Have we (USF) fallen asleep at the wheel?

[813knight]

Just had to make one comment than I'll let you guys be... Have you looked at the freshmen profile of both schools lately? Calling UCF a diploma mill makes no sense coming from USF, from Princeton yes, just had to respond to that.  UCF has a new medical school, simulation work with the military, Lockheed, NASA, etc so it's not like nothing is going past undergrad.

 UF students already consider UCF the second best option after UF.

If you take a current poll of recent quality high school students and their parents, UCF is very popular. Before most Tampa Bay students were either going to UF, FSU, or USF but that has changed. There are A LOT of Tampa Bay students going to UCF now, during holiday breaks you'll see a bunch of UCF shirts in the gyms, malls, etc. And by most sources recently it's the 2nd hardest public school to get into after UF in the State of Florida so easy entrance is not the reason. We must be doing something right. Have a nice day 

Uh USF if the second hardest Public school to get into. But thanks for trying. Our Academics are  superior to UCF. There is a reason many students go there, for location alone and it is really not that hard to get in. You have 55,000 students for a reason lets not be delusional...your no different then Arizona State. As they say "A billion degrees served"...Orlando is a much more exciting city then Tampa, but that is about it. We have one of the  top Cancer centers in the country on our campus...so whats the problem. USF needs to step up its Business Program though, the only one that UCF is far superior in and it is not even close.

There is a reason why UCF gets mistaken for USF by major politicians. They could careless about them and USF is the Brand name they know better. When the every state was trying to do this "flagship school" bs, we were on the bill along with Floria State. Not Central Florida...just saying.

Academics are superior , cmon man. I don't know where you are getting the #s to say USF is the 2nd hardest to get into for undergrad after UF, it can change by year but I'm sure that it is UCF or FSU(KL could venture over and give us links/#s  ;D) and this thread already has some older links/data.

Also admissions now is case by case, know a few people that got accepted to UF but not to UCF, there are different factors that go into it. I don't have time to find the #s and data but UCF's student profile is very impressive. That is what is impressive, the enrollment has exploded while RISING requirements through the years. If you look at both schools enrollment #s in say 2000, USF had a large lead/advantage then UCF just exploded and it wasn't b/c any standards were lowered, they kept being raised. USF has raised their requirements as well over the years and I will just say either school is not leaps and bounds harder to get into than the other these days. UCF is opening a new Dental school in a few years so that along with the video game school and new medical school will increase the post grad/research reputation as well but that wasn't even the topic at hand, it's undergrad where most students experience your University. UCF's popularity with Florida High school students has a lot to do w/ the campus and atmosphere on & around campus. It is a popular spot for high school students from South Florida(Palm/Broward)

[Jihme]

USF > UCF in all aspects. period.

[bullsbucsfan426]

As someone who's been at USF recently as a student, I have a number of problems with how our administration runs things.

The biggest one? Our graduation rate. We're only graduating 21 percent of our students in four years and 50 percent in six.

My biggest problem over my years at USF was keeping my course load on pace. I was lucky in a way to graduate in four years. I'm currently taking graduate courses so I can meet my CPA requirements.

If USF wants to get moving, we've got to improve that graduation rate. People graduating in good professions means people who will eventually have money to give back to USF, and boost the university.

The administration doesn't care about getting students into the workforce, and while that's dependent on several factors, nobody would go to UCF if USF actually did it's job in turning out quality engineers, accountants, etc. out so that we could start rising our academic profile.

[Guest nybullsfan]

As someone who's been at USF recently as a student, I have a number of problems with how our administration runs things.

The biggest one? Our graduation rate. We're only graduating 21 percent of our students in four years and 50 percent in six.

My biggest problem over my years at USF was keeping my course load on pace. I was lucky in a way to graduate in four years. I'm currently taking graduate courses so I can meet my CPA requirements.

If USF wants to get moving, we've got to improve that graduation rate. People graduating in good professions means people who will eventually have money to give back to USF, and boost the university.

The administration doesn't care about getting students into the workforce, and while that's dependent on several factors, nobody would go to UCF if USF actually did it's job in turning out quality engineers, accountants, etc. out so that we could start rising our academic profile.

My first thought was that those numbers were waaaayyyyyyyyy out of line, but apparently we're pretty much in line with the rest of the country...

http://www.quickanded.com/2010/12/u-s-college-graduation-rate-stays-pretty-much-exactly-the-same.html

[commbull]

This is so true Tampabull99! I never thought of it this way.

UCF is in all these rankings but that is absolutely correct, these rankings are geared toward a university's undergraduate poppulation and not representative of a universityt as a whole. With thaqt said, we are winning in every category. We are #2 in Florida and only behind UF! It moves me every time I come back to campus and see development. It means we continue to keep moving USF forward.

Just right now we have the new Interdisciplinary Sciences Research and Teaching Facility which will empower the natural sciences and interdisciplinary scientific research at USF. The new Music Building which provides state-of-the-art amenities. And finally, our fourth dining hall! Back when I came to USF there were only two dining halls...who would have ever imagined that we would have four?

Forget UF, In my eyes, USF has the capacity to become the next UPenn in the coming years. FSU is limited in land (that's why they share their COEngineering with FAMU) and can not grow that much more. FIU does not stand a chance, we will close the gap between us and UF soon as we are similar in land size and can thus enhance our beloved USF campus with similar facilities that UF has. Although we are neck-and-neck right now with UCF (undergrad purposes) we will overpower them with a College of Pharamacy (on the Tampa campus please, a College of Dentistry and hopefully a College of Law!

USF = The Greatest University In The Nation!

[glow=red,2,300]The University of South Florida[/glow]Alma Mater Hail to Thee

Bullpride08 took the words right out of my mouth.

Look, its great that we are in the Best Value ranking, however, there is still a problem. First, USF is far ahead of UCF in the programs we offer: The Byrd Alzheimer's Institute, Shriner's Children Hospital, Moffitt Cancer Hospital, Center for Global Sustainability, College of Marine Sciences, future College of Pharmacy, future College of Dentistry, etc. These are all programs and departments that UCF does not have. For us to have these programs AND to be "One of Florida's Top Three Research Universities" AND one of Florida's three Flagship Universities; something is grossly wrong if UCF is ranked ahead of us in any academic category.

Great point!  While undergrad academics, athletics, and the feel of our campus are important; let's not forget that we are first and foremost a research university.  And that's the real standard by which universities are judged.  People can quote all the magazine and internet rankings they want but when it comes to the most important yardstick to compare universties of our type (large public universities), UCF isn't even close to USF. UCF does $122 million in research per year and they frankly don't have the research infrastructure to substantially increase that whereas USF, with the research institutes listed above, is three times that has the organizational infrastructure to challenge UF for research dollars (we already do more than FSU).

So I say let UCF cater to undergrads and be a diploma factory with their shiny athletic facilities and near-campus retail strips.  We are a COMPLETE university that serves undergrads and has good athletics in addition to being a powerhouse research university.

University of Pennsylvania is a very expensive private university. I don't see USF becoming like it at all.