Tampa person here. No one really goes there unless they can't get in anywhere else. And its really expensive too.

Niece went there bc of the scholarship they gave her and the fact that her parents would not pay for her college even though they could afford to do so. She had a great time there socially but I wasn’t too impressed by her peers. She’s now about to graduate from vet school (university of Florida). Considering how hard it is to get into vet school and she had 2 vet schools to choose from, I’d say U Tampa was fine but my guess is, my niece is more of an outlier for the school.

One of DD's best friends went there. Really nice girl, but not smart. Literally barely graduated, took zero advanced classes and didn't come close to cracking 1000 on the SAT.

I think the campus is supposed to be like a Ritz Carlton. I think it’s worth a look!

Know someone who has both kids going and love it. I only had my DD apply because it was a safety school and they sent fee waiver for application. Thought why not, my friend's kids are happy there. Oddly she was deferred, and ultimately withdrew her application as she was accepted by a few targets.

I think the free application waivers are easy to find so sign up for emails.

I know a student there who's definitely more interested in Greek life and having fun than a scholarly experience. Whether that is representative of the student body or not, I don't know.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is in Florida.

This made me chuckle. I'd never heard of this school until recently and I was born and raised on the east coast of Florida. I thought the person was confusing it with USF.

OP here. Which of the two (USF or UTampa) would you prefer, and why?

These are night and day in terms of feel. USF is gigantic. You can drive around for an hour looking for a parking spot before class. It's something like 80-90% commuter. It's going to be a very different experience than UT. Not saying either one is better, but it's apples and oranges to me. Also, UT is downtown, and USF is not. Again, not saying that's bad or good, just they are such different schools.

-Tampa native

It's a really nice campus - we live over the bridge in St Pete and go walk around it sometimes. Right on the river, downtown.

Check out USF, too - esp the St Pete campus - while you're visiting. Stunning, stunning location.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is in Florida.

This made me chuckle. I'd never heard of this school until recently and I was born and raised on the east coast of Florida. I thought the person was confusing it with USF.

OP here. Which of the two (USF or UTampa) would you prefer, and why?

I am not the PP. However, UTampa has a reputation of being something slightly above a for-profit diploma mill. mostly out of state students, there for the party atmosphere and location. Its peers are places like Kutztown and Salisbury State.

University of South Florida is a real university on par with a place like UW-Tacoma and Colorado State-Pueblo. It is also cheaper than UTampa.

I looked at it because it was put on our safety school list by a counselor. It looks nice, I was looking into the numbers of kids living off-campus.

Other schools on that list were College of Charleston, East Carolina U, Hofstra, ODU, High Point, Coastal Carolina, Radford and Mary Washington. We ended up only applying to one of these schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is in Florida.

This made me chuckle. I'd never heard of this school until recently and I was born and raised on the east coast of Florida. I thought the person was confusing it with USF.

OP here. Which of the two (USF or UTampa) would you prefer, and why?

Don’t know much by my friends daughter went there for Biology and doing a phd program at Hopkins.

Anonymous wrote:It is in Florida.

This made me chuckle. I'd never heard of this school until recently and I was born and raised on the east coast of Florida. I thought the person was confusing it with USF.

It is in Florida.

Would appreciate any comments or information about this school, which has all of a sudden popped up on DC's radar. We've never visited. Thanks!