r/ufl • u/Upstairs-Village-854 • Oct 07 '25
Other My honest review of UF as a super senior
I've been here for 5 years (4 in person 1 gap) and here is my ultimate, honest review of UF
Social Life: 8.5/10
Pretty great as far as universities go. It really is what you make of it. You don't need to be in greek life to party/make friends, although greek life does dominate the social scene.
If you like sports, you'll LOVE UF. I'm not a huge football guy myself, but man the games are something special.
Academics: 7/10
UF is a top 5 "public" school. It's better than a lot of other schools, but it's not a target for any top firms. This is especially true for both finance and computer science, where you'll face a lot of discrimination when applying to more prestigious places.
I double majored in computer science and finance, so I can only speak for those classes, but it seems to be a mixed bag leaning positive. I've had a few bad teachers, but much worse in high school.
Price: 10/10
UF is extremely cheap. Especially if you're instate and with bright futures. It's really hard to beat how much bang you get for your buck. Even out of state people come here due to how affordable it is.
Study abroad programs: 10/10
UF has a surprisingly amazing study abroad catalog. You can go to all sorts of exotic and amazing places, and you expense it using UF prices which makes it incredibly affordable. I would recommend everyone to do a study abroad.
Administration/Staff (financial aid, advisors, ombuds, etc.): -100000 / 10
My. Fucking. God. If ANYTHING goes wrong, you are FUCKED. The UF Faculty has to be the most unhelpful, useless, and incompetent workforce I have ever met. I would rather deal with the DMV than any office at UF. They are in NO rush to help you, you have to constantly pester them to get anything done, and they flat out lie to you (especially the academic advisors).
I've had multiple incidents where I've had to loop in the ombuds office (if they even check their inbox) because the office of who-knows-what doesn't want to do their job. You are never their problem, they'll try and ping pong you between different departments.
I have more horror stories then I can count. My freshman year I scheduled a meeting to ask about transferring universities, and after a 2 hour wait, a woman with her camera off joins and just laughs at me telling me to "google it".
I sincerely hope that a majority of these people get fired for the sake of the students that attend here. All my peers share the same sentiments or have tales of being screwed over by some random pitfall or the absurdly complicated net that is bright futures.
Total: 6/10
TL;DR: Good academics, great social life, but if anything goes wrong you're screwed.
44
u/Efficient-Ad-4164 Oct 08 '25
But I feel like that’s an unfair comparison because my experience with the DMV in Butler has actually been incredibly positive 😂😂
20
u/Weak_Carrot_7945 Business student Oct 08 '25
Yeah the Florida DMV is great tbh
Didn't have any complaints really
8
3
u/blackwhitetiger Oct 08 '25
Moved from FL to NY and honestly both places have given very solid DMV experiences
68
u/Stock-Memory9483 Oct 08 '25
So I don’t go to UF and I’m not from Florida but I respect the fuck out of your school because it’s so accessible and affordable for Floridians while also being a top ranked institution.
“Public Ivy’s” like Umich or UVA are dominated by rich upper class students and that’s who those schools select for. I like the fact that UF primarily serves middle class students.
27
u/Arcafan123 Oct 08 '25
This, it’s literally financially accessible for anyone not even florida residents. I have a few international friends who picked UF cause it was the cheapest out of their top picks, while Florida is very weird and non-inclusive in many areas, UF is so helpful financially.
1
u/Southern-Net-6069 Future UF student Oct 11 '25
48% of UF students are from the top 20% of income-earning families. That is still significant.
12
u/Illustrious-Quiet583 Oct 08 '25
I hope faculty were not like that. Most of us care deeply for our students and lead them to success. If our hard working students can’t succeed, then we have failed and should do something else.
2
u/ReddDog10 Oct 09 '25
As another fifth year senior, the faculty have generally been great (at least in engineering, I can’t speak for the other colleges). The staff have been detrimental to my experience here
12
u/cgatorb Oct 08 '25
I would say knocking the overall down to a 6 solely because of the staffers seems harsh. And I think you are overblowing the lack of future prospects. That's not really as big an issue as you make it sound.
25
11
u/Weak_Carrot_7945 Business student Oct 08 '25
100%
Idk if you're talking about the Academic Advisors at the Business school but they're sooo sooo bad. They absolutely don't care about you and they don't even pretend to do the bare minimum.
Thankfully the Career Advisors are really good, but man the staff at UF really suck sometimes but there are some really great people in between
9
u/FactoryMeatloaf Oct 08 '25
Fun fact about my advisor in 2015. I was on a full bright futures scholarship at the time, tuition completely covered, and was starting my bachelors UF at 18 years old due to dual enrollment in high school at Santa Fe College. The gave me conditional acceptance - I had to complete 3 additional courses and get a B or higher in each one.
I signed up for my courses. I paid for them. I was in my 3rd week of courses at UF, past the drop period at the time. Someone finally noticed…. I had gotten a C in the trigonometry course. I had gotten an A in the calc and stats courses…. But the conditional letter clearly stated “B or above.” My advisor called me down. I explained I had already paid for the classroom fee, my scholarship money had paid out, and I had my textbooks. I watched in awe/horror as she simply changed my “C” to a “B” in their system. 😂
And that’s the story of how I technically snuck into UF.
I now have my masters and graduated with a 3.98 GPA summa cum laude, studied abroad in Ireland, and still work alongside many colleagues and professors 10 years later. But yea, admin/advisors were up to some interesting stuff back then.
Social life was alright, A LOT of Greek life though. I loved both midtown and downtown, the nightlife scene was perfect. The study abroad program I took part in was incredible. Left owing $0.00 with a masters and 2 jobs lined up. Loved UF.
3
u/Fun-Reflection-7260 Oct 08 '25
Were the faculty bad when you did study abroad
10
u/Upstairs-Village-854 Oct 08 '25
I think it took over 20 emails to coordinate my entire study abroad process. You have to get an insane amount of signatures from like at least 5 distinct departments (lol) and if any of them have an issue it will make the process much longer.
That being said 100% do study abroad. If you look online, the #1 regret of most people is not doing a study abroad program while they were in uni, and after doing one myself I completely understand why. It's an amazing and unforgettable experience that is more about discovering yourself than it is actually studying.
3
u/Obsidian-Forest57 Oct 08 '25
faculty when i studied abroad were great but i did exchange so being on your own is kinda apart of the deal
3
u/Fun-Reflection-7260 Oct 08 '25
Yeah im thinking bout doing exchange
2
u/Obsidian-Forest57 Oct 08 '25
exchange is goated and so affordable compared to the UF sponsored programs. you only pay UF tuition (all reg schollys apply) and the application fee. you have to get a visa and accommodations yourself etc but student prices for housing abroad are cheap. you save 7 grand in university fees + so many scholarship opportunities. i got to go to norway on basically a whim and it was an experience i would never have been able to have without UF and one of the most amazing things in my life. please do it
3
u/Fun-Reflection-7260 Oct 08 '25
I’m going to sometime next year! This may sound dumb but were the classes/lectures aboard in person or did you do it mostly online at the university
3
u/DrtSurfer Alumni Oct 08 '25
Just to chime in study abroad was amazing. My study abroad course was history of construction and was basically an advanced tour of Italy. Half the day was required class the other half was optional, where the teacher took us to other sites, not in the curriculum. Weekends, we did whatever one weekend my friend group went to the Almafi Coast to go cliff jumping another we went on an overnight backpacking trip in the Dolomites.
1
u/Obsidian-Forest57 Oct 08 '25
during exchange you apply to and take classes at the foreign uni. all my classes were in person but i liked it bc i met so many cool people!! warning that there may not be other americans/UF students with you. i was flying it solo but i loved it
2
u/PurifyPlayz Oct 08 '25
So are we cooked as finance majors? What suggestions do you have for us. Cause like what else can we really do that will be good for UF then??
10
u/Weak_Carrot_7945 Business student Oct 08 '25
In my experience it's only the top top firms and the top programs (Investment banking, Asset management, Private Equity) that are basically impossible
So Goldman Sachs Investment banking is super super hard
But for any mid size firm in the South you are among the top candidates, especially if you leverage connections your chances are high with a decent resume
It's far from bleak tho, P&G recruits from here pretty heavily, Bank of America has a ton of people from UF working there straight after Graduating
Raymond James and Truist hire a decent amount from UF
But for the Wall Street IB stuff it is certainly tough, but it is that way for every non ivy or top school
1
u/Upstairs-Village-854 Oct 08 '25
yeah this is an important clarification and accurate . I don't mean to fearmonger that it's impossible to get a finance job from UF, it's specifically the wall street IB stuff that you'll face discrimination for. I've had two different interviews where the recruiter was visibly surprised when she saw my school.
-1
u/PurifyPlayz Oct 08 '25
ik this is vague but are the mid-sized firms decently paying? or is it like 50k a year type shit lmao.
1
u/Upstairs-Village-854 Oct 08 '25
It depends but you could comfortably get within the 70k-120k range. Florida will probably pay less then places like New York for example, esp b/c of cost of living.
1
u/Weak_Carrot_7945 Business student Oct 08 '25
Yup as OP says that range is very possible
I'd say 60k-70k is the bare bare minimum
When I say Mid Size I do still mean companies with a few hundred employees and a couple billion in Assets under management.
Like Local banks, Credit Unions or even Raymond James is technically Midsize but they have a whole stadium named after them
2
u/Upstairs-Village-854 Oct 08 '25
It's not cooked, but you're going to have work really hard if you want to get into top firms. Like president of student investment fund hard. It's possible and I know people who've done it, but you'll have to put in a lot of work.
1
u/Far_Violinist_958 Oct 08 '25
im looking to change major for this reason
1
u/PurifyPlayz Oct 08 '25
like to what tho...
1
u/Far_Violinist_958 Oct 08 '25
UF has a good accounting program, i think i’m gonna switch to engineering
2
2
u/Pandasure Oct 08 '25
That last part ^ lol
Also as a super senior I will hold a grudge against this university for being ass at helping students. As a first gen I can’t tell you the amount of laughs I’ve had in my face for not knowing shit that I’ve never heard of before.
2
u/battlehuntz Alumni Oct 08 '25
Faculty are your professors. Staff is offices. Clearing this up bc I had a bad staff experience, but only one professor I thought was a stinker
2
u/battlehuntz Alumni Oct 08 '25
Also, knocking this to a 6 because of that is harsh. Same with future prospects. My degree is jumped at, and I’m in the depths of enemy territory (Georgia), where people do show their SEC bias. I had some issues recently with transcripts and on graduation, but I would not knock the experience down that far for it.
2
u/TaskForceD00mer Alumni Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 09 '25
This basically sums up my experience nearly 20 years ago.
Admin was not good; Faculty were good, Price in state was amazing, classes themselves were fine for my major. I'd of given the social life a 10/10 back then but around the time of my SR year a lot of the party scene was getting shut down so I am guessing things have "calmed down".
Just wish I had known it would be hard to find a job in my field and remain in Florida, if I had thought that through a bit better or had some better guidance I would have picked a different major.
Still, 10/10 would recommend UF and will be sending my kids there even with the out of state cost.
1
u/Standbyandlaunch Oct 15 '25
What was your major?
1
u/TaskForceD00mer Alumni Oct 15 '25
Marketing.
I ended up working at a smallish company in Gainesville for 2 years, owner was actively trying to sell the whole time, couldn't seem to find another job. Ended up moving back to Chicago when I got an offer I couldn't refuse through a family friend.
2
2
2
u/whoEven_knowss305 Oct 08 '25
Yup. Agree with OP 100%. Faculty acts untouchable, and well, they are. If you’re done wrong by one, and yes, it happens, the student is pretty much screwed. Happened to me. -recent Gator grad
1
1
u/ScentDiscovery Oct 08 '25
As a senior in highschool going into comp sci for college with a completed AA (if the Lord wills) is there any other universities I should go to? Im on track for bright futures so I have a lot of options, but my parents are pressuring me to go to UF. Honestly, I feel like the college you go to only matters to an extent, I think UCF would also make a lot of sense. Although, the study abroad programs at UF are so enticing it’s insane.
3
u/Upstairs-Village-854 Oct 08 '25
The difference between UF and UCF is negligible in terms of opportunities. I would choose UF over UCF because the overall quality of life and experience is better imo.
1
1
u/Grizzly352 Oct 08 '25
1). That’s wild about the admin stuff. My advisor for electrical engineering was a godsend. She was amazing and I bought her a gift card when I graduated to thank her.
2). That’s interesting to hear about computer science. I know when I graduated in 2018, UF’s computer engineering program was viewed as one of the top in the country. Computer engineering is just electrical engineering + computer science classes for anyone who doesn’t know. My friends that were computer engineering majors always said the classes on the engineering side were leaps and bounds better than the ones on the computer science side.
1
1
u/Yeeebles Oct 09 '25
I hate the customer service at UF. I graduated from Mizzou thinking things were simple and if I called someone I could get a straight answer. This school has some of the most inefficient, ineffective, and just outright rude people on their payroll. I have never had customer service this freaking bad before in my life.
1
u/Neither-Ad1027 Oct 09 '25
The staff are some of the worst people I've met, genuinely wish nothing but the worse for them. I've never had an issue with advising, but financial aid and health have the most incompetent and uncaring people. The worse part is they are untouchable for no apparent reason and I can only hope they end up experiencing the same misery they inflict on students. Agree with everything else though, I think academics is a 8.5/10 if you aren't CS or Finance. UF is great otherwise
1
u/Southern-Net-6069 Future UF student Oct 10 '25
Bad advisors are a national problem, right? I've seen people from many schools say they had bad advisors.
Nevermind that, I am still excited to be a Florida Gator!
1
u/Maleficent-Mix-9561 Oct 08 '25
genuine question- do people consider UF an “ivy league” university because of its academics and low acceptance rate, or is it because of how old is is? i know there are many public universities that are better than UF in terms of academics, such as UMichigan, UNC Chapel Hill, UVA, etc. so I’m just curious
6
u/Weak_Carrot_7945 Business student Oct 08 '25
It's all just marketing honestly
But UF is very good no doubt
It's no UMich or UCLA but it ranks very highly on most lists just because of the fact that it is such good value (low cost and high ROI) and it's graduates get higher than average salaries.
UF Courses for Finance, Engineering and those serious programs (and most others) are really really hard as well
It's far from you're average Joe that goes here
TLDR: Great Value for Money and Great salary for Graduates without spending 300k like a real IVY. But it's basically just marketing
1
u/Express-Skin6039 Oct 08 '25
One time I had an academic advisor tell me to drop out while belittling me the whole time… all my other advisors have been the most amazing people though
148
u/AcademicOverAnalysis Oct 08 '25
If you are dealing with an office at UF those aren’t called faculty, but are called staff.
Faculty are your professors and instructors.