Merit Scholarships

uf2019
Sat, 14 Mar 2020 23:51:02 +0000

@1917souci You have hit the nail on the head on your points about the quality of the curriculum. My son chose to go out of state primarily because of the quality of the curriculum in the computer science department. Unlike some of his classmates he never aspired for an out of state or an Ivy League brand as UF is historically an awesome institution and provides the best value in the nation for an in-state student. The CS curriculum problems at UF the last few years have been discussed by frustrated past and current students all over the internet discussion boards. The past UF president even tried to scrap the CS department a few years ago. Both faculty and students are at a stalemate to change the curriculum. The faculty blames the quality of the students to offer more challenging coursework and the students point a finger on the lack of dedication and quality of the faculty. It is a classic catch 22 blame game and i would fault the administration for not resolving these issues.

After my son’s experience in his current college, one solution for UF for a quick fix would be to create a dedicated honors program in each of these borderline departments and pick the top 10% of the incoming class into each of these programs along with the best teaching (not research) faculty to teach the core classes. I would bet that in a couple of years that UF would be able to retain at least 60-75% of the very best students currently leaving for out of state public schools . This would also have the ripple effect of attracting and keeping world class faculty, top companies rushing in to recruit UF students and a quick rise to the top in college rankings. All my son’s freshman classmates in his honors program have multiple internships and research offers this summer with leading Tech, Finance, Energy, Defense companies who can’t seem to get enough of these qualified students.

The current honors program at UF does not do anything to address curriculum issues and needs to be revamped. The State of Florida high school system produces brilliant students and it would be shame for UF to lose these home grown students to an out of state public school. I am hopeful that UF will move quickly to address these shortcomings to retaining the cream of its students in the state.