University of Florida: serious academic challenge or joke?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Florida
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<p>Hey, I have a couple of questions and maybe misconceptions about UF that I would like to clear up. </p>

<p>Prepare for long self description or skip to questions:</p>

<p>First of all, I am a senior in high school and the time for applications is coming around. I would consider myself an upper tier student, and I did pretty well on my tests, 670 reading, 680 math, 630 writing on my ACT and a 30 composite on my ACT. At my high school I am currently in 3 ap classes (ap Lit, gov, and calculus) this semester with one regular elective class (tennis haha). Anyways as you can imagine there are plenty of kids in my classes who I would consider at a higher intelligence than myself, the students who go home and spend literally 3 hours on homework each day (whereas i spend at max one hour a night, normally like 30 minutes or less though). I have been talking to them about colleges and they all plan to go to these semi-prestigious colleges and technical colleges and whatnot. Now I am all for these, but here is my situation.</p>

<p>I have no idea what I want to major in or what school I want to go to. UF strikes my fancy for a lot of reasons but I'm not competely sure if it is the best for me.</p>

<p>I am very interested in sciences, and I am very good at math and science, but math alone bores me. If a science involves math that is fine, but I would hate to have to grind through tons of math work with little to no scientific concept. I need some advice from anyone who has ideas of what I should major in and I have been trying to research on my own with whats what but I am a little confused. So here I am taking a more direct approach and just asking the community.</p>

<p>To be honest I looked online and UF has a program for engineering, many of which such as aerospace or especially nuclear engineering sound very interesting to me. Now here are where my questions come in:</p>

<p>Does anyone have experience with or know anything about the engineering program at UF? If so what can you tell me about how good you would say it is or anything else you might add.</p>

<p>Many of my classmates have an impression that UF is a total party school and that it would be a waste academically to go there? How hard would you say UF is, amount of work wise?
Is it a party school? (I am looking for a college that does not give me a ridiculous amount of work, I want to have to try in my classes but not to the point where I have no time to actually have fun, you know me time haha... parties are nice but not if thats all the school is good for)</p>

<p>Do you guys know any other facts about UF, good or bad, that you think should influence my decision on whether to go there or not</p>

<p>All in all UF is relatively close to where I live (3 hours) and I love the social benefits it has: large student population (I want to go to a big college) boy minority (not to be juvenile but holy hell more girls than boys sounds awesome) and a sexy sounding (but not sure if very good) engineering program. Sounds great to me if I can get a good education and have a great time. </p>

<p>Thanks for any help you can offer</p>

2

<p>UF engineering is pretty sexy. The top businesses from around the nation come here to recruit, and the grad school rankings are top 25 which is extremely good for job prospects. And UF is just plain sexy, it really is</p>

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<p>your classmates are jokes. just go to UF.</p>

<p>calculus is more interesting than you think it is. you’re going to have to study a few hours a day every day if you want to make any money. college students like to drink (whoa surprise). it is what you make it, and anyone who thinks that going to uf for its academics is a bad idea has gone full ■■■■■■.</p>

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<p>While your stats are good (you didn’t really talk about gpa and class rank), my initial impression is that they are not that amazing for a kid interested in engineering. A 680 math score on your SAT for an engineering student is not that high. Especially for someone who is interested in nuclear or aerospace engineering.</p>

<p>I would take the SAT and ACT again if I were you, not only for UF purposes, but with respect to the other schools you are applying to. For example, my son raised his ACT from a 31 to a 34 with zero studying, which to me is a significant rise. And he raised his math sat from a 660 to a 700 with zero studying. I know it is just a few points, but I would hope that you could get a 700 on your math, if only because it sounds a lot better than your 680, and 700 is kind of the magic number. </p>

<p>Also it is getting harder and harder to get into UF. A lot of kids who might have in the past gone to an expensive private college are now opting for UF. Further, because UF has other considerations, such as socio-economic background, race, what part of the state you are from, etc. etc., that means less spots for you. You almost talk like UF is a bit beneath you (I am referring to your “serious academic challenge or joke” title), but the truth is, just going by your SAT and ACT, it would seem that UF is probably at about the range you would be qualified for anyway given how tough it is getting into good colleges nowadays.</p>

<p>And as you noted, there are a ton of pretty girls at UF, unlike if you went to a purely engineering school, where the male female ratio would more likely to be 70/30.</p>

<p>I went to Cornell almost 40 years ago, when there was only about 1/3 girls, and believe me, that was deadly from a social life perspective. My best friend went to University of Wisconsin, and had a great time. </p>

<p>So all in all, UF would be a good choice.</p>

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<p>Well said FloridaDad!
UF offers a HUGE bang for the buck so many, many super smart kids are opting to go to UF. In my opinion getting into UF is a huge honor. I am applying and hope to get in (1410/1600 or 2080/2400 and a 3.8 etc…) I feel I have a decent chance but am not a shoe-in. I would never consider UF to be a joke. It is a large school with great programs & faculty but you have to make the most of the resources. I think if you make the effort you can get a fantastic, top notch education. If you want to go and be on cruise control and just get by then maybe it falls more into the realm of a “joke” - but if anyone is going to do that then please do not apply. Save the spot for someone who will value the opportunity!</p>

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<p>I apologize if I came off condescending at all, as I have heard many negative things from my peers whom I trust them to an extent but they tell me if I go there that “it would be a joke” but I’m not sure as everything they say is true. And I do realize that my SAT scores are OK but not great, I will be taking them again october first to try and get a better score. As for my gpa I have a 3.8 Unweighted gpa and as class rank I am ranked 15th in my class. Do you have any other professions you could suggest I major in that I would be more qualified in? Do I even have a chance at getting in as seeing I’m really not outstanding at all and I do little extracirricular activities?</p>

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<p>rdneal-</p>

<p>You are completely correct as UF is a joke of a school.
My advise is not to apply and in turn you can give little
people such as myself a better shot at attending UF !</p>

<p>And by the way, your SAT scores are not that impressive and in actuality your SAT score is 120 points less than mine and I am very concerned about gaining admissions into UF !</p>

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<p>^^here we go again.</p>

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<p>I’m in the Engineering Program. A LOT of companies come to recruit and have lots of opportunities.
I absolutely love it!</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>Cnmpsd… </p>

<p>Scoring a 2210 on the SAT after taking the test multiple times and spending $4000 on test prep isn’t very impressive either.</p>

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<p>Interesting question. Back in bygone days, I was at our state flagship in Engineering school. I ran into a classmate who was going to USC (Southern California) at the time. He said that he heard my school was a joke. He was infamous for saying stuff like that so I let it slide off my back. When we all graduated from our schools, I had seven job offers from which to choose and he had NONE! I think he’s something like an acupuncturist right now, not that there’s anything wrong with that. But private school student loans to be an acupuncturist may be a bit uncomfortable…
The point is, often it’s not where you go but what you do with the opportunity once you get there. And your flagship school is probably less pricey than the prestigious colleges. So never mind what other people think, work hard and you’ll do fine. Many of us from your parents’ generation did.</p>

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<p>When visiting another Florida school we ran into a student who had applied to UF. She had 2000+ SAT score with a 3.6 uw gpa 4.1weighted. She was from Florida and did not get in. UF is not a safety school by any means. I would almost say it would be easier to get into Georgia Tech than UF.
On another point one of our local Engineering firms was at UF last year trying to higher some industrial engineers. 100+ if I remember correctly. Of course they didn’t get them all from that school, but did find several.</p>

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<p>My daughter was accepted by UF last year with almost the exact same stats as yours. Her class rank was 12/285. A few classmates who were ranked lower than her were accepted as well. However, I’m sure you’ve read that UF appears to be looking at other things, such as schedule strength and whether you are IB/AICE, region of the state you are from, etc. </p>

<p>I’m sure that any “party school” reputation UF might have with some people does not come from a lack of rigor in the engineering curriculum. I don’t know if things have changed, but my husband is a UF Aerospace Eng grad, and back in the 90s, the upper division AE students spent most of their time in study groups. </p>

<p>When it comes to getting a job, potential employers won’t care about the “party school” thing, just the reputation/accreditation of the engineering program you are in and whether or not you managed to get some real-world experience from internships, part-time work, etc.</p>

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<p>I work at a very large international engineering company and UF is one its top 10 US universities to recruit from.</p>

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<p>I am spending most of my time working in my dorm, and I am an engineer.</p>

<p>Life is really tough as an engineer but it really is worth it. UF has been good to me so far, and the concensus is is that if you put in the work you will do well- professors dont go out of their way to fail you.</p>

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<p>Excessive partying and engineering are pretty much a contradiction in terms for any engineering program, let alone one ranked in the top 20 or so for aero and nuclear. And as Floridadad55 pointed out, you may find yourself pretty average in terms of academic credentials. In fact, in the COE, you will find yourself below average with a 680 Math. So, you will find yourself surrounded by peers and taking classes that will certainly challenge you.</p>

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<p>My neighbor hires for Sikorsky (maker of the fastest Blackhawk helicopter-one that was used in the Bin Laden raid) and he ONLY hires graduates of University of Florida and Georgia Tech. He also only gives internships to students of these schools, he says.</p>

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<p>please ignore comments suggesting that your SAT scores somehow make you under-qualified for engineering.</p>

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<p>Autumn:</p>

<p>I don’t think people were saying that his SAT scores made him under-qualified for engineering.</p>

<p>I think they were saying that he was asking whether UF was “a joke” for engineering, as if he was way too good for UF, when in fact, his SAT scores actually might even be a bit low for someone wanting to major in nuclear engineering or aerospace engineering at UF.</p>

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<p>No, he was simply saying what his classmates thought as he thinks it is a serious academic school.
And the partying mostly comes from people who want to enjoy their time at college, not slackers who are pulling straight f’s.</p>

<p>-------------------------------------------If it is to be, it is up to me…</p>