We are from Massachusetts. My daughter is interested in going to the Tampa area for college. Thinking of majoring in Marketing. Going in Feb to visit schools. On paper, UT looks like the best fit. (location, good business school, lots to do in the area, safe, nice dorms, price, scholarships) We were also considering USF, but have heard that it is not safe. Also, Florida Southern has been recommended. Anyone have personal experience with these schools. (as a side note, I don’t think my daughter will be the Sorority girl or partying type…very studious…3.8 gpa as a junior with all honors/some AP classes; shy…looking to get out of the cold NE, and to experience FLA living) Any other schools we should consider? Thanks.
Hi sutelamom, we live in Tampa, about a mile from UT. It’s a beautiful campus, situated downtown and on the river. But I wouldn’t rank it very high on security. To the south of it is Hyde Park, an upper income historical neighborhood and to the north, just a couple of blocks, are low income housing. North Blvd runs through part of the campus. We too are applying to colleges and we prefer Eckerd in St Pete (private liberal arts college on the beach!). I’m not aware of any security issues with USF’s main campus in Tampa, but we have applied to USF’s St Pete campus because we prefer a smaller school. I understand that it has an excellent business school. My son has also been accepted into Florida Gulf Coast University, also a beautiful campus with a lake beach. It’s a mid-size school about two hours from Tampa. They will be having an open house on Feb. 21st if you’re in the area. Also, it sounds like your daughter would fit nicely into Sarasota’s New College. New College is Florida’s honor college and has less than 1000 students.
thanks for the feedback. never thought about St Pete campus for USF. I’ve looked at Eckerd - awesome location, but expensive, and I’ve heard the dorms are gross. (nice dorms are very important to my daughter, lol) I have heard about New College - so small tho and such a different type of school.
We are from the east coast and also looking at schools in Florida for my HS Junior son. We know he would be best in a small liberal arts environment. At this point Eckerd is #1 on his list. We are visiting in March and will tour and interview at both Eckerd and Rollins. Eckerd seems to have a very laid back outdoorsy type of student (who still takes school seriously) which would be perfect for my son (I think)?
I’ve heard nothing but good things about Eckerd and Rollins.
New College is worth looking into, if for no other reason that price (and quality). OOS Tuition is $29K, but if an OOS student applies by April 15th (and a few other requirements), they will be awarded a $15K a year scholarship (if accepted).
http://www.ncf.edu/out-of-state-freshmen
USF has very affordable OOS tuition rates (for a public school), anywhere from $16K to $17K a year. You can also be awarded academic scholarships ($4K to $12K a year).
http://www.usf.edu/admissions/freshman/admissions-scholarships/nonflorida.aspx
Good Luck All!
@sutelamom Your D and college search appears similar to our situation. My D is a senior this year (3.6 W/4.0 W; 30 ACT), and specified smaller colleges in Florida as her initial cutoff criteria. We are also from the colder northern climes. She is interested in science/medicine.
When D was a junior, we limited our search to Florida private colleges. The top ones as you have seen are in a belt along the I-4 corridor: New College; Eckerd; UT; Florida Southern; Rollins; and Stetson. We visited them all except for New (too small for D’s liking). Here are our quick impressions of them all:
Eckerd: Ugly concrete buildings but on the bay. Lots of students from the northeast. Liberal/crunchy bend to the student body… committed to social causes. Saw lots of beer cans in the trash on the Monday we visited. Excellent marine biology program. Dorms seem fine. Nice library and science building. Although D has a cousin currently attending, D decided the school wasn’t for her, and she didn’t apply.
UT: Very much a newer campus feel. Newer high rise (not skyscraper) buildings are the norm. Like Eckerd, lots of students from the northeast escaping the cold temps. Student body academic history on par with Florida Southern but a notch below Rollins, New, and Stetson. Business school reputation seems good. Campus seems small for the larger number of students. Has more of a commuter school feel than the others. Low endowment makes us wonder about the opportunities available inside and outside the classroom. D applied EA. Was accepted into the honors program and received a 13K merit award.
Florida Southern: Most students are from FL. Campus gets rave reviews for beauty. The setting is nice but some of the buildings are ugly in our opinion, especially the science building that seemed like a concrete bunker. The campus feel to us was similar to a high school… greek dominance, nobody in the library but the weight room was jam-packed, tour guides said nothing of the academics just how much fun it was to attend. D didn’t apply.
Stetson: Like FL Southern, Stetson’s student body is dominated by people from FL. Campus buildings have an older but less well-kept feel to them. Dorms were the worst of the colleges we visited. Science building has a high-school feel to it. We were impressed with the business department… their top students are given real money to invest and consistently win investment competitions. D reluctantly applied EA and received a 33K merit award… makes this school inexpensive in comparison to some others.
Rollins: This is the only Florida school that D is still seriously considering (she has been accepted to many other Southern LACs). Absolutely gorgeous campus, beats FL Southern hands down in our opinion. If you like wealthy suburbia, this is the place… at the campus doorstep is a tree-lined street filled with restaurants and small shops. New light rail station gives access to the greater Orlando area. Rollins has a business graduate school, so one would think the business undergraduate courses would be plentiful (not sure about that). Dorms are OK. Food looks appealing and gets good reviews (although expensive). Many upperclassmen live off campus. Greek presence doesn’t seem to dominate like at FL Southern. Very small class sizes which is a huge draw for D. D has applied and will likely be accepted. The cost of attendance could be an issue for us compared to some other southern LACs.
I would not hesitate sending my D to any of these private schools for safety reasons. Don’t know anything about the public schools.
If you’re interested in other southern LACs, there has been a lot of chatter about these in the Southern LACs thread I started.
^One thing to add about this reply. From our experience, showing “interest” in these small private colleges seems very important from both an acceptance standpoint and a merit award standpoint. Visiting the colleges and communicating with the admissions staff are definitely worth your time.
USF is a very big school, i dont know much about UT, and FSC is very small. Try to have her figure out what type of environment she likes best. If she’s shy (i know from experience, I’m the same way) she may want a smaller school (or at least one not as big as USF) so she can get to know her professors, and also so she can form connections with classmates, instead of sitting in a sea of people who she may never see again because of the size of campus. Just a thought.
I know the most about FSC so I’m going to ramble, hopefully youll find some of the information useful.
Also, you mentioned you dont think she will be a ‘sorority girl’. At florida southern, they have a motto about greek life-- “it’s different here”. Theres no big sorority house or crazy parties every weekend. I’ve spent a little time with a sorority there, and they seemed more like a big group of great friends than stereotypical cookie-cutter ‘sorority girls’, and greeks there have a good rep on campus.
Also FSC may seem expensive, but is very generous with scholarships. The campus is very safe as well, and students are given alert buttons God forbid something did happen, but they are used very rarely, as needed. I know a current student there and she said that there are parts of Lakeland (the city FSC is in) that aren’t great (as with any city), the police keep a tight watch on FSC so nobody really even tries to invade FSC or commit crimes around there, because they know the security will catch them.
Also, the dorms are huge (in college-dorm standards) and there are no communal bathrooms-- the most people she could have to share the bathroom with is 3 (her roommate, and the 2 girls in the room next door)