Hello All! I am a rising senior in high school (OOS) and am looking at the Florida schools for college. A little bit of background… SAT: 1520 GPA (UW): 4.0 not sure weighted. 3 APs this year and 5 next year. Most likely a NMF. I am looking to major in biology with a pre-med focus.
I’m hoping you all can help me discern the differences and +/- of the different schools. Even if your thoughts are purely subjective I would love to hear them!! Things that are important to me: good biology program, accessible research, pre-health advising program, reputable honors college, honors dorms.
I go to UCF now and they have an amazing honors college. You can register for classes 3 semester in advance and the honors students live in the towers dorm where you have your own bedroom and share th bathroom with one other person. The Room also comes with a kitchen and living area. I strongly suggest doing a honors college tour for UCF as I have never Heard of anyone not liking it.
@Danif99 Thanks for the reply! Could you elaborate on the honors college? What kinds of classes are offered through the honors college? Just a few, gen eds, or major specific too?
From my understanding, the honors college offers classes for gen Ed’s, as well as the upper division classes that are required for your specific major.
My son with similar stats will be a freshman at FSU in the fall. He will be in the honors program and dorm. We are impressed so far with the advising and the school’s efforts to make the university seem smaller and accessible. The UROP program will give you research opportunities immediately in fall of freshman year.
IMHO, you excluded one of your best options: New College of Florida. You should check it out.
I go to UCF, and the honors college is incredible. Towers at UCF are the best dorms you will find anywhere. Research is also very easy to get into within my major, which is engineering. I’m sure it will be similar with biology/pre-med.
Can’t really speak about the biology program, but I’m sure someone else can help you with that
The New College is entirely different than the other schools listed. It’s tiny. It has limited majors. It has one sport, sailing, on which no school funds are spent. From my kids’ Florida public high school, I didn’t know one kid who applied or attended.
I’d say the best for location of the others is USF. Beach.
Go Gators. It’s got Shands so pretty sweet for someone headed in your direction.
@Kacper1998 how difficult and selective is it to get into the honors college? My son will be doing Engineering …headed for computer engineering major. Thanks
Can anyone tell me about the Honors program at USF Tampa campus. (especially CS). I would also like to specifically know about the campus and any info on USF pls. Thanks
@ppxyz123 I recommend you post your question about USF honors in the USF forum. You’ll likely get a better response. 
I second New College. It has a really good track record for sending students to med school and having original research, and the entire school is an honors college. It is small - I am an alum from Florida and I expected NCF to be too small for me (my high school was nearly 4x the size) but it was actually incredibly helpful to have a small campus. Opportunities opened up for me dramatically as a result and class sizes are very small. You get a TON of hands-on research opportunities.