<p>Hello Bryan!</p>
<p>Have you visited either school? That will really seal the deal for you.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I’ve recently graduated from FAU with a psychology degree: a B.S. in psychobiology with emphasis on behavioral neuroscience, to be exact. Psychobiology focuses on the interplay between psychology and biology (i.e. you’re depressed because of the effects of certain neurotransmitters, etc) and, as a relatively new field, is only offered at a dozen universities… one of which is FAU. </p>
<p>Outside of psychobiology, FAU’s Psychology program is focused on a couple of things. As one of my professors put it, “Psychology faculty tend to fall into one of two groups: couch people (meaning PsyD) or mice people. We’re mice people.” To reiterate: we do not have a Clinical Psych/Counseling program (which is a graduate program anyway) so you’d have to go to USF for that. Really, in this field, the graduate psych degree is what you need to be taken seriously. If you’re serious about psychology and you can get the opportunity, definitely do some undergraduate research. You can check out the full compliment of majors, degree programs and more at [url=<a href=“http://www.psy.fau.edu/]PSYCHOLOGY[/url”>http://www.psy.fau.edu/]PSYCHOLOGY[/url</a>]. The research page, [url=<a href=“http://psy.fau.edu/research/]PSYCHOLOGY[/url”>http://psy.fau.edu/research/]PSYCHOLOGY[/url</a>], shows ongoing projects at FAU in the fields of:</p>
<pre><code>* Cognitive Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Behavioral Neuroscience / Neuropsychology
- Social / Personality Psychology
</code></pre>
<p>In terms of campus life comparisons, here’s what I know.</p>
<p>FAU has 2400 residential students, with 2400 more planned in phases (1200 in 2011 and another 1200 soon after that “when demand warrants”). We do not have Greek Houses, although we are working on a financial plan right now that will bring them to campus ~2013. On the upside, most of the residential students are NY/NJ people. Believe me when I say you’ll fit right in.</p>
<p>USF has over 5000 residential students and a new Greek Housing community. Both schools have the “resident commuter” issue whereby most students live off campus in apartments and commute. In Florida, any given university only houses ~10-15% of its overall student population on campus and the rest get there by car, bus or shuttle.</p>
<p>USF has a football program in the Big East, a BCS conference affiliation. They do not have an on-campus stadium yet regularly seat 40k people in an off-campus venue (Raymond-James Stadium). FAU is building an on-campus stadium to open in Fall 2011 but plays in the Sun Belt and draws ~10k people to games right now. We expect that to double when the new stadium opens.</p>
<p>In terms of the surrounding area, FAU wins hands-down. First of all, we’re less than five minutes from the beach so there’s a mix of “beach bum”/Abercrombie+Fitch culture here on campus. Boca Raton is ranked as of the safest cities in Florida, it’s beautiful and well-maintained, not to mention right next to a major interstate (I-95) if you want to party in Ft.Lauderdale or Miami. On the downside, Boca Raton has more wealthy old people than college students. USF is not in a good area: it’s ugly and there’s a bit of crime. They were actually talking about building a fence/wall around the entire campus to keep undesirables out. However, USF is right near Busch Gardens, a great theme park. Also, they built a beautiful new Student Union. Decisions, decisions.</p>
<p>As someone said, neither degree is going to hold much clout outside of Florida. Unfortunately neither school is a flagship and, nationally, an undergraduate psychology degree is a very common thing anyway. Ergo, I’d choose the place where you feel most comfortable. Safety vs football, beach culture vs Greek houses, their research opportunities vs our research opportunities.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>