Tampa Bay

[Merciless]

Hey, I'm doing a ton of college searching (kill me) and I'm pretty interested in the University of Tampa. Right now I'm a junior and I'm from Boston and don't have the money to go down and check it out. I was wondering if anybody here either lives in Tampa or has been in the area and could tell me a little of what they thought about it.

Thanks =]

 

[g8r80]

I can tell you about the University of Tampa. I live in Tampa and taught a biology class there a few years ago as an adjunct prof and still know some of the faculty. My daughter attended a workshop there last summer so I got updated close-up look at the campus. I am looking at UT for my older son in a couple of years so it is appropriate for some kids but probably not others.

Do you have a catalog? What are you interested in doing? Are you okay with large classes (>300 sometimes) or do you want more intimate classes? Are you okay with a school that doesn't play football and plays div. II basketball and baseball? Are you okay with a school that is not well known outside of Florida? It's expensive (but with lots of financial aid) are you okay with that? It would certainly be more expensive than a state school in MA. Good - excellent international studies (what my son is interested in), good b school including an MBA, good undergrad science program but nothing sophisticated and no grad programs. Every student is assigned a committee and chair. If a student misses two classes the prof has to contact the student and find out what the problem is and report this to the committee (or at least that's how it was in 1995). But, absenteeism was much lower than it was at the universities I attended (the University of Florida and University of South Florida).

If you're a history buff or major, there is a lot of history on campus. The main campus building was originally the Tampa Hotel, built in the late 1880s. When the Spanish American War broke out in early 1898, Col. Roosevelt confiscated the hotel and assembled his officers to plan his strategy for victory in Cuba and Puerto Rico. Afterwards, the hotel fell into disarray and was sold to the City of Tampa who lease it to the University of Tampa. Very old building but quite cool and glamorous. President Kennedy spoke at the University 3 days before he was assassinated in Dallas.

Post your questions here and I'll anwer them to the best of my ability.

 

[Merciless]

I don't have a catalog. My school has a website that records everyone from the past 2 years who have graduated and where they applied, got accepted to, and are attending currently. I have absolutely no idea what I would major in or do when I get out of college, like whatsoever. I have a ton of interests, but nothing that I am super interested in or super good in for that matter. I don't know if I'd be good with classes over 300 students. My high school is anywhere from 20-30 kids per class and my junior high and elementary was about 20. So I don't know if I'd be comfortable in a massive class.

Sports is no problem. I do wrestling, powerlifting, and track. My school is a D1 powerhouse that wins a ton of titles, but I wouldn't be crushed if my college team wasn't THAT great at sports and was a D2. Plus, I'm not that amazing at track (which is the only 1 of those 3 that the school offers I believe) so wouldn't prob be doing track there. What do you mean it isn't that well known? I don't really want to go to some random college, I want to go somewhere that is a little known, like UT. It's like I don't want to put on my application for a job "masters from Frankin college" and have the guy say "where the hell is that" you know?
My brothers both go to the same college and that costs even more than UT by like 5-10k, so with financial aid, I don't think it will be too much of a problem.
Thats really interesting history, and I do find history very interesting. I've been looking around it a lot (collegeboard.com, naviance.connection.com, and the UT's website and their tampaspartans website) and the only thing I thought was weird was the buildings. They look like mosques lol.

Some questions...
-How is the campus buildings? Like is it in the heart of the city and the school buildings all broken up?
-How are the people in the area? lol I know its a dumb question, but is it more on the New York City people or southern hospitality people side?
-How is the weather? I've seen some avg. weather and rainfall charts, but idk how accurate they are. Is it really humid down there? I've heard it will just be a beautiful day, then shower for like 10 mins hard, then go back to beautiful sun. Maybe that was Miami?
-Is the campus really massive, tiny, or a good medium size?
-Is there really >300 kids per class?
-Would you suggest it, or at least suggest further investigation by me. With all your interactions (with yourself being there, faculty, and daughter and son) what is your personal opinion of the school?
-What are the vibes that come from the school? Pure work, friendly, a lot of partying, controlled school, relaxed/tense school?

Anything else you could give me would be fantastic. Thank you so much for taking your time out to help me with this. With so much stuff going on right now its nice to have somebody easing the stress a bit =]

 

[Proteinboy]

dude thats not too far from me, but iv never been there; sorry. sounds awesome though dude, hope you make the right descision in the end :](whatever you want)

maybe our paths will cross one day!

 

[tonymcclellan]

Warm weather and girls...

Are you a senior yet Mike? Are you looking to get out of MA?

 

[g8r80]

What do you mean it isn't that well known? I don't really want to go to some random college, I want to go somewhere that is a little known, like UT. It's like I don't want to put on my application for a job "masters from Frankin college" and have the guy say "where the hell is that" you know?

Unless you go to the University of (state) or an ivy league or Duke or Stanford, you always run the risk of someone now knowing about that school. For better or worse, the schools with big D1 athletic programs are well known. There are a lot of great small schools without big athletic programs that many prospective employers have never heard of, e.g., Davidson College in North Carolina.

Thats really interesting history, and I do find history very interesting. I've been looking around it a lot (collegeboard.com, naviance.connection.com, and the UT's website and their tampaspartans website) and the only thing I thought was weird was the buildings. They look like mosques lol.

Yes, the minarets on the main building, Plant Hall (the former Tampa Hotel) are funky. I guess Henry Plant had a strange sense of architectural humor...

Some questions...
-How is the campus buildings? Like is it in the heart of the city and the school buildings all broken up?

The main bulding, Plant Hall, is the funky one with the minarets. The other buildings are more modern. The campus is a discrete unit. I have seen other campuses where the school buildings are intermixed with other buildings, but that is not the case here. Once on campus, you stay on campus until you leave the campus.

-How are the people in the area? lol I know its a dumb question, but is it more on the New York City people or southern hospitality people side?

UT gets students from all over, but the people of Tampa are generally transplanted midwesterners, old-time southerners, and some hispanics. So, the people, while not as nice as they could be, are not nearly as aggressive as New York city people.

-How is the weather? I've seen some avg. weather and rainfall charts, but idk how accurate they are. Is it really humid down there? I've heard it will just be a beautiful day, then shower for like 10 mins hard, then go back to beautiful sun. Maybe that was Miami?

Yes, it is humid during the summer! And, during the summer especially, we get heavy, short rains. So, it sounds like you have heard correctly about Tampa weather.

-Is the campus really massive, tiny, or a good medium size?
-Is there really >300 kids per class?

I think there are about 3000 students now. There were about 2000 students in 1995 when I taught there and my class had 25 - 30 students, which I think is typical. The 300 students / class I mentioned.were for public universities, not U Tampa.

-Would you suggest it, or at least suggest further investigation by me. With all your interactions (with yourself being there, faculty, and daughter and son) what is your personal opinion of the school?

I think U Tampa is a very good school for a student who needs smaller, more intimate class sizes and a little more oversight. My younger son and daughter are looking at the University of Florida with its very large class sizes, because I think they can handle that environment. My older son is looking at the U Tampa because he could not survive in that setting and needs the additional support that a smaller school like U Tampa with its academic committes, and their monitoring of the students progress, can provide.

-What are the vibes that come from the school? Pure work, friendly, a lot of partying, controlled school, relaxed/tense school?

From talking to the students and graduates I have known, I would rank the social life as fairly intimate - most students live on campus and are not commuter students - with a typical social agenda.

I hope this helps.

 

[Merciless]

You've helped me out a ton. Thank you so much for taking the time to help. I'm really liking this college and will definitely keep it high on my list. I think there might be around 5,000 students now I saw on a few web sites. I hope the classes would still be around 30. I'm hoping to contact them soon and show my interest. I think it would be good to have more structure because I of course can get lazy at times, but if there is somebody there making sure I'm in line, I have no problem getting things done. I think this could be good. Hopefully I can visit maybe in the summer (April vaca I'm doing a service trip to Tijuana, Mexico so I won't be able to visit) or sometime during the school year so I can get a feel for it.

Thanks again for all the help! =]