@Gator88NE lol lol lol yes the weather is a tough one when comparing schools
My son is a Junior at FSU- he loves it and is going on to Law School. My son is graduating high school this year (we are from Long Island, NY) and he has narrowed down his choice between OSU, FSU and UF. I know UF has a stronger academic reputation over FSU but I agree with the other posts-save the money for medical school. Just a side note, my sons friends from camp and home did not fair well with FSU- they upped the bar this year and rejected kids that had the stats. @Gator88NE your post made me laugh- we are visiting OSU next weekend and UF/FSU the following weekend! The weather should solidify his decision 
@NYIslekid we are from LI as well. Please let me know how your visit to the FL schools go. You will be there before us.
@ny1517 I just want to let you know that we are committing to OSU ourselves. Quite a few New Yorkers there as well. We just returned from Columbus this weekend (second time) as we were day doing a Admittance Day program on Friday. OSU is extremely impressive including Columbus which by no means it is NYC or Boston but plenty do there. If you have merit at OSU it should be high on your list… Same with FSU if warmer weather is desired. Keep in mind that OSU has a larger amount of out of state kids than any of the Florida Schools
@mrminsky we are going to admitted students day at OSU first weekend in March, have already visited once and loved it. Going to admitted days at UF and FSU in March, having never been there hard for my DD to make any type of decision about either school. The weather seems to be the big draw for her.
I have never visited FSU, and we love UF - but in your situation I think @Gator88NE’s advice is spot on.
At times over the last 2 years I have seen OOS parents from UF lament the cost of English Comp 101, and such. Well, yes - it’s OOS tuition for a reason. That means that basic classes, if you don’t come in with credits, are going to be expensive.
Now if it was the business school, UF is definitely the right choice imho.
But for pre-meds, I’d be looking to save money and get the highest GPA possible.
I’m not sure that either school is particularly easy to fly into from NY. UCF would win that prize!
@southfloridamom5 UF Business is NOT better than OSU Fisher Business and for sure not better than Kelley Business (poster was admitted to Indiana) although they seem interested for Pre Med. Lets not forget that UF weather through can be quite balmy as well through late October and March through May… Welcome to the “Swamp” LOL! Having said that, if money is not an issue for the poster UF is great school. Plenty of people on this boards who have the means to pay for any school. If that is the case. UF of course would be a super choice. But it is not necessarily the “smart” choice is money is a consideration. All the other options are fantastic for Pre Med and very similar experiences when it comes to large Public Universities with Clemson being the most Southern of all the choices.
Sorry @mrminsky - I was thinking solely of UF vs. FSU when it comes to business. Your point is well taken!
@ny1517 we have seen UF before and obviously, FSU several times since my son goes there…I bet seeing it as an accepted student is much different! I will let you know when we get back!
For a pre-med, the ideal situation is a good quality but not super competitive college where they’re top 25% and minimize costs. For @ny1517’s , that would be FSU.
As to whether it’s a better choice than tOSU is another later entirely.
@MYOS1634 selfishly I would like her to choose tOSU for a variety of reasons but I want her to go where she feels most comfortable and that may be in Florida at UF or FSU…
- Low test scores do not drag down the reputation of an engineering school. Engineering schools are judged more so by their research, star studded faculty, alumni, and resources … not so much test scores of entering students. There are many students with high test scores that ended up being subpar engineering students … I KNOW OF PLENTY.
- FAMU and FSU students who can’t handle the rigors of engineering 95% of the time drop out while taking pre-engineering classes.
- FAMU-FSU Engineering Program is one of the best in the state and thriving so stop spreading lies!
And last but not least, FAMU is now a Tier 1 national university according to US News and World Report which is a coveted title. I hate when people tell lies and share uninformed opinions. FAMU is a great institution and one of Florida’s most prized possessions.
NuScholar, your response makes my point about the strife one risks from the FAMU side of the shared FAMU and FSU College of Engineering. Although you discount test scores, FAMU’s 75th percentile SAT score of 1140 doesn’t approach FSU’s 25th percentile SAT score of 1210. (Source: Prepscholar) In other words, the top students at FAMU would be unlikely to get accepted to FSU. Further, FAMU has a 4-year graduation rate of 12%, while FSU’s is 61%. (Source: US News) It’s unfortunate that FSU ever agreed to the joint college of engineering because the two schools are night and day apart, but they can’t get out of it because of strident arguments like the one above. Until FSU can get its own engineering school, I”d stick with UF without a second thought.
@NuScholar @anihc First, the original poster’s daughter is interested in biology and not engineering.
Before talking about “breaking up” the FAMU-FSU engineering school, you have to understand some past history, starting with FAMU’s first Law School.
The state will only support one law school in a city, so when FSU wanted one, they ended up “getting” FAMU’s program. It’s only fairly recent (2005), that FAMU has been able to re-open up it’s own Law school, but it had to place it in Orlando and not co-located with the main campus in Tally.
Breaking up the FAMU-FSU program is a very emotional subject, as it reminds everyone of what happen to FAMU’s law school. It would be very difficult for FAMU to continue it’s own engineering program as a separate college, since the majority of the state funding (and almost 85+% of the students) would go to FSU’s program. It feels like a repeat of what happen to FAMU’s first Law School…
NuScholar did an excellent job describing how engineering programs are judged. FAMU test scores have no impact on any FSU rankings. FSU administration may have been thinking it needed 100% ownership of the engineering program, to help it become a AAU member university (a lot of which is based on the amount of research being done at an university), but that’s not happening now.
Thanks for sharing the history of the FAMU and FSU relationship, although it should be added that FSU had its own engineering program until it made a short-sighted decision to disband it in the 70s. When FSU tried to reopen it, FAMU stepped in, which led to the shared school in 1982. A few years ago, FSU again tried to start its own engineering school, but the bad blood again prevented it. Nevertheless, the financial oversight of the engineering college was transferred from FAMU to FSU in 2015. Maybe it’s because the FAMU-FSU College of engineering was started only 35 years ago, which is more recent than the engineering programs at UM, UF, USF, and UCF, but FAMU-FSU still trails the others in the national rankings of engineering colleges. But I share the opinion of the school administrators and state legislators – as was stated clearly a few years ago – that the problem is bigger than that.
@anihc you just don’t get it. FAMU’s best students enroll in the engineering program. I know this may be hard for you to comprehend, but FAMU attracts very coveted students (valedictorians, salutatorians, IB Scholars, AP Scholars, top percentile test takers) just like FSU. With FAMU not being a flagship school and not getting top funding as a result, the population of them are of course smaller but they definitely exist in strong enough numbers. There are many wonderful benefits of attending a smaller and more intimate FAMU that you will never get at a larger, more expensive, and more impersonal FSU and UF.
And to the OP, my college advisors told me to never make a decision solely on rankings or people’s opinion and that’s great advice. Visit both campuses, talk to the students, look at cost, look at the percentage of biology majors accepted into graduate school, examine the location, and determine which school best performs on all those metrics and any other metrics that are important to you.
@NuScholar I get that the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering is less than it could be if it were called simply the FSU College of Engineering and were fully brought into the FSU fold. 85% of its students are enrolled at FSU. Consider this: UF engineering has 10,000 students. UCF engineering has 9,400 students. USF engineering has 6200 students. And the latest data that I could find for FAMU-FSU engineering was 2,600, with 330 of them from FAMU. I am confident that an FSU College of Engineering could easily attract enough top students to triple in size given the overall reputation of FSU standing alone. However, because FAMU won’t let go over the matter of 330 students, the college is stuck at a location 4 miles from FSU’s main campus and is held back by being associated with FAMU, a college with a reputation that lags well behind FSU.
So, going back to the OP, who asked generally what the differences were between UF and FSU now that her first child was bringing college decisions to the forefront, UF has more departments that are more highly rated than does FSU, which is why it is a more highly rated college overall. But they cost virtually the same amount. My oldest son went to FSU because he didn’t get into UF, and he picked FSU because it is better than USF and UCF. However, my second son will be starting at UF this next year. At my sons’ high school, the decision for most students of which of the two colleges to attend is usually up to the admissions committee of UF, if you get what I mean. But FSU is still a great school.
@anihc We’ll just have to agree to disagree.
But I do feel like UF is the “only” flagship institution of Florida for a number of reasons but it doesn’t mean FSU is a “reject” school at all. FSU is a powerhouse in its own right.
I guess one could applaud FSU’s and FAMU’s partnership as a way to increase lower income and minority representation in fields that are essential for the state’s well-being.
Why don’t FSU and FAMU share budgets and funding, btw? It seems that funding FAMU less than FSU would be a leftover from the 50’s.
The ‘two campus’ thing sounds like the situation at Rutgers.
I’m not from Florida and I get that FAMU has been mismanaged, but seen from the outside this cooperation would be an example of the South moving away from the segregation era and trying to build bridges so that kids currently attending segregated high schools can study together in high-quality institutions.
The fact the presence of the African American students from FAMU is used as an explanation as to why there are fewer students enrolled in engineering is puzzling, euphemistically speaking.
@ucbalumnus has often wondered on these forums why OOS or Florida kids won’t apply to FAMU for engineering since their scholarships are good. As guess the above, rational or not, could be an explanation. The mismanagement is another likely culprit.
@ny1517: outside of Florida, few people know the difference between UF and FSU. Within Florida, people are aghast at the thought people in Minnesota or New Hampshire would confuse the two. Floridians are often lifelong Seminoles or Gators, and most will say UF is the strongest university.
UF has for the past 10 years or so tried to build itself as an equal to the best Southern public universities. Its national stature has grown and it’s now a top 10 public university nationally. The student quality is very high. Within Florida and increasingly for grad schools, UF is recognized as a notch or three above FSU in academic quality. However many students take introductory classes online and are on their own, it’s very big and impersonal, and its funding and resources aren’t quite at the level of the universities it wants to compete with (such as UNC)/yet.
FSU is also very strong, even if its research output isn’t at the same level. The students would attend the flagship at many states because they tend to be in the 4+ wGPA group. FSU Honors will likely offer a better experience, especially the first two years. You can apply if you were selected for a Freshman scholarship.
FSU also has online classes, just like UF. Both towns have their supporters.
So, from OOS, I’d pick FSU Honors over UF unless it’s a major UF is nationally famous for, and plain UF over plain FSU.
Can he do an overnight at borth?
@MYOS1634 thank you for you reposnse! Yes we are planning overnights at both schools in March. My dd has friends at both so she will stay with each of them one night. We are very big on ‘fit’ so I’m leaving that piece to her. Everyone has strong opinions about all schools she’s been accepted to so it’s been a very interesting journey so far lol.