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FAU & FIU....Mirror Image?

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I've read up a lot on both school's.  And I've noticed a lot of similarities between them.  Both in South Florida both have young athletics and both considered commuter campuses.  In your unbiased opinion (lol) what do you see as being the major differences between the two schools?
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Re: FAU & FIU....Mirror Image?

The said

I've read up a lot on both school's.  And I've noticed a lot of similarities between them.  Both in South Florida both have young athletics and both considered commuter campuses.  In your unbiased opinion (lol) what do you see as being the major differences between the two schools?

FIU is further along in higher level majors (medicine, law)…they are a vastly different school culturally…and in a totally different demographic/geographical area…its a night and day comparison when considering Boca vs Miami…

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Re: FAU & FIU....Mirror Image?

Florida_Owl said

The said

I've read up a lot on both school's.  And I've noticed a lot of similarities between them.  Both in South Florida both have young athletics and both considered commuter campuses.  In your unbiased opinion (lol) what do you see as being the major differences between the two schools?

FIU is further along in higher level majors (medicine, law)…they are a vastly different school culturally…and in a totally different demographic/geographical area…its a night and day comparison when considering Boca vs Miami…



I believe Brogan wants to move up academically also. His predecessors seemed to want FAU to be a university for everyone.  Brogan is the first FAU president with the big ambitions. I can't say Cantanese was too good for the university academically. He did get a football team, OK.

Brogan seems to be taking a different path. More science and research oriented. Biomedical. Research partnerships, on campus teaching hospital (if it ever happens), the two Centers of Excellence.  Unless anyone has other info, I don't believe there ever has been a discussion for a Law school at any of the Board meetings. Not even a consideration. FAU still has their prestige programs, Accounting and Ocean Engineering.

Its just too bad money is soo tight right now and all the crap in the news in the last year doesn't help.

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Re: FAU & FIU....Mirror Image?

faualum said

Brogan seems to be taking a different path. More science and research oriented. Biomedical. Research partnerships, on campus teaching hospital (if it ever happens), the two Centers of Excellence.  Unless anyone has other info, I don't believe there ever has been a discussion for a Law school at any of the Board meetings. Not even a consideration. FAU still has their prestige programs, Accounting and Ocean Engineering.

Actually, I pitched a law school to Brogan shortly after FIU opened their law school. He said he didn't think the state would approve another law program. So a law school is not in the cards nor does it really need to be. He's more interested in a pharmacy school and that would fit in perfectly with Schmidt Medical Center/Scripps. However, since we're in the budget crunch and I understand there is legislation on the table that says, "No new programs for now… build the ones you have"… a pharmacy school is a ways off (and if one of the other schools like USF or UCF pitch one before us, we won't have it at all – this is an arms race). Anyway, I don't think there have even been serious conversations about it in the last year but I'll ask him again if I see him.

Now, Accounting and Ocean Engineering are doing well but their success is not only measured by the research output but also by the quality of the graduates. MIT graduates, for instance, are highly sought-after for their clever problem-solving skills and their incredible technical acumen. On the other hand, FAU graduates are highly variable; some are incredibly smart and work hard while others skimmed by on the minimum. If you're an employer, you just have to be more skeptical of the FAU graduates and take them on a case-by-case basis.

This is an issue that many departments at FAU (and similar schools) face. The College of Business took a step forward by mandating that people be "pre-business" in their underclassmen years and earn a certain GPA before qualifying to be a business major. That is a step all of the colleges at FAU need to take. You better believe they're looking at it now. If FAU really wanted to crack down on students, they'd put you on academic probation if you had less than a 3.0 overall GPA (instead of <2.0). You could see where that might be a bad business move for FAU in its current state, so therein lies the problem.

I'm impressed that FAU raised their academic standards again this year (I heard it's a 2.8 cutoff?). Brogan talked about incremental approaches.. they're not going to say, "Okay, for 2009 only admit people with 3.5 and 1200s." Only 26% of the high schoolers who enrolled at FAU in Fall 2007 had GPAs of 3.5 or better (However, 68% had a 3.0 or better…) About 15% had 1200s or better on the SAT. You can see how they can't just chop it off at the kneecap right now, even if they wanted to. They have to take the UCF route, building up amenities and traditional campus offerings and hope it attracts students with higher numbers.

We are hopefully going to be getting a number of those people this year because of the budget crunch. I know two people at work who had 1200s+ and are coming here. They were really spirited in high school (they bought FAU shirts) and they're attending sorority recruitment meetings before they've even graduated from high school. See, that's initiative and it carries over to campus life and various things. And yes, they're coming here going "it's just FAU" but if they have a great time here, they'll communicate that to other people they know in high school.

"You're at FAU? That sucks."
"No, actually, I love it here."

Little things like that have a dramatic impact on the high school recruiting landscape. Then you get better students, which make better graduates, which raises the prestige of the individual colleges, which raises the prestige of FAU. See?
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owlcountry said

Now, Accounting and Ocean Engineering are doing well but their success is not only measured by the research output but also by the quality of the graduates. MIT graduates, for instance, are highly sought-after for their clever problem-solving skills and their incredible technical acumen. On the other hand, FAU graduates are highly variable; some are incredibly smart and work hard while others skimmed by on the minimum. If you're an employer, you just have to be more skeptical of the FAU graduates and take them on a case-by-case basis.

I don't know if this is still SOP anymore. This will be one of those "back in the day" stories. At the time I was majoring in accounting at FAU, the grading curve in Theory I was so steep most people failed the tests. Some of the professors, one that comes to mind, Costello, would privatley talk to the students that were failing and make a deal to pass them if they changed majors. I know how hard the OE majors worked. At that time If you got through the OE or accounting program, you were not a variable. The dropout rate in the accounting program used to be 80% from beginning to end. All national CPA firms will only go after the high GPA's from any university anyway.   FAU OE and accounting grads do well in the job market. FAU does have a national ranking in passing the CPA test. I believe it is 6th and has had that rank for quite a few years.  When I lived in GA, I had to work with the KPMG firm in Atlanta when they did their annual audit of the company I worked for at the time. I was told there were several FAU grads in the firm. I was also told FAU is one of the universities they recruit from. Why would a firm all the way in Atlanta recruit from a university so far away especially when UGA is very close as well as numerous other large universities? UF and FSU is closer. They like the product that FAU puts out. The accountanting grads are well educated and prepared.

I know alot of the OE grads get hired while still in school.

FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
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Re: FAU & FIU....Mirror Image?

illinoisowl said


I don't know if this is still SOP anymore. This will be one of those "back in the day" stories. At the time I was majoring in accounting at FAU, the grading curve in Theory I was so steep most people failed the tests. Some of the professors, one that comes to mind, Costello, would privatley talk to the students that were failing and make a deal to pass them if they changed majors. I know how hard the OE majors worked.

I know alot of the OE grads get hired while still in school.

i can echo th is sentiment from "back in the day"…two of my dorm mates were OE majors…consistently "complaining" lol…

wow.

i can recall vividly the Dif EQ woes, and the other "struggles"…that was one tough major…and probably still is today!
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Re: FAU & FIU....Mirror Image?

I know the graduate Urban Planning program is very competitive upon graduation as well.  UF and FSU both have Urban Planning but it seems that the FAU program is often more sought after due to the fact that the graduates have real "Urban" experience as opposed to rural.  Even the bachelors of Urban Planning (only one in the state) seems to be competitive in the job market against those with their Masters from UF/FSU.

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Re: FAU & FIU....Mirror Image?

Florida_Owl said

illinoisowl said


I don't know if this is still SOP anymore. This will be one of those "back in the day" stories. At the time I was majoring in accounting at FAU, the grading curve in Theory I was so steep most people failed the tests. Some of the professors, one that comes to mind, Costello, would privatley talk to the students that were failing and make a deal to pass them if they changed majors. I know how hard the OE majors worked.

I know alot of the OE grads get hired while still in school.

i can echo th is sentiment from "back in the day"…two of my dorm mates were OE majors…consistently "complaining" lol…

wow.

i can recall vividly the Dif EQ woes, and the other "struggles"…that was one tough major…and probably still is today!

Anything engineering is a tough major. Not only engineering… any "hard" science (engineering, chemistry, physics, etc) and even some of the "soft" sciences. My friend is an architecture major at FAU and he is constantly under fire but he loves it. On Facebook there is a group for all architecture students called "Archetorture".

SeminOWL2006 said

I know the graduate Urban Planning program is very competitive upon graduation as well.  UF and FSU both have Urban Planning but it seems that the FAU program is often more sought after due to the fact that the graduates have real "Urban" experience as opposed to rural.  Even the bachelors of Urban Planning (only one in the state) seems to be competitive in the job market against those with their Masters from UF/FSU.

I've heard numerous cases where FAU students often win out in journalism jobs over UF students as well. Koretzky, the Advisor for (FAU's) University Press, is very helpful in that regard. He is a journalist with connections and he has professionals nitpick the student resumes, he holds Media lunches and has the students get one-on-one time with various magazine/newspaper editors, he takes them to conferences, informs them about summer internships and overall just pushes the ones that are motivated in the right direction. As a result, the better journalists at the UP have all since graduated and gotten jobs for the south florida newspapers and several online and print magazines.
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Re: FAU & FIU....Mirror Image?

SeminOWL2006 said

I know the graduate Urban Planning program is very competitive upon graduation as well.  UF and FSU both have Urban Planning but it seems that the FAU program is often more sought after due to the fact that the graduates have real "Urban" experience as opposed to rural.  Even the bachelors of Urban Planning (only one in the state) seems to be competitive in the job market against those with their Masters from UF/FSU.

i don't know your experience with our urban planning program, but myself as well as many of my friends are graduating from the bachelors program this spring and many of us are off to UF and FSU for our masters because the program here is such a joke, we want a challenge and name recognition, don't get me wrong i love FAU and our owls but outside of south florida UF and FSU will win over FAU in the job market, you are right about south florida, and jobs yeah because there are so many here and many of the bosses are FAU alumni themselves, but don't worry i will rep FAU for life and get us some recognition
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FAU &amp; FIU....Mirror Image?

der said

i don't know your experience with our urban planning program, but myself as well as many of my friends are graduating from the bachelors program this spring and many of us are off to UF and FSU for our masters because the program here is such a joke, we want a challenge…

Have you mentioned this to your professors or any of the people responsible for the program? Otherwise they think everything's alright and maintain the status quo.
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