<p>I've been having a really tough time weighing my options. I got in to UMiami, UCF Honors, FSU Honors, and UF, and have pretty much narrowed it down to FSU Honors vs. UF. Both schools sound great but I can't decide where the right fit for me is, where i'll have the best prep for graduate/med school, and where I can obtain the best education.</p>
<p>My main question is, the perks from the FSU Honors program (early registration for classes, smaller class size, study abroad opportunities, scholarship money, possibly the Med Scholars program, etc..) are pretty nice. What would make UF a better choice, being a regular University of Florida freshman?</p>
<p>I'm trying my hardest to honestly make a level-headed decision that will be best for ME, but it's tough. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>Well, of course opinions here are going to be a bit lopsided here on the UF board.</p>
<p>I've never looked at the FSU Honors Program before, and I'm in UCF Honors. I have a friend that was automatically accepted into the Med Scholars program out of high school, turned down UF, and he's very happy with his decision to go to FSU. While the poster above me mentioned you may still be able to get into the UF honors program, the things I've heard about it aren't very glowing.</p>
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you may still be able to get into the UF honors program, the things I've heard about it aren't very glowing.
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<p>You don't like more intimate/challenging versions of normal UF classes and being in the best dorms on campus? I only took one science-related honors class (Physics II) but I was pretty impressed at the time.</p>
<p>The University of Florida has a nationally-recognized honors program. After gaining acceptance to the University of Florida, students must apply separately to the Honors Program and demonstrate significant academic achievement to be accepted. There are over 100 courses offered exclusively to students in this program.</p>
<p>Entering freshman in the program must have a weighted GPA of at least 4.0 and an SAT score of 2070 out of 2400 or an ACT score of 33. The Honors Program also offers housing for freshman in the Honors Residential College at Hume Hall. The Honors Program also offers special scholarships, internships, research, study abroad opportunities.</p>
<p>Also these scholarships are open to UF Honors Students</p>
<p>So there's no way you can apply to the Honors program if you don't have those stats?</p>
<p>My ACT score isn't quite high enough (30), but my composite SAT score (2020) almost meets the minimum requirement. And my weighted GPA is a 4.2.</p>
<p>Thank you guys! Your opinions have really helped me weigh my options. I hate to say this on the UF board, but I'm leaning more toward FSU Honors now. I really feel like the intimacy of the Honors program will benefit my quality of education and provide me with great research opportunities, while also yielding great MCAT scores for applying to med school. Plus, in this economy, I'm sure my parents will really appreciate me picking a school I've received a scholarship to already. But who knows, maybe I'll end up at UF Medical after my undergrad!</p>
<p>I was kind of in the same predicament. I got accepted to UCF Honors, FSU Honors, and UF (my ACT score is one point below UF Honors lol). FSU offered me a 10k scholarship. UF doesn't have anything comparable. FSU has a MUCH nicer campus, and I felt like the people at FSU have been patient & personal and have treated me like a human whereas at UF I feel like I am treated like a number. But those are just vibes I got from visiting each school. I will major in psychology and FSU has nicer, newer psych facilities. I do not really have any reason to go to UF except for the prestige factor, and that would be a terrible reason - by itself - to attend. Anything other reason is trivial to me. Prestige won't even matter given what I want to do as a career.</p>
<p>So JMAN2306, how do you like the FSU Honors Program? UF was my son’s first choice until he changed his mind on his major (wants Actuarial Science) and was also invited into FSU Honors. So many people tell him to go to UF (where he can only minor in Actuarial Science), but in reality FSU Honors would be better for his major.</p>
<p>If you are in the Honors program, you are able to schedule classes before all other undergrads. This is HUGE. At any big, state school it nearly impossible to get all of the classes that you want as an underclassmen. It is common to have to take extra semesters and basically waste time and money because you couldn’t get the classes that you needed.</p>
<p>Aside from that, I believe the class sizes are smaller for certain courses in the honors program. You get increased attention and closer relationships with faculty, which comes in handy when you need a recommendation letter for grad school.</p>
<p>Once again this depends on the subject area you want to study. In general, FSU Honors or even FSU regular for many subjects is preferable to attending UF Honors or regular, unless the area desired is an area of specific strength UF has, for example, like engineering.</p>
<p>The perception UF is uniformly academically superior to Florida State is generally quite wrong.</p>
<p>AAU invitation has more to do with the dollars generated through the med school (in the case of UFL) graduate research programs than many other things. For example, the University of Nebraska, an AAU member, is on the brink of being ousted from the AAU due at least in part due to a paucity of research dollar generation which the AAU highly values. While having perhaps the one of two of the most mature med schools in FL is quite nice, I think it significantly distorts the perception of quality in a university. Consider New College - also in FL, does anyone seriously think an education at New College is poor compared to that at UF because UF has a research-driven med school and New College has far fewer research dollars? No. Likewise Florida State, which kills UF in National Science Foundation funding, but whose med school remains quite new.</p>
<p>You need to do a program-by-program comparison - of actual relevant facts. For example, a poster above wrote that they were being told UF is the place to be for actuarial science, until they dug a bit deeper and discovered UF is actually very poor in this area while Florida State very strong. I think any intelligent person would be foolish to attend UF under these circumstances.</p>
<p>But in reality, to Parents2noles, UF IS academically superior than FSU in MOST subjects.</p>
<p>The no-brainer fact that FSU is easier to get into, & has a lower average GPA & SAT score is enough to call UF academically superior. Also, most of the people I know that attend UF are actually the studious kind, while most of the people I know at FSU are the students who slacked off during high school, and are now only partying at FSU(one of the reasons they went there).</p>
<p>But who cares, if you’re smart then you’re smart and it’s not a career-changing factor if you attend UF or FSU.</p>