’s score?). Deficit budget spending by the state is used to support the UF. Yeah, there is that little thing called interest on the debt. Yes, again, nothing is for free, it is just owed to China.</p>
<p>Maybe you like the strawberry better?</p>
<p>“You do get smaller class sizes though, totally worth $144,000 of undergraduate debt.”</p>
<p>Guess the only scholarship you have heard of is Bright Futures? UM students get a significant amount in merit scholarships for their superior academic achievement. Plus, I know this might be a tough concept to grasp, their parents do make the EFC! Wow, personnel responsibility over government responsibility! Maybe that is why it is a PRIVATE school.</p>
<p>Ok, you get the cherry flavored Kool Aid, you’ve earned it.</p>
<p>Re: MSU
</p>
<p>Huh? The majority of people here are from the Wayne/Oakland County area. Hardly “farmers and rednecks”. Originally, yes, it was an agricultaral school- but not since the early 1900s.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>From my experience with these three schools (applied to and got into all three) you have some things way wrong. I would actually rank them SMU, TCU, Baylor. And as far as the out of state students at TCU, the split is 70/30 in-state/out-of-state and at SMU it’s 50/50.</p>