Florida Gulf Coast University or University Of Tampa?

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1

Here’s a couple things to consider:

  • I am going for premed
  • I am going to do cheerleading both schools are good
  • tampa is private at 30g a year and fgcu is public at 6
    -tampa has smaller classes and is in a city with lots to do
  • Florida gulf coast might have a better campus activity
    -Tampas cheer team is competitive
  • fgcu is coed cheer team Tampa is all girl
  • Tampa has more internships
    -fgcu isn’t as far from my house 2hrs while Tampa is 3
    -Tampa has better on campus housing

If anyone has been to either schools please put your input on what you think or what you love or hate about each school

2

We live in Tampa close to UT and University of Tampa was one of our options, as was Eckerd, USF, and FGCU. I have always thought that UT would be a good fit for my son. What I loved about UT was the class sizes and Liberal Arts education. What I didn’t like about it was its downtown location. It has a beautiful water front location but it didn’t seem as secure as other campuses we visited. Also, we heard from students that some professors were not as devoted to students as we would hope. The comments we got were “They don’t care.”

We had decided on USF before we took the FGCU open house tour. I know it’s their job to sale us on their school, and it worked. We love the size (a lot bigger than UT but having more classes give FGCU the same small school feel). The dorms are AMAZING and the tutoring and student affairs offices are onsite at freshman village. They’re an eco-friendly campus and stress student internship whenever possible. They are a young school, but we were impressed with some of their students’ success stories.

My son was just along for the ride before he visited FGCU. Have you visited both schools? Is cheering the biggest factor for you and is there a scholarship opportunity there? Because that would equalize the price, I would think. All other considerations aside, which one just strikes a cord with you?

3

@evermom1‌ you’ve helped a lot! Cheer is a big part but I find each very equal , fgcu might give you a scholarship for it if your one of the picked on the team buts till have to pay $300 for uniform plus Tampa doesn’t make you pay out of pocket but there’s no scholarship. I was thinking of just trying out for the fgcu team to see if I make it and if I don’t then go to UT? If be happy with either school it’s just a hard choice

4

Florida Gulf Coast University:

  • Tuition & Fees = $6,318
  • COA = $20,342

University of Tampa

  • Tuition & Fees = $26,330
    • COA = $40,354

Essentially you will have to pay $20K more per year to attend University of Tampa or $80K over 4-years. What is so special about the University of Tampa that merits paying this $20K more per year to attend? Outside of Tampa, does anyone really know anything about this University? Can the University of Tampa match up with any of the Florida State Universities on any available metrics? Are you attending University to major in Cheer Leading, since that appears to me more a deciding factor than getting quality education and getting the most bang for your buck! Personally, I don’t see what the University of Tampa has over FGCU and some might argue, that the latter is a better institution than the former. If Cheer Leading factors significantly in your future career success and University of Tampa has the edge in that department, then by all means attend the more expensive option.

On the other hand, “I’ll be happy with either school it’s just a hard choice”, why is it such a hard choice given the huge gap in cost between Universities? This is indeed a no-brainer.

5

Of course, that’s a valid point but it’s possible that money is not a factor for OP so she should go to whichever school strikes her fancy. Even though UT is way more expensive, most UT students receive some kind of scholarships plus a $3000 dollars yearly grant from the state that comes with attending a private school. For us, the out-of-pocket cost was still about $15,000 dollars a year. We could have reduced that a little more but son wanted to live on campus, even with the school being one mile from home. In theory, if she gets the highest scholarship UT offers ($15000) and the grant, plus Bright Future, (?) and a prepaid college plan(?), the cost wouldn’t be as great. It’s still more expensive than FGCU but; we don’t know, cost may not be an issue for OP at all.

I didn’t tell my son he had to pick the school we could most afford, but I’m really glad he did. And yes, @lexie272, it is a hard decision to make, good luck.

6

You may find this tool useful when comparing colleges.

http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/search1ba.aspx?institutionid=433660,137847

Good Luck!

7

Another thing to remember is that most pre-meds do not end up in medical school, so you should fully investigate what the available “Plan B’s” are at both schools.

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P.S., @lexie272, You have heard about FGCU’s fast track per med program with USF, right?

9

@evermom1‌ you’ve given me a lot to think about thank you so much :slight_smile: @Zinhead‌ I didn’t know that but everything in premed is discourage students and I’m not one to be discouraged because I know I WILL go to med school even if it takes me until I’m 100 years old I WiLL make it there!

10

Hi there,

I went to FGCU for my first two years of college and I really did enjoy it.

SPORTS/MAJORS
I was sad to leave but they were cutting a ton of majors (you might want to read their documentation on which are getting cut) because they are trying to fund a football team. You want to be a cheerleader… Which sport? Because clearly, FGCU doesnt have football unfortunately but basketball is alright even though their team is awful now. I was there for the sweet 16 run and it was quite the adrenaline rush. When the students actually decides to support the teams, it’s a blast… But if none of the teams are good, then its kind of boring. Except for girls basketball, they have been consistently awesome but barely draw 50 people to the games.

SOCIAL LIFE
Onto the social part and this is coming from a girl who tried it all because I wanted to make the best of it all. FGCU’s “fun” heavily depends on greek life. I started off thinking HELL NO and I made GDI friends and lived happily as a GDI. Then I somehow became friends with sorority girls and it was a big group of them that just took me in and they begged me to join their sorority, so I did. After about 5 months of that I realized I was right with the HELL NO statement. Just not my thing. So if you are into sorority, go for it! It really is fun and you meet tons of people. Just be careful at frat parties because I had good friends in frats and everytime I went to a party they warned me about certain pitchers not to drink from because they were drugged. (being completely honest because us girls have to watch each others back). And this is for all the girls that read this thread in the future, that happens at all schools. Its not a myth, it HAPPENS.

Other than Greek life, Fort Myers is extremely boring. I mean at first it’ll be exciting because you’re in college, meeting new people and its a huge rush! But after a while it gets pretty boring. You can check other threads and probably draw the same conclusion. The bars get sketchy and weird (except for blu, probably the most fun but guys awkwardly watch you dance because they have one thing on their mind lmao). Denny’s will be your go to (open 24/7) but be careful, lots of cops on ben hill griffin.

TEACHERS
You HAVE to use rate my professor. If you dont you will get awful teachers because the sign up process is almost impossible. I’m sure that’s the same at all colleges but we would pull all nighters clicking the refresh button during registration because it freezes the minute registration opens. That happens more with freshman but you will still get stuck with bad teachers thorughout the years if you dont do your research. (Take milner for comp 1 and 2 if you go there lol).

DORMS
This is pretty important. There are two huge parts to the dorms, the AWESOME, the GOOD and the ABSOLUTELY AWFUL TERRIBLENESS.

The AWESOME: you’ve got West Lake which you cant exactly move into until sophomore… but mostly junior year. It’s really nice and actually was owned by other people for apartment complexes until FGCU bought them, which shows they’ve gotta be good!

The GOOD: For freshman year, go for Osprey if you can or now eagles landing. I lived in osprey the year it was amazing and so nice. All freshman housing it great though so enjoy it!

the ABSOLUTELY AWFUL TERRIBLENESS: North. Lake. It is awful. DO NOT live there. There’s spiders, ants, cockroaches in every possible place. They are also really run down and crappy. You’ll have to call maintenance a hundred times and for us, they started to just walk in without knocking until we finally called supervisors because it was inappropriate (obviously) and they started knocking again.

OVERALL
After my experience there, I’d probably go with USF. My friend transferred from FGCU to USF and he loves it. It’s not a terrible school, every school has its good and bad parts. I’d say visit both as well because it’s all about how it feels to you. USF definitely has more majors incase you switch. OH and really important, everyone tells you “oh you can be undecided, you dont have to choose what you want to do for the rest of your life NOW, some have changed their majors 3 or 4 times!” DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM! You’ll learn that COLLEGES LIE and this is one of the biggest lies… Once you reach 120 credit hours, they will charge you DOUBLE for each credit hour and there are 4 credit hours in an average class…

WOW so this was long, I hope it sorta helped. If you have anymore questions I’ll check back and see if I can help answer.