Florida State University Top Questions

FSU is a big state university with around 40,000 students attending. There are many prestigious academic programs to accommodate the large student body. The choice of programs is very diverse and includes the sciences, humanities and arts. There is something for everyone. We have a very good medical school for those hoping to become doctors, an award winning film school that is recognized by the Directors Guild of America and plenty of humanities departments for the student interested in subjects such as history, political science and languages. There is a department for every student, whether he is looking for job training or is interested in learning for its own sake. One of the best things about the diverse course options at FSU is the amount of control students have over their schedules. Each program offers a huge selection of courses and professors. Often a student will be given a list of classes that count toward major requirements and can freely choose which ones interest them. Most classes are offered at different times of the day so a student can choose to take all morning classes or all evening class. There are even online classes for the commuter students who cannot drive to school every single day. Your schedule is completely under your control at FSU. There are many interesting classes at FSU. One of the most unique ones I have taken was Religion and Fantasy. We studied many famous fantasy series such as The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and the Harry Potter series. It was a fun way to earn a humanities credit! There are all sorts of classes to satisfy the interests of every student. The only drawback to attending such a large school is that many required classes are very large in number. Classes can have hundreds of people in them and take place in an auditorium. However the teachers who teach these classes are very helpful and always answer emails. They also have office hours to help the students who need more one on one time with the professor. Similarly, there are often tutoring stations in the library on campus, to offer some extra help. This goes for most of the professors at FSU. Every professor has office hours and most of them are extremely helpful. Overall, the academics at FSU are excellent, due to the great number of choices and the willingness of the teachers to help.

Typically, your freshman year at FSU will be dominated by large classes in huge lecture halls taught by a professor who doesn't know your name. Once you move on into more specialized classes for your major, class size will get smaller, and you will really get to know your professor. My favorite class has been Greek and Roman Mythology. The class was fascinating, the professor was funny, and I honestly looked forward to class every week. The worst class I have been in is General Biology. I probably just hated it because I am not a science person, but I still struggled the entire semester. The majority of students at FSU are very grade conscious. The main library, nicknamed "Club Stroz," is always packed at any time of day. It is even nicknamed "Club Stroz" because so many students go there. Dirac Science Library is the library you go to if you are serious about getting a lot of work done. FSU students tend to give most classes their all. There are not many slackers. Of course, there are always the kids that never go to class and only show up on test days, but I have found these types of students to be far and few between. FSU also has very reasonable LIberal Arts requirements. The Liberal Arts studies are the basic classes you are required to take before moving on to take classes for your major. They include things like Freshman Composition and College Algebra. However, these classes are easy to exempt out of with your grades from high school, SAT/ACT scores, and AP scores. Most students exempt out of at least a few Liberal Arts classes which speeds up your academic career. I recommend enrolling in the FSU Honors Program if you are invited to join. You are offered small class sizes from the start, and you get priority registration which basically guarantees you will get your desired class schedule every semester. The Honors Program has allowed me to learn from some of the best professors on campus. Plus, discussions in honors classes are always extremely intellectual, and you can learn a ton from simply listening.

Academics at Florida State are fairly rigorous but teachers are very good about offering opportunities to do well. One thing that some high school students don't yet know--I didn't--is the difference between your university and your college. FSU is a big school with I believe around 40,000 students. That sometimes means lecture halls and long walks around campus. However, it also means a tremendous amount of resources available to you and an awesome football team. Your college/major will most likely be rather small. For example, in the Williams building are most of the English Language and Literature classes. While if I walked across campus for a lecture hall I might not know a lot of people, in the Williams building there is a sense of community. After a while, as you work into your major, you start feeling a sense of belonging to your college--where you'll know and have close relationships with a good number of the professors and fellow students. That's most likely where you'll have your mentors, your intellectual debates with peers, and your most stimulating classes, all within the context and privilege of a large, well funded university.

The academic atmosphere of FSU is a good one. There are a decent amount of large lecture classes, however as you progress in your major the classes get smaller and more personal. There are always a couple professors who will learn your name, and every teacher has office hours that are open to all students. Participation in class is common, especially in my major. I'm in Editing, Writing, and Media and my classes are largely based on participation and sharing examples of work. The library offers free tutoring and has very flexible hours. My favorite classes I've taken thus far have been Philosophy classes. We have a great philosophy program and the professors are really interesting and talented teachers. The education is mainly geared towards job placement as you progress however there are always classes available that are there for the sake of learning.

This is always a very important part of going to any university. Just so you can get an idea of what my academic experiences were like, I'll tell you about some of my best and worse classes and what you can expect your classes to be like if you were to go to FSU. I started out as an Exploratory major and declared my major this semester (Psychology). This really isn't a major, its more of an undecided program to expose students to different fields of study so they can make a confident decision about whatever major they want to eventually be a part of. During this time I have taken math classes (Algebra and Statistics) and english (English I, II, and Science Fiction Short Story). I have also taken a variety of other classes from Intro to Psychology to Oceanography, to music theory. In addition to this, I have participated in three different ensembles from the School of Music ethnomusicology department and been a part of the one of the school bands for Music majors and minors. The class sizes very depending on the subject. Into to Psychology, Social Psychology, Race and Ethnicity, Bio of non-majors, Oceanography, and College Algebra were all taken in large auditoriums. In these classes there were anywhere from 200 to about maybe 400+ students in these lecture halls. These classes were pretty much the same in that you would go to class, take as many notes of the powerpoint slides as possible, and read the book at home. I highly recommend having a partner to take notes with. One person can write down the slides and the other can type everything that the professor is saying. Most classes allow you to bring in your laptop. This is really useful for taking notes...but it is DAMN tempting to go over to youtube to look up funny videos of people falling when the professor begins to ramble on about a subject that one one cares about (this happens a lot on Race and Ethnicity). If you want the professors to spend time with you, you have to make the time to meet with them during their office hours. All of the professors that I have had really wanted their students to visit them during their office hours, of any question or concern, big or small. I really recommend that students do this so that the professor gets to know you. For music majors, the classes are smaller. Classes like Music Theory, Sight-singing etc., have classes with maybe 25 students. And then there is something like sectionals from high school, where all of the students that play, lets say low brass, would meet together once a week. During these meetings (which are required), students perform for each other to get positive criticism and learn about new techniques to perform better.

The academics at FSU are pretty considerable. My major prepares me very well and several other programs have a good reputation for being competitive with other schools, such as the education program. There are a wide variety of classroom dynamics here; some classes are lectures in which you can get the one-on-one attention you need through visiting office hours, while other classes are small and discussion-based. Some classes even mix these by employing one class a week as a lecture while the other as a recitation in a lab setting where you practice the skills learned and can gain one-on-one guidance from the instructor. My major is English with a concentration of EWM, which is Editing, Writing, and Media. This is very unique and a new major, which allows for a lot of evolution of the curriculum. In this way, the material we learn is incredibly relevant to today's society and the skills we learn will be applicable to the future of composition.

Here at Florida State University class size depends on your specific field of study. I have had classes as large as 500 people and as small as 4 people. If you take the time and effort to approach your professors they will most definitely remember your name, however, in large lecture classes it is unlikely for the professor to know your name unless you put forth the effort. My favorite and most unique class would be a sales class I took within the business major this class was very practical and required each student to partake in a 20-minute selling situation. It was very involved. My least favorite class would be college algebra, mostly, due to the fact I am terrible at math. Class participation is common but less common in lecture classes although teachers often require students to purchase PRS controllers that allow the class to instantly answer questions, which are then displayed on the projector screens. It depends what students you talk to but there are most definitely those who participate in intellectual conversations outside of class. Students here at FSU are competitive in both the academic field and the extracurricular. I have two majors and they are Business (Marketing) and English (Editing Writing and Media). Both majors are very different from each other. The business school is more rigid while the English school has a more relaxed atmosphere. Both departments educate students in a manner that is geared toward future employment. I feel the educational requirements for both majors are fruitful. Each required class builds upon another and makes for a more well rounded learning experience.

If you stand out to a professor, they will remember your name. Many of mine remember me (I'll admit, part of that is because of my nickname) but also because of the quality of my work. My favorite class had to be Harry Potter and Religion. It covered the Narnia series, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and the Golden Compass trilogy. It was fun, imaginative, and still taught us a lot about religion and how, even when it's unintentional, can still make it's way into the media. My least favorite was a class on poetry for my freshman English class that focused on nothing but food poems. At 8 a.m. when I usually didn't get breakfast until afterward. A lot of students have intellectual conversations out of class, but I would say the majority keep those conversations in class and spend their time outside getting the work done. I don't think students are particularly competitive here. My majors are Creative Writing and Classical Civilizations, both of which are some of the best in the country, taught by some of the most knowledgeable professors I've ever met. I love both of my departments because I learn so much in a way that's not just a professor droning on, but actually engaging because they care so much about the material. I personally don't spend a lot of time with my professors out of class, but there are lots of opportunities with lectures and events that almost any department holds. The school's academic requirements are definitely more lax than others, which I'm grateful for, because it gives me the opportunity to focus more on my major work and less on the liberal arts courses you have to get out of the way to graduate. FSU is half and half geared for academia and for a career later on. We have a Career Center, whose purpose is to find jobs and internships for students that will advance them in the field, and there's lots of research assistantships available for extra financial aid and the opportunity to work alongside an expert.

Freshman year, your classes are going to be big. That's because you're taking gen ed. requirements that every other freshman has to take too. However, as you get farther into your major and into more specialized classes, the class size dwindles accordingly. I'm in a class right now of only 12 people! All professors are required to hold office hours outside of class time, so you can get your questions answered. If you take advantage of office hours for your bigger classes, your professor will get to your name and know you really care. Smaller classes, its no problem. I'm personally an Editing, Writing, & Media (EWM) major in the English Department. Becoming an EWM major was the best decision I ever made both because I love to read, write, and edit, and this major (unique to FSU) really focuses on moving the journalism/ publishing industry from print to digital. This is a progressive step for our University to take, a step towards preparing its graduates for the jobs that will be out there in their future. And if your thing is more of delving into the past isntead, Strozier Library, better known as "Club Stroz," has the coolest Special Collections Archives that houses everything from centuries old medieval manuscripts to 1950's yearbooks.

Students are extremely competitive when it comes to academics at Florida State. For most majors, a certain grade point average is expected in order to get accepted into it, with only a certain number of spots open per year. Studying is a hugely common occurrence here; so much to the point where the library, called Strozier library, has been jokingly nicknamed "club Stroz" due to the large amounts of students there on a daily basis. Generally speaking, most professors make an effort to get to know each individual student. The only exception I can really think of are the professors who teach 100+ student lectures in large lecture halls. Class participation is common for most classes, but it depends on the major you are in and the amount of students in your class. Meeting with professors outside of class or getting in touch with the via email is a pretty simple task; all that I have encountered are more than willing, and actually excited, to help students outside of the classroom.