<p>The point is none of these schools offer the opportunities or placement true prestige schools do.</p>
<p>2 people from the reality show "The Apprentice" went to UF. One was the winner, Kendra, and the other was one of the top 4 candidates this past season.</p>
<p>All these people were college dropouts: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:College_dropouts%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:College_dropouts</a> </p>
<p>and were very successful. You don't NEED a good college or even a college at all to be successful but it does help. </p>
<p>Think of success as a ladder. Your own personality can let you climb the ladder. In the contemporary world, a top college (especially a top grad university) basically lets you start off at a higher rung. Your own individuality still accounts for whether you succeed or not.</p>
<p>you guys worry about prestige to much, if theres on thing that i don't like about this site is the fact that so much credit it given to LACS AND HYPMS but state schools are just as good, cheaper, and offer a wider range of education.... </p>
<p>to say that florida isn't a good state for college is a false assumption, because since they started handing out the bright futures scholarship, full tuition to any state school alot of the smartest students have stayed in the state. yes we may like to party, and are very addicted to sports but that doesn't mean that you can't get a good education. lets see go to UF for $0 or go to lets say UMICH for atleast 20k. it seems UF is more attractive to me.</p>
<p>I think the difference between the top schools in Florida (FSU, UF, Miami, NCF, etc) with regards to matriculation should be completely based upon fit (and strength of specific program?), and not some false air of prestige</p>
<p>I agree with FSU-UF. Florida isn't a bad state for colleges. University of Miami and UF are top schools, and for Florida students, it makes a lot of sense to go to schools such as FSU and UF or USF because with bright futures, its basically free. I think you can still get a pretty good education in Florida.</p>
<p>Even with bright futures, it wasn't enough of a pull to keep me in florida.</p>
<p>UF, UM, FSU, UCF...</p>
<p>Bright Futures = love.</p>
<p>My parents did Florida Pre-Paid College, add Bright Futures on top of that... I will literally be grtting paid to go to a top 50 school that's relatively close to home.</p>
<p>I don't know anyone who chose UF and is unhappy with their decision. There's literally something for everyone.</p>
<p>Why does no one mention Stetson? I think Stetson is as good as Rollins. I think more people are starting to hear of Rollins because it's in Orlando, but Stetson had a better reputation before Orlando grew so much.</p>
<p>I live in South Florida. The problem is, there are a lot of programs that are lacking at either Miami or UF, so then you have to go down a level to FSU, and even then, programs like Poli Sci/IR, which are better at FSU, are still not great due to the lack of funding. I knew Sophomore year that I was never going to attend college in Florida. I had 100% bright futures this year and still never hesitated, I didn't even apply to one in-state college as a backup, and I don't have much money, so this was a big risk, I was probably 1/5 kids in my class of 575 this year that didn't apply to at least one in-state. If you enjoy Florida, and want to go to school here, UF is a good choice, but only if you go into the honors program, or major in a hard science, outside of that, they're really lacking. New College is becoming a good feeder school, but it is insanely liberal, even for me, and it's just not there yet in terms of prestige. So, yeah, a lot of my friends are going to UF and FSU in the fall while I'll be up in Boston at Tufts, but honestly, this place is just a bad environment for higher education. I told a friend who easily could've gotten in other places but applied to UF (ED) because his parents wanted him to stay in-state that it really comes down to the fact that opportunities are extremely limited here, and in a place like Gainesville, where nothing is going on, internships hardly exist, and even Tallahassee , despite it being the capitol, is not exactly a haven for job opportunity out of college.</p>
<p>From what I understand, UM is awesome, has a great honors program, and has some of the best facilities any college could offer (free movie theater, free gym, etc)</p>
<p>Yes the rec and student centers at UM are the best for any university that I've seen, I've worked out there many times, now I know where the money is going, lol. And the dorms are getting better there building about 500 new dorms but I still wont be applying to UM, LOL.</p>
<p>They should use some of that money to fix up the Orange Bowl, if anyone knows what I'm talking about.</p>
<p>lol, I know what you mean war chant. but the orange bowl is owned by the city of miami, so UM is using it basically for free. they would build a new stadium but they have no land in which to build it, and buying land in coral gables might cost them about 2million an acre..</p>
<p>Yeah, I know that, but they do have a say in the future of the stadium.</p>
<p>UCF gets no love? Dont get me wrong, it's a HUUUUUUUUGE school, but it has a good rep. in FL. USF is getting a bad rap from you guys. It's a pretty decent state school. UF and Miami are for sure the two best, with FSU not so far behind.</p>
<p>Ok, you prestige kids need a reality check. I live in Florida. I have every intention of leaving Florida. I like the schools here, but I want to leave because none of them fit me. My parents both went to florida schools (UF, UCF) and they both have doctorates. Are they making millions? No. They both chose career paths doing what they loved instead of doing it for money. It is entirely possible to graduate from a FL school and be much more successful than an Ivy graduate. I know plenty of adults who went to school at UF, UM, FSU. My cousin retired in her 30s so she could raise her kids. She was making a very large 6 digit salary working as an American consultant for a German bank. She went to UCF. Her husband continues to bring in another 6 digit salary while she stays home and raises her children. Where did he go? UCF. He's a CFO for a huge local construction company. </p>
<p>In order to get a good standing as a lawyer in Florida, it is essential to have a Florida law degree. There might be a few with other degrees, but a good majority of the lawyers have FL degrees (a majority of those being UF, I believe). The same goes for doctors.</p>
<p>In the south especially, the region of your degree carries a lot of weight. I'd say a good portion of the most sought after jobs are held by people with regional degrees. I know there are people down here with UF degrees that will make more than you kids will ever fathom with your LAC and Ivy degrees. </p>
<p>With that said, I really don't plan on staying in Florida. I want to relocate my life somewhere else. I want to raise my kids somewhere else. I ultimately want to end up back in Flordia. It is a great state, and I have fallen for it.</p>
<p>But saying stuff like "FL isn't where you go for college" is ignorant and most of you don't see past the paychecks potential careers provide. Your life needs to have more defining it than college degrees and numbers on a paycheck.</p>
<p>I would like to think that we are highlighting a problem in Florida's public schools. Look in the "your school's avg SAT" or "your school sends the most kids to what college" and you see a pattern.</p>
<p>Almost all the Florida public schools have below avg SATs and send their kids to ANY college if they are lucky. Jeb Bush and crew needs to get off their butt and stop worrying about pleasing all the retirees or soon-to-be retired's in Florida and more worried about the future. Sure, Florida is a great place to retire but perhaps making it a bit more pricey could be a solution. A couple hundred million raised from decreasing social security or a new tax might be the way to go. I have nothing against seeing hundreds of Cadillacs and Mercedes-Benz driven by the elderly when I go down to Disneyland but when the school system is down the crapper something needs to be done.</p>
<p>I think not bringing attention to Florida's school problems and thereby ignoring it are examples of the problems in contemporary democracy. Ignorance is the greatest enemy in a democracy and one group (the elderly in this case) should not have a monopoly on interests.</p>
<p>The problem with schools in Florida is far more complex than just trying to jack up SAT scores, which is merely a symptom. Florida is constantly growing and putting pressure on schools and infrastructure to keep up with growth. At FSU or UF alone the student population increases have been huge. Trying to build enough dorms or classrooms has been a challenge. Both are overpopulated. Then you have political pressure to develop newer schools like UCF without fully funding the flagship universities first. That is not a prescription for success. </p>
<p>Add to this the strange economy driven by tourism and retirees who at times decide not to support schools as might areas with different systems. Those who are recent arrivals do not have the loyalties developed by time and family and the result is a hodge-podge of poorly-funded systems built for the short-term. </p>
<p>However, with proper funding and support those established schools (FSU and UF) can compete with any other public university in the US. Witness the best-supported programs they have and see that they rank very well.</p>
<p>I agree with a lot of what Visirale said. First off, prestige is all in the eye-of-the-beholder. When you walk up and meet a person for the first time do you immediately ask, "Where did you go to school?" I would hope not. Do they list where your degree came from in the yellow pages? Look through the list of professors at some of the most "affluent" univiersities in the county and see where they got their B.A. or B.S. from. You'll probably see a wide range of places including "Podunk U." The first and foremost thing to think about when going to school is "fit." If you can't see yourself in Florida, fine....go somewhere else. But for those kids who want to attend in Florida, you have some fine options. Numerical rankings are meant to sell magazines. And those rankings are generated by some perceived stereotypes that once you did deeper, just are not true.</p>
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Florida is a great place to retire but perhaps making it a bit more pricey could be a solution.
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<p>LOL. Florida is one of the highest cost-of-living places there is, depending on the area. Grocery items are twice as high as the Northeast and other than California, real estate prices have skyrocketed. Land values alone in our subdivision have increased 235% in two years. </p>
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when I go down to Disneyland
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<p>Most people assume that they are seeing "Florida" when they go to DisneyWorld/Orlando. They aren't. They are literally in "Fantasy Land." Neither is Daytona or the Gulf Coast Beaches. To say that one knows Florida from a visit to Orlando is like saying one knows New York City just because you've flown into JFK once. </p>
<p>Parent2noles hit the nail on the head! I read a statistic recently that said that 1800 new people a day move into Florida. The infrastructure just can not keep up with the demand. Not to mention the 100,000+ snowbirds (transient winter residents) who flock to FL each winter. Most of these people do not even pay real estate tax. (FL does not have state income tax.) The big three schools of FL (UF, UM and FSU) all have accomplished very good programs in certain areas and I am very happy that my son has attended one of them.</p>