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Originally Posted by Nomad9
Really? That’s news to me. When I was in high school in Florida, UCF and USF were pretty well respected. Florida is obviously huge and growing, and the relatively limited number of established universities (UF, Miami, and FSU really) mean that UCF/USF get an overflow of smart students who don’t go to the three primary schools.
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When I was in training at UF (Shands Hospital), and later when I was living in Orlando, nobody ever heard of UCF or USF if they existed back then (I think they were essentially "community colleges"). THE schools in FL were UF, FL State, U. of Miami and maybe, way down the list, FL Atlantic. There were some other smaller private schools like Rollins in Winter Park and Stetson that weren't bad but got little notice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by plinko
Santa Barbara has UCSB, which is a pretty good school (especially for sciences) considering its reputation for mega parties like Halloween. And despite being 100 miles away in San Luis Obispo, Cal Poly is a very common destination for SB kids for engineering and architecture.
Cal State Channel Islands is in the area as well (relatively new), but isn't much more than a degree mill.
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As Californians know, the entire U. of California system is the state's elite public university system. As in Communism, some equals are more equal than others with UC Berkeley and UCLA being on top, but the other "University of California" campuses all get the cream of the crop students from their areas and, if they have a particular focus or are in an attractive area like Santa Cruz, other parts of the state.
Below the UC system is the California State University system that absorbs most CA resident students who can't get into UC, don't live near a UC campus and want to live at home and so forth. With these I'd say the quality probably varies considerably but some are pretty good. My impression is the Cal State system also takes a fair number of foreign students (who pay full tuition and add to the schools' budgets) because of being relatively easier than U. of CA to get into (and needing the money).
Finally there are the local and community colleges that educate a lot of working adults, many of whom go part time. There is a strong movement, at least in the Bay Area, to make these schools tuition-free. I don't know if it will happen.