Anonymous wrote:I’m sure that there are smart kids at UFL, especially among the group for whom it is free. But it really appears to be run like a diploma mill with its dependence on online classes and TAs. Add in DeSantis influencing curriculum. It just isn’t appealing when one is paying real money for it.

Desantis influencing curriculum is a good reason to avoid FL's public universities. Dependence on TAs is not. (There seems to be no reason to think UF is more TA-dependent than other large research universities. There's actually reason to think it may be less TA-dependent than many others.) And is this 'Zoom U' accusation empirically well founded? Do students have to take online classes there?

The idea that UF is a 'diploma mill' is absurd. If makes sense only if you think that only SLACs are not diploma mills.

I’m sure that there are smart kids at UFL, especially among the group for whom it is free. But it really appears to be run like a diploma mill with its dependence on online classes and TAs. Add in DeSantis influencing curriculum. It just isn’t appealing when one is paying real money for it.

Anonymous wrote:How strong are Florida public k-12 schools? I have heard they are pretty weak. Your DMV educated kid will have to do group projects with them.

The short answer is that Florida kids score way higher than the kids in DC and with less than half the money spent on them per year. So yeah, I’d rather my kids work with the ones in Florida.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How strong are Florida public k-12 schools? I have heard they are pretty weak. Your DMV educated kid will have to do group projects with them.

Florida has APs too and you need a high SAT score for UF. The weak FL kids are not getting into UF.

Even very strong Florida students are not getting in (including NMFs). It's mainly because UF is the school that most Florida kids want to go to - and as it's reputation has climbed nationally, it's become even more popular (not just with Florida kids but also OOS kids). In fact, if you go on Florida college parent boards, you'll see Florida parents upset that an OOS "took their kid's spot." Obviously, it doesn't work that way, but people in Florida take UF incredibly seriously (more so than VA residents getting upset if their kid didn't get into UVA). I think the acceptance rate this year will be around 15%.

My kid was accepted at UF Honors (also FSU Honors), and he's going elsewhere, abroad actually, simply because... what was an argument for leaving Florida is now an argument for leaving the US. That said, the UF-bashing on this thread is ridiculous. Florida is a huge state, with many smart and ambitious students. Moreover, the Bright Futures program makes in-state tuition entirely free for them, so there's a huge incentive to stay in-state. Florida and now US politics give good reasons to go elsewhere, but not because the kids are dumb! I worry about academic free speech (FL's ridiculous 'stop woke' act may be reinstated, and the idea that prof speech is 'government speech' is truly scary) and science funding (everywhere in the US), and my kid hates the UF campus (which is a huge sprawl, though with some pretty bits) and Gainesville (which seems nothing like the nicer US college towns). But there's every reason to think that students and faculty are excellent at FL, and my kid would probably be going there (hard to turn down free tuition!) were it not for the political changes of the past five years (and especially the past five weeks).

Anonymous wrote:How strong are Florida public k-12 schools? I have heard they are pretty weak. Your DMV educated kid will have to do group projects with them.

Florida has APs too and you need a high SAT score for UF. The weak FL kids are not getting into UF.

Anonymous wrote:Wow - there are so people here who are bitter that their kid didn't get in. It's a top 30 school - so it will be hard to get in.

I know it's strange. Top 5 or 7 Public University as well, Some of the behavior from grown adults on this board is eye opening for sure.

Wow - there are so people here who are bitter that their kid didn't get in. It's a top 30 school - so it will be hard to get in.

Anonymous wrote:Zoom U!

Why the animosity? Seems personal.

Are there moderators on this board?

Anonymous wrote:My kid got in and really wants to attend, but I'm trying to push him to attend in-state (so surprisingly the OOS cost isn't too much higher than going in-state). Anyone with personal experience? What are the pros and cons? Is it easy to get back and forth for breaks? I've heard that the dorms kind of suck (i.e. communal showers) - but that its sort of like a "right of passage."

Public School in Florida where the vast majority of students come from well to do redneck riviera type of parents…..
Thanks, we’ll pass

How strong are Florida public k-12 schools? I have heard they are pretty weak. Your DMV educated kid will have to do group projects with them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:some of the people on this board really need intervention. This is a college discussion board so please take your political nonsense talk elsewhere. Thank you.

Have you heard of DeSantis?

Come on.

Yes. How can you not think Federal and state policy don’t impact funding and services for a school like UF?

Zoom U!

Anonymous wrote:some of the people on this board really need intervention. This is a college discussion board so please take your political nonsense talk elsewhere. Thank you.

Have you heard of DeSantis?

Come on.