I think some of you are engineers on here, even though by some of the post you would think different, anyway question: What is the opinion of those that attended either school - ?

Edited: 03/27/2008 at 06:00 PM by SUZY2Q

I may be biased but UCF is a pretty good engineering school. (class of '89 Computer Engineering). However, UF is probably pretty good as well.

The difference in education probably isn't that much, but living in Gainesville versus Orlando is huge! Both have positives and negatives. UCF also has a campus in Cocoa which is getting pretty big in its own right.

I didn't attend either, but know other peers who have..

One of my first bosses attended UCF before they even got accredited.. He is now the head of the largest Structural Engineering firm in O'town..

I have also worked with many who graduated from UF & are very sucessful - They all got their Masters and I was favorably impressed.. UF has been around for a long time and are very 'established' and have a lot of 'established' & knowledgeable prof's etc..

Both my sister & wife 'graduated' in Buisness from UCF (my wife went to UF before -she considers herself a 'Gator') but UCF is still in it's infancy, relatively speaking, compared to others. Although UCF is growing by leaps & bounds, quick growth is usually unfortunately is accompanied by 'growing pains'., Not a good thing..

As far as carrying weight with employers, UF defiitely has it - but that may be because the 'Gator Nation' has been around for so long and is well established with the older ('boss' level) crowd.. Funny how sports affects acedemia - like it or not..

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There are NO white people at all in the Bible... take all the time you need with that...
Please stop feeding the trolls - they will go away if you do...

Edited: 03/28/2008 at 07:37 AM by surfsail

I hate to say it,
because my kids go to UCF (not engineering)
and because I've worked with plenty of good engineers that went to UCF
but in my experience, the UF degree will get better cred with most local employers.

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"The truth is incontrovertible.
malice may attack it,
ignorance may deride it,
but in the end,
there it is." -Sir Winston Churchill

I have my undergrad/grad. degrees from UCF and I start UF for my PhD in Fall. My program (Anthropology) is the 11th best department in the country (UF). But I've talked to many people and alot say UCF is better for engineering-that for most of the school's history has been the paramount discipline (although molecular biology/health sciences is catching up). They have three engineering buildings alone on campus. Also, the engineering dept. at UCF has alot of ties to local industry. Just about all my friends who graduated with bachelors degrees got good paying jobs right away.

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Outta time!

I know a few professors in the engineering department at UCF, and they're certainly well-respected and run a good program (the head of the civil engineering dept. is one of my favorite people there and I KNOW that he has a great reputation in the field).

UF does tend to get you better credibility with certain employers, but that may change in the future as budget cuts shift personnel around. It's a common misperception that once you get tenure you never leave, because tenure is portable. I hear a lot of professors abandoning Florida for greener pastures (oddly enough, one of the most common sites is Michigan - what the heck?).

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[Feminism is] a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians. ~Pat Robertson

Moody-that is one of the things I have picked up from the vibe at UF-there's alot more budget "issues" than at UCF. Well we all know Florida is having alot of economic issues statewide anyway. But also-the decentralization of the state university system may be responsible too. Now that the universities have become more "localized" UCF and USF can draw off from alot of the metropolian economies of Orlando and Tampa. Similar scenario with the colleges in South Florida and other high population/industry areas. UF is the land grant university for the state and there are less organizations in its region to support it in those ways, which is why donations and national-global research projects that can bring in money are very important.

Plus on a less serious note, just from my personal experience I notice that UF and UCF students seem to both party and drink about the same amount. But the UF students seem to just drink more over longer periods. It seems more binge like at UCF? (or maybe its just the crowds I've been with ).

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Outta time!

Ha, I try not to pay attention to students' drinking habits (although I had one student who came into my 1:30 class just REEKING. I had to call the Office of Student Conduct because he'd fall asleep and I couldn't wake him up!). It's a problem at every campus, I think - they get away from home for the first time and just go hog-wild (now there's an academic term for you!)

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[Feminism is] a socialist, anti-family, political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians. ~Pat Robertson

can we add UNF to the mix? anyone have views on how it compares to the other two? (not drinking wise)

Edited: 03/27/2008 at 07:31 PM by seabeans

The local engineering firms (Lockheed, Harris, Northrop, etc) seem to LOVE UCF. It really helps that they're all local. The UCF engineering college (and even some others) have pretty big co-op programs with the local companies in addition to the normal summer internships. Lockheed (not sure about the others) hires more grads from UCF than any of the others.

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Fix the problem, not the symptoms.

the Jorts influx at UF is unacceptable. would you really want to risk it?

unless u wanna go drinkin with greg norman, of course,


probably better at this time to go knights.




plus they finally figured out theres too many students
at UF. expect swamp and jorts enrollment to ramp down soon.


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Water dissolving...and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean

It depends on a lot of things...

If being able to surf is a priority, UCF is a way easier commute before/after class than UF.

If academic prestige is an issue, Georgia Tech was founded as a school for mechanical engineering at its inception, and the ticket from GT carries a lot of weight. I believe Auburn ME/AE is also a bit more highly regarded than the FL schools.

Between UF and UCF, my employer in Melbourne has a relative bias toward UF for EEs, but a lot of it's related to where our older managers and their kids went to school. In other words, based on retardedly irrelevant criteria.

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My own experience with UCF was mostly positive, but declined toward the end. Their EE department was taken over by Greeks (not fraternities, but professors from Greece with no work experience) with high research ambitions, and they got too big for their britches too fast. But compared to UF, I really liked the smaller class sizes at the time. I'm not sure how class size and 1-on-1 professor time compares now.

You mentioned Engineering/Aerospace, which is really pretty broad. A lot of electrical engineers wind up working "aerospace". I guess one question is whether your kid has a very specific interest, like robotics, control systems, aircraft/wing design, spacecraft design, propulsion, weaponry, etc... If there is a specific desire for one of those, then further investigation is worthwhile.

I think UCF renamed their Dept of Mechanical Engineering to be MEAS (Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Sciences) or something like that, and might now even offer separate degrees (ME vs AE) within that dept.

If there are no specific desires, then you'll probably do very well with either school, as long as the grades are good (employers still put a premium on that). Work experience is helpful, and that's one area where UCF has an advantage because of the huge aerospace industry in/around Orlando. I worked part-time for a couple years at Lockheed Martin, and I think that was a little more effective experience-wise than one or two summer internships would have been.

Despite all the aerospace industry around Orlando, you'd be surprised to find out how much work is not done here; i.e., for certain employment opportunities you'll still have to pay some dues out of state.

Feel free to PM me if you want to talk more. I don't have all the answers, but can offer some insights based on 10 years at UCF and 25 years in industry (some overlap between them).

Some of our preeminent mechanical engineers from the forum are unavailable at the moment, afaik.

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P.S. I found the girls to be much friendlier in Gainesville!



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That boy's got somethin' wrong with his medulla oblongata.

so did I!

but more expensive in Orlando.


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Water dissolving...and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean

UF engineering grad here. My son graduated from UCF, though not in engineering. UF without question. UF has more prestige and a degree from there will get you in more doors nationwide. Do you get a better education at Harvard than any other college? Not necessarily. But does a Harvard degree open more doors for you upon graduation? Yep, no doubt about it. Same with UF/ UCF.

Plus we have national championship sports teams, which will provide entertainment for the rest of the student's life. I mean, where did UCF go for its bowl this year? The Poulan Weedeater Bowl. LOL.

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I :heart; Q

This man speaks the truth. Oh course, I'm biased.

Seriously though, the IE program is the best in the nation, there are some absolutely brilliant professors in the ME department who also know how to teach and actually enjoy it, and my friends who graduated as EEs and CEs were all in high demand.

Academically the downside is that you're not at a university, so you're not choosing non-technical electives to pad out your courseload. After you fulfill the state requirements for history, lit, health, etc your electives turn into stuff like 3D solid modelling, environmentally concious design, CFD, FEA, etc. You're really expected to choose electives that apply what you learn in your main courseload. Interesting stuff, but it would have been nice to have classes like history of rock and roll to pad out the hours when you're taking thermo and heat transfer.

Trying to have a social life there will make you a sad panda and Atlanta really couldn't give a damn if GT existed or not, but that's why you find yourself a pretty girl from UGA and make Athens your surrogate college town.

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The internet is serious business.

Edited: 03/28/2008 at 11:30 AM by Caswell

UF.

gainesville native and uf grad, ufs' degree is a very prestigous thing.  i think you might be splitting hairs as far as the actual merit of either ors engineering schools, as they are both very good, but that UF degree is more widely known as a very prestigous thing.  plus UF has a way better college experience than ucf, gainesville is a college town, as opposed to orlando being a city with a college in it.  plus you get the benefit of always rooting for the gators, and as everyone knows thats been a pretty good thing the last couple of years    however be prepared to work your ass off for the first two years, the weedout classes are insane!



JORTS RULE!!!

Edited: 03/28/2008 at 12:26 PM by webbw3

I've found that for engineering employment, UF carries that prestige within Florida, and maybe in neighboring states.

But engineering managers don't track sports all that closely, and the population of engineers from FL are pretty low at employers spread farther out across the country.

Thus few outside FL have solid data on which to rate UF grads or UCF grads. My experience is that most of them couldn't tell you the difference between UF and UCF any more than Floridians could tell you the difference between UC Santa Barbara, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Irvine.



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That boy's got somethin' wrong with his medulla oblongata.

Thanks, al of you- My son probably doesn't have a real clue at this point as to the spectfic aerospace field, though he is way more dedicated than most- I agree that UF may be more prestigous, but all in all, doesn't it come down to the kid, and the contacts? And of course the grades, etc- He does have a pilots liscense already at 17,so would like to use it once in a while when funds permit(Grandpas$) and got a 5 on the AP math in HS, so he is obviously not just into partying, although I realize that sometimes going away to college is the opportunity knocking for this! I guess I am most worried about UF being that scenerio, as well as a little too far from home for my comfort, as we as part time job/internships available- He has taken several classes at BCC so he will probably enter as almost a sophmore- Which I realize are probably no more difficult than high school classes if not easier- mostly the electives- I just want him to make the right choice as any Mom would- So if there is anything you can add - thanks- Also, he was accepted to FIT, with a 90% ride, any thoughts on that- He would live at home for at least the first year- ?????

Probably varies according to specialty, but I was recruited worldwide.

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I :heart; Q

FIT with a 90% ride ?

good grief.
why didnt you say so?

other opinions are nice, butt that seems to be a no brainer SuzyQQ.





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Water dissolving...and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean


Edited: 03/28/2008 at 01:47 PM by bob3000

Suzy, I just wandered across MIT's Open Courseware page again today, and it popped into my head that your son might find it interesting to check out.

With some entire course videos available online, he could get a feel for the "big university" lecture environment, and maybe also see if any courses in particular from their mechanical engineering department pique his interest.

If really motivated, he could even work thru some of the online courses to get a head start on the official for-credit classes he'll eventually take.

MIT Mechanical Engineering's free, online courses

Also possibly of interest, MIT "Highlights for High School"


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As far as work opportunities go, Rockwell Collins (Avionics) in Melbourne is of interest to many pilots and propellerheads because they make a planeload of cockpit instruments, and also have a flying club with a very affordable plane for rent. If attending college at UCF or FIT, he might be able to land a part-time job there. If attending UF, Rockwell has a summer intern deal with them.





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That boy's got somethin' wrong with his medulla oblongata.

I'd say it depends on what branch of engineering.

Power: UF was in pretty thick with FPL and had high placement with them.
Aerospace: don't know. What is it, mechanical and materials blend?
RF: neither. USF is tops.
Digital(EE): best people I've worked with were from UF.
Mechanical: don't know, but my workplace has heaps from UF.
CS: pure CS, UCF seems to still have an edge over UF, but I don't follow it.

Find out what programs he is interested in and do a little research on what the schools do and how much money they get for research and bringing interesting projects to the students.

I was accepted at Ga Tech and UCF (with a scholarship), but I ended up going to UF.

Thanks all of you- any help with parttime job leads, and courses recommended for the first year are appreciared as well as any other advice- I pm'd you wetspot- in regards to your post- He will actually be entering as a 2nd quarter freshman/first quarter soph- he took several electives at Bcc in high school-

LOL @ the Wiki entry for jorts:



Please, PLEASE tell me UF hasn't sunk this low:




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That boy's got somethin' wrong with his medulla oblongata.


Edited: 03/28/2008 at 10:57 AM by wetspot

UF is the premier engineering school in the state and always has been. I am a grad, BSME. However, the days when I (and tpap) graduated have seen enormous changes in the status of UCF. It's a much better school now. UF has also improved quite a bit, but I think the gap has narrowed.

If he's going on to graduate school, it doesn't matter that much. I went on to Purdue from little known (then) UF with no problem. Grades matter though.

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Learn something.  Anything.  Please.

BTW, UF has an honors program and residential complex. I stayed in the old honors dorm my years there (which was East Hall) and the environment of intelligent (or nerdy, if you like) and focused people was very helpful. My college friends include medical doctors, DAs, Shands and MSU professors, engineers and entrepreneurs.

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Learn something.  Anything.  Please.

UF has more prestige??? Maybe but don't go to school because a degree has more prestige or because their football team does well. Do what makes you happy. UF is a great school and their engineering program is tops but like what was said earlier, it depends on what type engineering degree. Computer engineering, UCF is tops. Electrical engineering, IMO UF, and in aerospace, FIT wins. Many people dont realize that UCF actually used to be Florida Technical which focused primary on engineering. But no matter where you go, unless you have top grades, it doesn't really matter where your degree is from. If you graduate with a 2.5 from UF, lets face it, you probably wont be "heavily" recruited. Besides, most people in this day and age get their job from someone they know

Many of you know I work for Harris. We recruit heavily at both schools as well as FIT, Perdue, Georgia Tech and many others. What I found is that although a UF degree may hold prestige, if the hiring manager didnt graduate from UF, it really doesnt swing my vote when we go to hire someone. You still have to interview well.

Go to both schools. See what you like about both. Remember, you still have to spend 4 years of your life there, 4 years that you will never forget. Dont make your decision based solely on which degree will help you get your foot in the door better because if you get a 4.0 at either school, you will be recruited heavily by many companies.

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If you want to hit a home run, you have to swing the bat.

Well put purefunk. I got my current internship (soon to be full time job) through someone I new from our surf club.

UCF has one of the nicest campuses around. The new dorms (more like condos) are amazing.

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Fix the problem, not the symptoms.