<p>So I got accepted to both UF and FSU Honors. I haven't really made a commitment to either (haven't applied to housing for either yet) but they both are offering me full rides more or less. </p>
<p>UF is giving me the Florida Opportunity Scholars Program .</p>
<p>I plan on majoring in mathematics and I am wondering which do you think is better FSU Honors or UF regular. Also cold someone give me some advice on housing, I haven't really looked too much into it. Did I wait too late for housing?</p>
<p>Why go to Florida State when you have the option of going to Florida for free? Getting into FSU honors, I’d assume that you barely missed the mark for Honors at UF. Why not go to UF and apply laterally to the honors program there?</p>
<p>There is also a difference in program quality (going off of US News)
UF is 57th, while FSU is 67th</p>
<p>what do you want to do after graduation? is there anything you’d like to achieve during school?</p>
<p>when you make a decision, don’t let honors be a factor. you can probably get into UF honors laterally, and even if you don’t, honors has little or no effect. you get a special dorm, some special (not specialized) advisors, and some special classes (which you can get into without honors anyways, in many cases).</p>
<p>also, you’re not too late on housing. and note the authors name to the first response. just so theres no confusion.</p>
<p>Yes, I am an FSU parent and alumnus. So what?</p>
<p>Honors at FSU is certainly better than regular at UF, especially when one is scheduled to receive scholarships. Going regular UF and expecting to lateral into Honors is no guarantee, plus may involve a semester delay or more. Why take the risk for very questionable gain? FSU emphasizes undergraduate research for Honors students especially. My D1 benefited greatly from her Honors experience, especially in advanced mathematics.</p>
<p>Further, the difference in US News ratings between UF and FSU is highly suspect for at least two reasons:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Per student funding. UF is rewarded for hosting the state agricultural service IFAS, which in reality contributes little or nothing to an actual undergraduate education. An equivalent on FSU’s part would be to include the budgets of every hospital, clinic, lab and MD office as a part of FSU Med, but US News doesn’t do this. So UF gets a significant bump. </p></li>
<li><p>Reputation. Extremely unreliable as a US News rating factor, yet it constituted the most significant factor in the US News rating. Even UF’s President Machen was caught cheating on the US News rating to make UF look better than it was.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Reality check: Just because Bernie ranked his own school a “5” and FSU as a “3” does not mean he “cheated”. FSU’s president conveniently “lost” and couldn’t provide it to the press, so we will never know about his. Caveat emptor.</p>
<p>I too was accepted to both UF reg and FSU Honors (as well as UT-Austin and a few other universities, including a couple w/ merit scholarship offers). I plan to major in chem, and minor in math and physics. I’ve also already taken a couple college level math courses (MAC2313 - Calc III, last semester; MAP2302 - Diff Eq, this semester) thru FIU’s Dual Enrollment program, so I’ve had a little exposure to the math curriculum in the Florida SUS. And when it came to making my final decision, I chose UF.
I suggest that you check each univerity’s Undergrad Catalog and look at the math major curriculum and course offerings. I suspect that you’ll discover that the curriculum for math major may be more challenging at UF, but I’m not sure - I do know that UF’s course requirements for a math minor are significantly more challenging.<br>
Also, you may want to talk to the Math Dept UG Advisors at both UF and FSU, to discuss your goals, concerns, etc. Or better yet, go for a visit and meet the Advisors - then sit-in on a class.
Good luck - and if you decide on UF, maybe we’ll see each other there next Fall.</p>
<p>Rogracer, with all due respect as you are a parent like me, the St. Pete Times singled out Machen for his actions with US News ratings. If it were no big deal I am sure the Times could have discussed World Peace or another worthy topic.</p>
<p>*The Saint Petersburg Times
* Machen’s rankings ploy is just rank</p>
<p>In Print: Thursday, June 18, 2009</p>
<p>It’s one thing for a university president to stretch to put his school in the best possible light. University of Florida president Bernie Machen, responding to a U.S. News and World Report survey for its college rankings issue in August, said UF is on par with the likes of Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, Columbia and Princeton. But it’s another thing to artificially enhance the school’s ranking by grading down other universities.</p>
<p>In Machen’s world, only two other public universities, Michigan and California-Berkeley, belong in the same category as UF. That’s a bit of a stretch for a college president who said in April, “We’re probably bigger than we ought to be” and who worked the Legislature to ward off funding cuts that a colleague equated with “Armageddon.”</p>
<p>The UF president shaded the rankings of other universities in Florida as well. While he ranked UF as distinguished, he ranked no other state university in the next category, "strong.‘’ He ranked Florida State and the University of Miami in the middle category as "good.‘’ The University of South Florida was "adequate.‘’ This looks a little like playing around with the scoreboard at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium to benefit the home team.</p>
<p>What’s really behind Machen’s survey responses — first obtained by the Gainesville Sun through a public records request — is an effort to boost UF’s standings in the magazine’s rankings. Those rankings are far too influential in shaping public perception of institutions’ academics. Peer assessments count for 25 percent of the magazine’s ranking formula. And Machen knows that by placing UF in the highest category — and rating places like University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill at the midlevel “good” — he’s helping boost UF’s overall rank. He’s not alone. Clemson University recently acknowleged its president adopted a similar tactic.</p>
<p>Such a strategy, however, amounts to complicity in boosting the outsized influence of these oversimplified and subjective rankings. And it’s intellectually dishonest. Inflating UF’s ranking by downgrading the rankings of others is not going to elevate the quality of higher education in Gainesville.<a href=“underlining%20added”>/quote</a></p>
<p>Combine this action with Machen’s own statement of the worth of US News in 2004 to the same newspaper and we begin to see a professional academic’s view of ratings like US News:</p>
<p>I do agree FSU has a math department that is on par with UFs. But as any math major will tell you, the St Pete article is sensationalized (gasp!) and fails a basic test of statistics, as a single sample cannot possibly influence the rankings.</p>
<p>I personally believe that UF regular is better than FSU Honors. Most people that I’ve discussed with (teachers, counselors, and other students) have mostly agreed and those that has thought otherwise were pretty much always an FSU student, FSU alumni, or a parent 2 noles.</p>
<p>What?! Media publications are sensationalized and intended to stir controversy? Amazing! ;)</p>
<p>Were this realistic way of viewing reports like editorials and US News rankings the way we started this discussion we’d have come to our mutual conclusion earlier.</p>
<p>Mr/Ms Lynch - experts, including faculty, students, alumni, state and federal legislators, first-grade teachers, psychiatrists, beer buddies, governors, senators, presidents, liberals, conservatives, accountants, engineers, military officers, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles and cousins, plus medical doctors, nurses and religious leaders agree FSU is better. That settles the anecdotal referencing point. :)</p>
<p>Seriously, the student needs to go and visit each department and speak with the faculty.</p>
<p>I really think it reflects poorly on UF and FSU when these kinds of arguments about which school is better break out. UF students have marginally better stats coming out of high school, and our sciences and engineering programs are better. FSU has comparable, if not better liberal arts and fine arts programs, depending on the program.</p>
<p>between the two, which school you go to should be dependent on what you plan on doing at there and after, and which school you feel better with in general. its a hard decision. gather the specifics, and make a decision then. dont count on people who foam at the mouth when trying convince you to go to one school or another–i promise they’re not doing this for your own interests.</p>
<p>tldr: ask more specific questions probably.</p>
<p>I totally agree with aforautumn (current uf student), there is no point in debating which is better in a forum like this… sometimes fsu is better and sometimes uf is better… being better or nearly the same doesn’t take anything away from the other school. Fsu is pretty much exactly the same in many programs but does that make fsu better overall? What does “overall” have to do with anything really? If I was hiring or deciding who to get into my grad program I wouldn’t discredit an fsu student, give an honors student a huge leap above others, etc… In this world the only two things that matter right after graduation are: 1. internships 2. gpa and of those internships are far more important. A student that went to ucf but had two or three great internships and a solid gpa would easily get the job over an honors uf student with no internship… You guys (fsu and uf fanboys) can’t be so shortsighted that you ruin people’s lives based on your biased opinions…</p>
<p>No one can actually say one school is better than the other. Each person will get a different perspective and perception of UF and FSU honors. Ranking wise, UF is marginally better than FSU. However, we are all different types of learners and we all learn best in different environments. Therefore, you will never know until you attend both universities. I think that UF will be better because of the Gator Nation. The Gator Nation has connections in almost every segment of corporate America. Also, at UF you will be competing amongs the top students in Florida. The average ACT scores for FSU range from 25-31(2010); however the ACT scores range from 27-31(2010). Also, you can take a look at the summer bridge program at FSU. Students with 19 ACT and a 1330 SAT (All 3 combined CR, M, & W) are allowed in the school. FSU honors wouldn’t be challenging to you. Basically I am saying I’d rather be the dumbest of the smart people, rather than being the smartest of the dumb people. (I am not calling anyone dumb. It is just a saying) Basically you will be one of the smartest students at FSU which will limit your room to grown. However, at UF you will be a regular student-that is equivalent to FSU honors-which will give you more opportunities to learn from your peers.</p>
<p>“FSU The academic profile of the middle 50th percent of the students that were offered honors invitations in 2010 was: 4.1-4.4 academic GPA*; 29-32 ACT composite, 1950-2090 SAT total.”</p>
<p>“UF A weighted GPA of at least 4.0 as computed by the university’s Office of Admissions. SAT Reasoning Test - A combined score of 2070 on the math, critical reading and writing sections. Students who have taken the SAT multiple times may use their highest subscores from any test administration of the new SAT to meet this requirement. American College Test (ACT) - A composite score of 33”</p>
<p>I was accepted to both schools but not honors. However, I chose UF. I hope you become another addition to the GATOR NATION!!!</p>
<p>^Amazing. One of the worst of the UF fanboy posts I’ve ever seen. Starts out fine, then rapidly descends into some very questionable conclusions. </p>
<p>Keep drinking the UF Kool Aid. Seems you haven’t had enough yet. :rolleyes: Oh…a 4:07 AM post. Maybe something else is going on.</p>
<p>JF’s post makes perfect sense to me. In fact, I think Gatornation should use JF’s line as Gatornation’s Official Motto. The motto could be incorporated into UF’s NCAA TV ads for showing at half-time during football season–JF could be in the commercial as student spokesperson.</p>
<p>“I’d rather be the dumbest of the smart people, rather than being the smartest of the dumb people.”</p>
<p>Almost every time I read a pro gator post, it is at the expense of of putting another FL university down- I’m glad you love your school but in honestly it’s become a huge turn off and when it’s time for my son to apply for college I hope this school is not one of his choices. At his school there is one teacher who is in her late 50’s that went to UF and is constantly making snide remarks to another teacher who went to FSU around the same time.
??Really?? you both were in college over 35 years ago----does a gator every let go of their ego…you both work at the same school and make the same amount of money, who cares where you went to college at this point :(</p>