<p>I'm struggling with my UCF vs. UF decision.</p>
<p>I'm a National Merit Semifinalist and hopefully Finalist. If I make Finalist, UCF has offered free tuition, room, etc. UF offers very little.</p>
<p>I've spent time on both campuses and while I like UCF, my preference would be UF.</p>
<p>But the scholarship that UCF is offering is compelling and hard to turn down.</p>
<p>If it weren't for the scholarship, my choice would be UF. But having the extra money available for grad school is compelling.</p>
<p>I want to major in Chemistry and go on to graduate school in either Pharmacy or Pharmacology.</p>
<p>Here's my question... would getting my B.S. from UCF limit me, in any way, from getting into a top flight graduate school? Would getting my B.S. from UF be more beneficial than getting my B.S. from UCF?</p>
<p>(I'm posting this to both school's boards so I can get the different perspectives.)</p>
<p>Your post is ironic because my daughter is in a similar situation except she is torn between UCF and Auburn. Our daughter is also a NMSF and is expected to be a NMF. She has applied to UF, but isn’t seriously considering UF because they are not generous with NMF as other schools are and so many of her classmates plan to attend UF that a part of her wants to get out-of-state to meet new people. She wasn’t really considering UCF, even though she did apply and get accepted earlier this month until the invitation for the NMSF came in the mail with the scholarship opportunities. Now she is torn. She is planning on attending the dinner and finding out more about the scholarship. She is specifically interested in knowing if over-seas study and internships are covered in addition to the $10,000 per year payment. If it is UCF may be a done deal, although if Auburn offers her an elite scholarship tacked onto the NMF scholarship or she gets a full ride at another choice high on her list she won’t choose UCF. </p>
<p>Now, here is one reason I have given to her to look more seriously at UCF versus the other schools. She originally wanted to study pharmacy, but now is leaning toward PA school. She will need a lot of clinical experience to get into PA school and UF has a very good one, so she will look there for grad school, but as an undergrad she might have more medical internship possibilities in Orlando than Gainesville. This could also benefit a future pharmacy student. Last, I have heard recommendations for many years that it is better to go to a different school for grad studies than where you go for undergrad studies. In fact, I recently heard that Harvard is not accepting its own undergrad students to their grad school. So, to finalize all of this rambling, doing your undergrad at UCF with the plethora of potential medical opportunities around, the great scholarship money (money saved can go to grad school) and getting a different perspective on your area of interest than where you go to grad school might be better. The big downside is that UF’s football team is far better than UCF’s. (Just in case you are wondering - both my husband and I are UF alumni.)</p>
<p>One more thing, have you emailed any professors at UF’s pharmacy school to get input of what they prefer in an incoming grad student? They might be able to give you the best advice.</p>
<p>It’s funny, because Auburn is also on the list because of the generous offer to NMFs.</p>
<p>Overseas studies is interesting in that my parents have said that if I take the UCF scholarship they will gladly pay for overseas studies. I guess I would be saving them a lot, so they would be willing to kick that in for me!</p>
<p>That’s a good idea about the UF professors. I will look into that over the next couple of months.</p>
<p>I’m not much of a football fan so it doesn’t make a difference to me. Although I figure that I’ll get caught up in some of that once I get to whatever college I’m going to.</p>
<p>Have you all visited Auburn? My family is considering going up before the year is out.</p>
<p>My daughter and I visited Auburn this past spring. We both loved it. The campus is beautiful and the people are really nice. We visited during a War Eagle day. This is an invitation day to basically sell Auburn to potential students. We toured the campus, visited booths set up by the different academic departments and went to a discussion session with current Auburn students. Everyone was really nice and informative. We also drove around the town and were impressed about how clean it was. (I specifically sought out the poorest sections because I heard that even the “ghetto” was nice in Auburn.) I have to agree, even the poor sections were not as run down as you normally would find. The only downside to Auburn compared to UCF is that the town is a college town and you need to drive about an hour or so to have a more “city-like” experience. My daughter doesn’t care about that because she anticipates so many on-campus weekend activities to keep her busy when she isn’t driving to her boyfriend’s campus to visit. Yes, I have a boyfriend situation.</p>
<p>My dad works for a company (Fortune 500) that recruits from both UCF and UF (as well as many other colleges) and they have different starting salaries for graduates from different colleges.</p>
<p>UF and UCF both have the same starting salaries and, according to my father, both are considered equal.</p>
<p>So while conventional wisdom and history might suggest that your statement is true, it would appear (based on my dad’s company, at least) that this is no longer the case.</p>
<p>Additionally, I think that once you get outside of Florida, a degree from Florida, UCF, FSU, USF, etc. all look the same. I don’t think that an employer in North Carolina is going to be impressed by a UF degree vs. a UCF degree any more than someone down here would differentiate between a degree from the University of Kentucky vs. University of Louisville.</p>
<p>Joe, UF has a better academic reputation. Miami and Florida are the best undergraduate schools, pretty even when it comes to admission. UF’s great value I think will keep making it more and more difficult to get in. Just look at their freshman profile this year.</p>
<p>I don’t want to argue your dad’s company simply because there is a clear difference in degrees, anyone in Florida knows that.</p>
<p>I’m trying to avoid reputation and focus more on reality. And I don’t mean that to sound “smart” but I’ll admit that it’s hard to ignore “prestige.”</p>
<p>“anyone in Florida knows that” - I’ll say that “anyone in Florida BELIEVES that” but I doubt that MANY in Florida have much in the way of facts to back that up. And they believe it just because it has always been said.</p>
<p>Regarding my father’s company, it’s an engineering company and they believe that a UCF engineering graduate is just as capable as a UF engineering graduate and treat them equally. He said they actually recruit more from UCF because UCF is more responsive to industry needs when it comes to preparing their students with actual job skills.</p>
<p>I think they’re both great schools and I think I can make a successful college career at either school in preparation for graduate school.</p>
<p>Not sure that I’ve found my answer yet, but I’m still waiting to hear what UF has to say as far as scholarships go before making my final decision.</p>
<p>I know nothing about chemistry, but both my husband and I have graduate degrees in other fields. I am an attorney and I can assure you that nobody ever asks me where I went to undergrad. My husband has a PhD in engineering – again, he is never asked about undergrad. (To be fair, both of us attended no-name small undergrad colleges.). If paying for UF would, in any way, limit your ability to attend a top shelf graduate school, then that should enter your equation for sure. What I really don’t know is whether a top chemistry graduate program would be more likely to admit a UF graduate over a UCF graduate. My guess, and its only a guess, is that a high GPA, good GRE scores and letters of recommendation are paramount. As far as education is concerned, I’ve attended colleges all over the spectrum and basically, the education has been the same, although at a tougher-entry school you can expect your competition to be a bit sharper (which could affect your grades and your shot at grad school …)</p>
<p>If you are not sure that graduate school is an option, I’d tip the scale towards UF simply because I think it will get your resume looked at by more recruiters. However, if you are going to grad school for sure, you should visit the schools and make a decision from your own impressions. Neither decision you make is a bad one.</p>
<p>Good luck, and congratulations on your accomplishments!</p>
<p>What your father tells you about his company’s recruiting policies (that UF and UCF are regarded as equvalent) sounds pretty accurate for (some) engineering fields. It’s very possible that engineering is different from chemistry, however.</p>
<p>On the other hand, your end goal is to become a Pharmacist, right? So if that is mostly the thing you are going to college for, then it does seem to make sense to save your money and go to UCF. </p>
<p>Things that are somewhat lacking at UCF (but I’m not sure that UF is much better): the percentage of other students who are as academically oriented and successful as you will be low. Intellectual curiosity is a bit harder to come by. This stuff may or may not matter to you, and the extent to which it’s better at UF may not be worth the money.</p>
<p>Most engineering companies don’t have different starting salaries based on where you graduated. Actually the starting salary is usually based on some cook book formula where level of education, number of internships, work experience, etc. are the main factors.</p>
<p>What differentiates the schools is recruiting. My fortunate 500 company recruits from a list of preferred 15 engineering schools where UF is the only Florida school on the list. You might be right that some random person off the street from NC might not know the difference between UF, UCF, FIU, etc… But ask any professional which schools are the highest ranked schools in their field and they will know right away. Don’t be fooled otherwise.</p>
<p>But who cares about engineering. You’re interested in Pharmacy right? Pharmacists know that UF’s COP is top 10. My advice: if your interest is pharmacy, then maybe you can call UF’s COP and see if they have some joint undergrad/PharmD program.</p>
<p>The quality of students is better at UF as an overall, granted you seem like you would be above average still.</p>
<p>you should consider that the majority of incoming college students change their major/plan.</p>
<p>for example I happen to have a ton of freshmen friends here at UF and many have changed their minds from engineering in the first semester, even my own sister deviated from her initial plan of going to medical school…I also changed my major multiple times.</p>
<p>What if you decide that graduate/professional school isn’t for you? I mean you haven’t even attended college yet so we can not be sure of this.</p>
<p>(I am a transfer student, my main decision for transferring was because of the quality of students at my previous school…it is the worst when everyone you go to class with has little to no interest.)</p>
<p>UCF is a pretty good up and coming school, I hear of good recruiting for computer science high school students as well. (full rides to good high school programmers)</p>
<p>But if its a money issue, and you absolutely cannot afford to have a choice then well, its clear.</p>
<p>Joe, from your responses it seems like you don’t necessarily need the scholarship money since you are planning to use it as savings for grad school. If you plan on becoming a chem major with intention on getting a degree in pharm, I strongly recommend UF. And I would have to disagree with your notion that UF degrees are equivalent to degrees from other Florida universities out of state. I believe that within the state of Florida, companies will put some or no distinction (like your father’s company) between in-state universities, but for out of state companies, the UF name is more recognizable than the UCF name.</p>
<p>If your intention is grad school, your individual success will matter more than where you go for your undergraduate degree. If you went to UF and slacked off, whereas if you went to UCF and scored internships with a high GPA, there’s no question the UCF route is more attractive. However, being a student at UF, I can assure you that the resources of a top pharmaceutical program on campus will be to your advantage for internships, co-ops, etc. In the end, what you do is more important than where you go.</p>
<p>I had the same problem deciding between UF and UCF for engineering. UCF offered me their Pegasus scholarship, and UF didn’t offer me any money, but accepted me into the Honors Program. I kind of felt like UCF was buying me out as a student to go to their college.</p>
<p>The best chemistry programs in Florida are UF and Florida State. UCF is not even on the map in this area, even if they are throwing money at you. They are giving money away because they lack the quality programs present at the primary schools.</p>
<p>And what is your criteria to say that UF “isn’t UT-Austin” when they are identical in every single aspect (grades, test scores, school type, population, etc). There are no two schools in the country more identical than UF to UT, UT to UF… however you want to put it.</p>