SSobick

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dvm258

For the record, I don't really think admission rates count for anything when trying to determine how selective a university is. While applying last year, I've discovered colleges with very low admit rates actually can be pretty easy to get into. For example, USF has a 50% admit rate, but FIU's is 47%. FIU simply isn't as selective as USF, as many people here already know.

On the flipside, I've also seen colleges with very high admit rates can be more difficult, like the University of Illinois-Champaign, which publishes a 71% admit rate, but boasts high GPAs and ACT scores (mid 50% is 26-31, exactly like UF), and is even ranked higher than UF by US News.

As for the Miami v. UF debate, I think the whole private/public factor really comes into play here. Because Miami doesn't have any in-state quotas to fill for each county, they're free to admit whomever they like. Face it--it's much easier for someone from a very rural Florida county to get into UF than someone from Broward, Dade, Palm Beach, Orange, and whatever two counties make up the Tampa Area (My west-coast geography is horrible).

This means, if you're an in-state student, UF is much harder to get into. However, if you're out of state, they're on equal footing.

MyOpinion

^^Interesting post. However, UF has a very high yield, which of course is also due to the excellent combination of value, quality of education and staying close to home.On the other hand, let's look to see how selective these universities are on the basis of admitting more students with the Highest SAT 75th Percentile Scores.

When the top 500 Universities are ranked for Highest SAT 75th Percentile Scores: FLORIDA

University of Miami is 107
University of Florida is 119
Florida State University 279
University of Central Florida is 305
University of South Florida is 382

Well, University of Miami wins.

As far as University of IIlinois, Urbana -Champaign is 79, also higher than UF which accounts for its higher ranking in USNews

Top 500 Ranked Universities for Highest SAT 75th Percentile Scores

vincanity1

MyOpinion in "Another top 10 for UF" thread:
Yes, and here is the reason why, nothing else.

"Students tend to stay pretty close to home, and they're looking to better themselves financially," says David Hawkins, director of public policy and research for the National Association for College Admission Counseling. The combination of affordable tuition and athletic success appears to be a powerful lure for college hopefuls"

MyOpinion

I am actually looking for a contributing comment from dvm who is making an interesting point. But, yes, vincanity. I agree with Mr Hawkins.

rockerguyasj

MyOpinion, New College of Florida actually wins. They're number 58 with a 75 percentile SAT score of 1420.

MyOpinion

^^^ Thanks for pointing that out. I was addressing the previous post about UM, UF and U of I. It should also be noted that FIU did not rank high enough to appear in the list.

SSobick

So what: University of Miami has a slight advantage on the SAT for incoming freshmen the last 2 years. I am sure that UF will be ahead in the near future (the process is cyclical).

UF has a stronger endowment, better graduate programs, more researh expenditures, and a far more successful alumni base (we are 3 times the size). We also have a better overall athletic program. Sun-Tan-U is overrated, and is only a good option for lazy rich kids who could not get into a Top 25 private.

UM can boast about the hearty curriculum all they want, but at the end of the day it fails to beat UF in anything except marketing their product.

hawaiiboy15

You sound pretty insecure.

dvm258

Haven't you ever looked at Miami's medical and marine-bio departments? You would be impressed.

surferbeach

UM and UF have almost identical admissions data. It depends on what atmosphere you want: urban, worldly, diverse (in the true sense of the word), living by the beach in a real city. If money is not an issue, Miami is great. The biggest difference is size, UF is huge, UM is medium sized. btw, Businessweek ranked Miami's undergraduate business as 50 in the U.S. and UF was not ranked, probably because they have too many online classes. At UM, you hardly ever get stuck with a TA. I had two over my four years there: one for a gen ed music class of 200 students and one for President Shalala's healthcare class since she is very busy running the school. Those were my only two classes with over 60 students over all four years. UM undergraduate business classes have around 30 students at most, but advisors will open up spaces to around 35 so you are NEVER locked out of a class you need to graduate on time. The academic advisors in the School of Business are personable and as helpful to me as the son of the US ambassador to Saudi Arabia who had his appointment right before mine.

It also depends on the type of atmosphere and students you are looking for:

UM = Hispanic culture, international students, NY, LA, Chicago, and Florida, more fashion-conscious, clubbing, the beach, shopping, students who may take internships during the school year b/c they are in a major world city with great sports teams, small Greek Life, urban/suburban.

UF = collegetown, Floridians, the best football team in the nation, house parties, big greek life, larger variety of courses b/c 5 largest college in US, suburban surrounded by rural.

andre10

They are identical, from what I have seen

goodday

I read a lot on CC, particularly about the FL schools, and rarely post. I generally like SSobick's posts, because they are informative, even if obviously heavily biased in favor of UF (no doubt a proud alumnus). I'm posting just to say I'm continually amazed at how all of you are missing the forest for the trees. Why so much emphasis on trying to prove which school is better overall by a bunch of stats? What counts is which fits the needs of a particular student better. My son is a UM freshman. He got into UF, but for him it was not even a close choice. Both are excellent schools, but UM was just a far better fit FOR HIM. Isn't that all that really matters?

gthopeful

In my opinion, no .