Reality Check!

<p>Needadecision...what is your High School? because the entire IB class of my High School is going to UF too. I'm one of the few in my schools who isn't IB that might attend UF.</p>

<p>My decision is between UF and Vandy. It's somewhat a no-brainer. Though i wanted to go in the most prestigious school as possible just to make my people more proud of me, i have a few problems that restrict me from going to Vandy. I made a blunder by filling the CCS/financial aid thing late, so my Financial aid package for Vandy would either come after May 1 or be looking unattractive. I also want to stay at driving distance to my parents for now. So it seems like i am a GATOR.</p>

<p>st. thomas aquinas in fort lauderdale</p>

<p>dont go to make people more proud of you...go because u want to. given the chance...i might still go to UF...i wanted to go to vandy, but im not a southern bell by any means and my parents both said that they are all over the campus...and when i stayed with a friend, her friends were all southern bells...completely not me...
what highschool do u go to?</p>

<p>slipstream, I am going to talk to you at school tomorrow.</p>

<p>I am only applying to UF now for ED...</p>

<p>I have looked at the price and distance of the Ivies and UVA... nope, UF it it.</p>

<p>Oh yeah, slip... here is why I am going to UF:</p>

<ul>
<li>Excellent college town. The campus is awesome. The football games are unmatched ( THE SWAMP PWNS!!!)</li>
<li>You will have $200K for graduate school if you ever go.... if you go to Vandy, you will have hundreds of thousands of dollars already blown on a school that is, well... I guess "good"... UF is just as better, albiet public though....</li>
</ul>

<p>Vanderbilt is good for grad, I guess... but you get into free at UF. You can write that you got into UF on a scholarship when you apply to graduate school.
- Largest NMF community... and honors dorms.</p>

<p>ufl.edu has more, but I know you know...</p>

<p>plus, UF will be ranked so much better than it already in years to come...</p>

<p>It takes like 2 hours and 30 minutes to get there... as apposed to like 6 or 7 hours.</p>

<p>"..it might interest you that in the 2006 USNews graduate rankings, UF now ranks 25th in engineering, while Rice places 29th."</p>

<p>I finally looked at USNews undergraduate engineering rankings. Rice ranks 19 and UF is tied for 39 with such illustrious schools as Vanderbilt, Brown, Notre Dame and Wash U-StL but ahead of Dartmouth, Yale, Iowa and Tulane).</p>

<p>I suspect that unless you plan to be a research engineer, any top-50 (or 80) engineering program will provide excellent preparation for an engineering career or graduate school.</p>

<p>GatorOwl....as a hiring manager for a major aerospace company, trust me when I say UF has a highly respected engineering program at the undergraduate or graduate level. We maintain a proprietary list of preferred schools from which we hire...and UF is on that list....beyond that the school is secondary to the student. My son goes to UF, and he wouldn't be if I didn't have complete confidence in the program.</p>

<p>relaxwolf, has your S made a decision yet??</p>

<p>rogracer</p>

<p>Thanks the assurance. I always take rankings with a grain of salt. The only metric that matters is one that identifies the place that gives you or your child the best combination of education and experience. Although several top-20 ranked schools have accepted my S, my wife and I are increasingly convinced that UF provides the best package for our S.<br>
YMMV</p>

<p>Last year my son also chose UF Honors over Vanderbilt Engineering (with scholarship $$). He has never regretted it. He loves UF, and with a couple of small outside scholarships, Bright Futures and being a NM finalist, he is actually making money going there. Our plan is to use the money we have saved for his college years to pay for his grad school. </p>

<p>I know that he was also swayed by the personal attention given to him during the recruiting visit that he was invited to in the summer before his senior year. UF is serious about wanting NM finalists and they make them feel VERY wanted. I have some concerns about the huge classes but that won't be such a problem after his first year.</p>

<p>Best of luck with your decisions, and congratulations on your acceptances.</p>

<p>Thanks patsmom; I appreciated your input along the way while S was trying to decide UF or Tulane. Your S's situation was similar and it was helpful to read of your S's experiences. S feels very good about choosing UF and we are all relieved and happy for him. Thanks and go gators!</p>

<p>In contrast to patsmom's s, I had a very different experience with the "Outstanding High School Scholars" program for the NMFs in the summer of Junior year. I felt like it was hastily put together and I didn't really get to learn a whole lot about UF during those few days. I would have liked for it to have been during the academic year so, if we wanted, we could have stayed with a host and even gone to classes and seen the campus when it was alive. To me, it seems senseless to bring prospective students to a school when there aren't any students there; they are the most important component of the school. I also wish that they would have broken up the 220+ students there into different groups so that we could have gotten a more intimate feel. It was intimidating to go into a discussion session when there were 200 other people. A few of my friends who went as well also expressed dissatisfaction at how it played out. </p>

<p>However, I must give credit where it is very deserved to Regan Garner, the person in charge of recruiting NMFs. Every time I emailed her questions or needed some little piece of information she would promptly respond (same day or one day later) and always seemed to want to make sure that all my inquiries were answered.</p>

<p>You may not need to save any money for grad school in engineering. Usually, there is enough money floating around that the better students get full-rides or close to it. A very cost-effective engineering education is to go to a quality public school at the undergraduate level. If you do well, you will likely be offered RAs or TAs, or even fellowships, to top graduate programs. It is actually possible to get a complete education through a PhD and pay almost nothing out-of-pocket. Shoot for that 3.5+ GPA at the undergrad level, and you will many doors open for you.</p>

<p>I'm also in the IB program and less than half of us will be attending UF or is considering it. This year's IB class is going to different schools such as Duke, Berkley, Cornell, Rochester, Yale, Georgia Tech, UF and so on. UF is a back up school for many of the students such as myself who didn't get offered enough money to be able to go to a better school such as Georgetown with more options in the field I am interested in.</p>

<p>My daughter was dying to get out of Florida and is looking at several northern schools with good scholarship offers but after our visit yesterday to UF it will be very hard to turn UF down. Gainesville was nice although traffic was bad, honors dorm was very nice. Campus was nice, people friendly. My biggest concern is the size and how that affects getting into classes. The presenters were praising the honors program and saying that you get easy access to honors advisors who make getting your classes much easy than general population, etc. But then while we were waiting for our appt with honors advisor we listened to a current student complaining to the receptionist about waiting 2 hours for her honors advisor appt and having to leave and how she hasn't been able to take one class for 2 semesters because it was always full, etc. Was she an exception or is this a taste of the kinds of scheduling headaches one can expect at UF. (I heard that NMFs get first pick for classes, but I'm interested in what non-NMF honor students can expect.)</p>

<p>never heard that.</p>

<p>i prolly wouldn't do honors... even if i got accepted, because most people in honors are antisocial and you dont know a bunch of ppl.</p>

<p>is what some ppl that i know who attend there have said who aren't in honors.</p>

<p>That's funny, amnesia, about your perception of the honors college people as antisocial. My introverted probably antisocial daughter was actually turned off by the bubbly extroverted honors guides who constantly stressed that the honors students (living in the honors dorm anyways) were definitely not the quiet nerds but very outgoing and active. (We also observed all the residents smiling and greeting each other.) She's hoping there actually will be at least some "antisocial" types.</p>

<p>Yeah, it looks like I'll probably turn down Cornell and Emory for the UF honors program. Cornell offered me a cool 600 bucks and I don't qualify for any aid at any schools ever. 40 grand is just too much. I guess I'd rather go to uf than be in hardcore debt, plus I know it will be a fun place to be. Good luck, its almost May 1st!</p>

<p>But it kinda sucks tho. I wish that I could pick the college I want to go to w/out having to settle bc all the others are just not possible...</p>

<p>shellymom, that's what I have heard from a couple friends who have brothers and sisters at UF.</p>

<p>alisone05, i don't think cornell and emory are even THAT good to really choose over UF with so much debt. Good choice.</p>

<p>it's a shame that UF is a backup school for some people... hopefully it won't be in the next few years.</p>

<p>i'm applyin' early decision this October...</p>