There are definitely not parties in the main part of campus. Parties are either in fraternity houses (the periphery of campus) or some house off campus, typically north/northeast of campus. There’s a bunch of bars right across the street from the Murphree Residential Area but the partying pretty much stays on the bar side of the street.
It’s hot from the beginning of May until the end of October, basically. I don’t think Gainesville is especially rainy (i.e. it rarely inconveniences me) but it is humid. The part of Gainesville around the main part of UF’s campus and downtown Gainesville is nice. But as you go west it eventually just resembles the usual Floridian pattern of exurban development. Gainesville is not very interesting and everyone I know spends almost all their time on campus or at their residence.
I’m not a political science major, but I’ve taken a good number of political science courses and know some people in the major. My thoughts on the poli sci major will answer your questions about competitiveness and academics.
Some of the undergrad poli sci courses were kind of watered down and easy, but there are definitely in-depth and rigorous courses being taught in the department. You just have to avoid the courses and professors that students like because they’re easy. The best poli sci classes I took changed the way I think about some very important concepts, so there’s definitely a great education available to you.
As far as opportunities go within the department, there are professors who like to work with undergraduates on research projects. Those kinds of opportunities aren’t exactly abundant, however. I know some poli sci majors who wanted to assist with research; while they weren’t told “no,” they were more or less told “maybe another time” or given a task that basically amounted to busy work.
As far as connections to the outside world go, the professors aren’t super connected. It isn’t the kind of department where the professors have the connections to call up someone in Tallahassee/D.C. to land you an internship. If you go to poli sci advising and ask about internships their answer will more or less be “here are some websites where you can look for them and apply online.” (The same is true for the Career Connections Center that serves the whole school, btw). That being said, there have been students who were the favorite of some professor, and that professor was able to get them interviews for a think tank job or something along those lines. But that is a very small percentage of the ~1000 poli sci majors. In general, poli sci majors are on their own.
With respect to class sizes, UF is improving. The student-faculty ratio used to be 22:1 and now it’s 17:1. The intro level poli sci courses are big lectures, but the upper level ones have 30-50 students. There are also some smaller seminars available with 10-20 students. If you’re up for the challenge, you could enroll in a graduate course, which are even smaller and more rigorous/interesting.
Overall I think the poli sci BA is worthwhile if you’re paying in-state tuition. But you really should add another major in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences that is more lucrative, so you have more options right out of undergrad. A statistics or data science double major would be a great addition to your undergraduate experience.