Florida Colleges

[Gun Freak]

As you may know, I am a high school senior. Next year I'm off to college and I am going to stay in Florida. So far, I have been accepted to Florida State, Central Florida, North Florida, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical. University of Florida doesn't give decisions until mid February, so I don't know about them yet. In case you couldn't guess, I plan on majoring in Mechanical Engineering. Do any of you guys know about the engineering programs at any of these schools? Not sayin that I am going to decide based on y'all's advice, but I just wanna know what some of you think. Any other college advice would be greatly appreciated

[Lockednloaded]

Did you only apply to Florida schools? I'm also going through the same application grind, I did apply to the U in florida, so I might not be far from you!

[sagthegreat]

I have been accepted to embry riddle in Prescott Arizona. If you can go there then we can shoot spudguns in the desert

[CannonCreations]

First off, I want to say good choice of major. I too am an ME major, but I go to school in the cold state of Michigan. Mechanical engineering is a very large field and offers many job possibilities. I only have one year to go, so if you are looking for help or are interested in my personnel experiences, don't hesitate to ask. The biggest piece of advice I can give you, or anyone going to college, is to try and sit right up front and get to know your professors by meeting with them outside of class. Depending on the school you choose you will have upwards of 300 people per class and a relationship with your professor will show him/her that you are interested and willing to go the extra mile to succeed. Also, never buy your text books from the school bookstore, it is a complete rip off. If you can, try and buy them online or from friends who already had the class. I have saved over 3000.00$ in my course as a student by not buying from the bookstore. Sometimes you don't have a choice, but always be on the lookout for deals, every penny counts. I don't think you would be one to do this, but I know way too many people that partied their way out of college in the first year and wound up back at home in a few months, so just a heads up there. I am not saying don't party though, it is part of the whole college experience. Another bit of advice, try and get as many 4.0s as possible your first 2 years, because after that, the difficulty increases exponentially.

[Gun Freak]

Did you only apply to Florida schools? I'm also going through the same application grind, I did apply to the U in florida, so I might not be far from you!

Wouldn't that be something if we went to school together? Haha! Yes I applied to 5 schools, all in FL.

I have been accepted to embry riddle in Prescott Arizona. If you can go there then we can shoot spudguns in the desert

As fun as that sounds... If I end up going to Riddle, it will be the Daytona Beach campus

I only have one year to go, so if you are looking for help or are interested in my personnel experiences, don't hesitate to ask. The biggest piece of advice I can give you, or anyone going to college, is to try and sit right up front and get to know your professors by meeting with them outside of class. Depending on the school you choose you will have upwards of 300 people per class and a relationship with your professor will show him/her that you are interested and willing to go the extra mile to succeed.

Well, I know the experience varies depending on the school, but I am just hopeful that my college experience will be a lot of hands on stuff as opposed to just classroom/lecture and such. What can you tell me about that?

I'd definitely be the one to be close with my professor. Always have been like that. If I go to Riddle, class sizes are extremely small (<30), but I may very well end up at a huge public school with large classes. In either case I hope to have a good relationship with my professors.

Also, never buy your text books from the school bookstore, it is a complete rip off. If you can, try and buy them online or from friends who already had the class. I have saved over 3000.00$ in my course as a student by not buying from the bookstore. Sometimes you don't have a choice, but always be on the lookout for deals, every penny counts.

Thanks for that. Amazon is my best friend... they might have some good deals on books.

Regarding the party thing, that's not me at all. I don't hang out with those kids now and I won't in college. Not saying I won't enjoy the "college experience" as everyone says. I just wanna stay focused. Like you said about the 4.0's. I need to keep my priorities straight.

[CannonCreations]

Glad to hear that you have your priorities in order, a lot of people going in don't and suffer for it. In my personal experience I spent two years at a community college to get my basics done and saved a lot of money and got a better education than I am getting now at a university. As the community college my class sizes averaged roughly 20-50 people, which was great, now my class's average 100-300 people which makes things much harder. In my time in class I have had little to no hands on experience which is really unfortunate, because I love working with my hands, always have. I can't say how your school will do it, but in my school there is quite a bit of lecture, and an endless pile of homework, most of it math based, but that shouldn't get tough until second or third year depending on where you start with calculus. If you really want to get some good experience, I recommend joining an on campus group of some sort. We have a lot of stuff here, like F1 racing team, Baja, Solar car, and a bunch more, but those are the big ones. I am personally working on a Solar car for my school that will be driven across the country in the summer. Joining this group was one of the best decisions I have made. I have learned so many things that I never could in class, I get to apply theories learned in class to actual real life scenarios. Got to meet a bunch of pretty cool people, get to design something and then actually build it. I have received a lot of hands on training with milling and lathe, and hopefully soon some CNC training too. There is soo much more, but the main point is that you can't go wrong joining a group like this, it is enjoyable, and employers like to see you do something other than homework. Another bit of advice, when looking for jobs and internships, employers will be more interested in your experiences than your actual GPA, so getting into on campus groups is a good idea. I am personally in 4 different groups, although only the one is for engineers. When looking for books amazon is a good place to start, but there are many other places where you can get them cheaper. There is a cite called http://www.abebooks.com, they compare multiple companies at once so you can get the best deal. I have used them more than anything else and have never been upset. Oh, and a lot of times the edition of the book doesn't actually matter, so as long as your homework doesn't come out of it you can usually pick up an older edition for pennies on the dollar. It sounds like you are on the right track, good luck, engineering is an extremely rigorous major to take on.

[mark.f]

As a college student on a very long extended break ( ), I can do little but reiterate CannonCreator's points:

1.) It's a good idea to get your basics out of the way at community college first, just be vary aware of what courses will transfer and which ones will not. Its saves you a ton of money (CC tuition for two years versus a large university's tuition for two years) and disconnects you from campus life which can be a pretty big distraction during your first couple of years.

Also, I don't know what university you're looking at, but at my very first college semester at LSU my Arts Appreciation course (a prerequisite which was offered at the community college I went to next) had a body of 730 students in stadium seating... something to consider.

2.) You can get by renting your textbooks at the admittedly large cost of not having the material for review later on in life/classes. The college I went to rented them out but you can also check places like Chegg if yours doesn't.

Altogether, plan ahead, and keep your nose to the grindstone. It's easy to get off track and you'll regret it, because, above all, college is expensive!

[CannonCreations]

Wow mark.f 730? That's insane. Thankfully I have never had that many people in one class before. I saved about 40 grand by getting my basics done at a community college, I forgot to mention transferring, and making sure you get credit for everything. Good point about Chegg too, that is a very useful tool in college and I don't know about you, but I still use all the text books and notes from my earlier semesters.

[Gun Freak]

I definitely plan on joining one or some of those groups. I would not survive college if I couldn't do hands-on stuff. About the math courses, I have always been heavily math-oriented, so I don't think I'll have too much difficulty with that.

My community college is absolutely not an option... Besides, I will be attending college for close to free due to scholarships and pre-paid programs. That is, unless I go to Riddle... but I have been thinking about transferring there after 1 or 2 years.

What you said about the solar vehicle experience is something I could very well see myself doing. I don't wanna go to college for just a degree, I want to have experiences that will enhance my knowledge and career. I totally agree with you on the job/apprentice/co-op thing.

I'll save that site to my favorites. Thanks for that! And thanks for all of the advice!

my Arts Appreciation course (a prerequisite which was offered at the community college I went to next) had a body of 730 students in stadium seating... something to consider.

That is just insanity

You can get by renting your textbooks at the admittedly large cost of not having the material for review later on in life/classes. The college I went to rented them out but you can also check places like Chegg if yours doesn't.

Another thing I'll keep in mind.

I must say that some of my college credits are already out of the way due to AP courses... Granted, this isn't more than a few classes but it'll save me some time and moolah.