DD is a UTampa student and very happy there. Beautiful campus, nice facilities, and a ton of new buildings. Solid programs for business, nursing, and allied health. Definitely a lot of NY/NJ kids, 3.0s, athletes — and a surprisingly high number of influencer types.

Tampa’s been working to raise its academic profile by getting more of its programs nationally accredited, which gave us confidence when choosing the school. DD is a STEM major, and because her program is nationally accredited, we know it meets the same standards as places like BU, Wellesley, and Colby.

(Some of her STEM finals are nationally standardized, so when she gets an A, it’s not a “UTampa A” — it’s the same exam students at places like Pitt, Clemson, Purdue, or UVA are taking, and she gets percentile data back)

Oh, and she’s on a nearly full ride — so we are definitely fans! go spartans

Anonymous wrote:Expensive and not great. UF, UCF, USF, FSU...all much better FL colleges for much less.

Insinuating that UF (and probably FSU, at this point) is a viable alternative to an applicant looking at Tampa is LITERALLY like saying “Why not Harvard?” to someone looking at Northeastern.

Nah, it’s not really a “rich kids’ playground” in any meaningful way. You’re not seeing a bunch of 1%-ers at Tampa.

I think that perception mostly comes from the comparison to USF — college is relatively affordable in Florida, so the out-of-state students at Tampa can stand out a bit more compared to the local crowd.

That said, Tampa’s actually pretty affordable compared to peer schools like Elon, Hofstra, or Rollins. It feels luxurious (in a super Florida way - D1 tanning team!) but not luxury-priced.

USF is a no-frills campus in a not-great area, but it is affordable and respectable academically—especially for health care majors.

Tampa is a rich kids playground.

It’s a beautiful campus filled with rich kids from the North East. Greek life and athletics are a big focus. The private school kids we know there were from the bottom 50th percentile of their class.

Counselor tried to push Tampa on our DC as a ‘school on the rise’ along with Trinity San Antonio.

I’m sure it’s a great fit for some, but we couldn’t square that circle.

Univ of South FL ? The retirement community university?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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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.

USF is miles above the two schools you named. According to USNews, its peers are schools like Arizona State, UT-Knoxville, and U of Oregon.

But ugly as hell with zero college-town atmosphere and surrounded by sketchy blocks of outdated strip malls. It's really a concrete jungle.