University of Florida Top Questions

As you would assume all the classes are different and it just depends on the prof. you have. If it's a huge class (which most of you first semester will be full of) don't expect to get to know your teacher unless you go to their office hours.

The first 1-2 years, classes are big- up to 300 students. But by the 2-3 year, my classes were 20-50 students and all the teachers knew everyone's names. Professors in my college encouraged students to meet with them often and have done a great job keeping in touch after graduation.

Professors know my name. I liked cultural diversity a lot. Hated vampire stories, it was stupid and seemed to center on lesbianity. Which is retarded. Lots of intellectual conversations while walkign around.

The learning environment here is so chill because everyone came from the top of their high schools back home, and we all know we are worthy to be here, so there isn't much of the high school competitiveness to be the best anymore.

Students at UF seem to study a lot, but they also know that there is a time for work and a time for play. They know how to budget their time and have pretty well developed time management skills. Students are not that competitive; most of the competition was when you were trying to get into UF, not when you are actually in. There is a lot of competition if you are Pre-Med or something like that though. The classes for the most part are not that bad, except for a few. I feel that the academic requirements are fair for the most part, except that in CLAS you have to take a foreign language because for me, it has nothing to do with my major and it will just be an annoying waste of time.

The academics at UF are very important. Most of my professors know my name. We like to get into study groups and the professors put us into group projects a lot.

This semester all of my professors know my name, but I'm taking unusually small classes. I take a lot of honors courses, which are kept at 25 students per class. But it isn't necessarily the norm to have your professors here know your name, no. My favorite class was this political science class on varying ideologies. The professor was AMAZING. Actually, I won a small scholarship writing about how he and that class changed my perception. Students surprisingly study a lot here--as can be noted by the extraordinary lack of breathing room and parking spots in and around the library (respectively) this time of year (it's finals week). Students are competitive in their own ways. There are a lot of people here so it isn't like everyone is racing to be a valedictorian or graduate first in their class of...um...ten thousand students. But it is competitive in that a lot of us strive to do well. I've taken a statistical analysis class that using poker to demonstrate concepts. It was a good class. Also, my forensic science class is out-of-this-world cool. Our professor is a pretty well-known forensic entomologist, and everything he says just blows my mind. My major...is kind of filled with a lot of pretentious assholes. Not gonna lie. No, I don't see a lot of my professors out of class, really. I think UF's academic requirements are pretty standard. My personal education here has been a lot about learning for its own sake. I am currently taking all electives...nothing for my majors or for the fulfillment of any requirements. But I think that might be somewhat looked down on here, yea. I had to declare a double-major to avoid being forced by an advisor to graduate before I was ready to end my education, if that says anything to anyone about the priorities here. To be fair, there are, like I said before, money issues.

The larger the class is, the harder it is to get to know the professor and feel connected to your class. I've found that my best success has been in classes with a limited number of students where I actually get to know my professor. I find that in big lecture halls the professors care more about the material than they do about the students, and I think it should be the other way around, because that's the only way to get the students to care about the material.

Most courses are pretty rigorous and require a great deal of time and effort. I'd say I spend about 4 hours per class a week studying. Most professors are very good, but there are a few classes taught my undergrad TAs that don't offer much help. Also, the relationship between teacher and student doesn't really exist unless you make the effort to visit the professor during office hours.

Most of my professors know my name. There are a couple of larger classes (anywhere from 300 to 600 students) where a professor doesn't. My favorite class so far is probably the one I'm in right now, Intro to Poetry (CRW1301) because there is no pressure of ABC grading on every little thing and we get to freely discuss our work and the work of great poets in a safe, intimate setting of only 17 students and one teacher. My least favorite was biology; it was too big and impersonal of a class that required you to know the most trivial and unimportant things -- when it was a BEGINNING biology class. Students sometimes have intellectual conversations outside of class. And they certainly are competitive. Most students will do whatever it takes to get an A. The most unique class I've take is the CRW1301 class I mentioned before. It's the only class I've ever taken (since kindergarten) that I've actually been able to enjoy and not worry so much about the grade. We get to thoroughly enjoy and appreciate great poets and even each other's works.