<p>My son applied and was admitted to both UCF and Florida Polytechnic, so we drove to Lakeland to check it out this past weekend (not on a tour but you don’t really need one to see 4 buildings). The school is in the middle of nowhere. There is that big elliptical feather building and a completed (and populated) dormitory building located 1500 feet away. There’s a separate admissions building that looks like an old gas station with rollup doors and there’s a police/“safety” department building. Except for the food on campus, there is NOTHING (and I mean NOTHING but pasture land) around for miles (p.s., the coffee shop and cafe were both closed but there are vending machines for drinks). The campus itself has extensive roads and streetlights and lots of room to grow – which it doubtless will. The place reeks of pesticide and the “moat” around the feather building has bubblers to aerate the water to prevent mosquito larvae. We overheard a faculty member saying, “yeah, we need to get the whole building pressure washed every month since mosquitoes seem attracted to the bright white color”. Looking closely at the building, there are millions of bodies of dead insects stuck to the powder coated metal. Saturday at 4 p.m. the 50,000 square foot (or so it seems) feather building had 5 people in it… 2 kids in the upstairs computer lounge/study area and said faculty member showing a couple around. Because it’s STEM-focused, it will probably become a highly-competitive school; however, at present, this school is not sufficiently established and lacks surrounding community infrastructure for us to consider it further. I wish them good luck but sincerely hope my son doesn’t want to go there. I read that this school was rammed through the legislature by a corrupt politician who owns a lot of land out near Lakeland… don’t know whether its true or not, but it certainly would explain this museum of modern art in the middle of nowhere. In 20 years, this college will probably be fantastic; for now, the reality is that this school is too small, too isolated, and too new for me to support my son going there. If your kid plans to attend FPU, do yourelf a favor and be sure to visit and make up your mind for yourself rather than spending too much time on their admittedly slick website. Don’t let the high-tech website lull you into thinking that it’s the next MIT. It’s not - and won’t be – at least not for another quarter century’s worth of growth.</p>