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Tell me what FAU is like....

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I have never been there, I have been to Boca Raton for like 30 minutes before, passing through and stopped at the Mall.

What is FAU like? How is it for a college kid? How about an adult?



I plan on taking Stef down to a game after our season.

Just want to know what the school, community, city is like.
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Re: Tell me what FAU is like....

Tell me what FAU is like....

i think youll get some mixed opinions on Boca but were all entitled. Personally, I love it.

FAU has come so far in the last 12 years its incredible. The football team really stated to make the evolution happen and weve watched the school grow and mature from a commuter school to a real traditional university. Ill ry to take some video of the next home game a week from saturday for you so you can get a feelin for what the big games are like at our house, its amazing what jarvis has done, and the students are on board.

Personally, I think Boca is great. Its a beautiful city, yes, some of the people canbe a bit much but thats everywhere, you wont want for anything here. It is not a traditional college town like gainesville, we have a 400:1 Ferrari ration to that place. there is a lack of college bars/restaurants but I see that changing more as thet years go by as well. Youll be hard pressed to find a university with this much to offer in such an incredible location.

Stef is comin to FAU at such an awesome time, traditions building, students on board and yet were still small enough for him to really make waves. I hope he loves it as much as I did and still do.
anything specific? ask away!
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Re: Tell me what FAU is like....

To add to Team's comments:

Boca Raton is it's own entity.

Nothing quite like it…

You won't see trash or debris anywhere…

Very well maintained and very well organized logistically - Glades Road traffic aside.

Cleanest city I have ever lived in, and will not move as a result. Just bought a condo on the golf course to plant lifelong roots, and hopefully become a landlord at some point in time.

It's almost Utopian like.

There is a City mandate that gas stations have a certain percentage of land allotment dedicated towards "greenery". They have to have trees and shrubs to get an operating license.

If you can imagine Disney without all of the rides, characters, and fireworks, to me that is a good comparison.

The infrastructure is second to none, IMO.

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Re: Tell me what FAU is like....

Are you guys graduates of FAU?

How many undergrads does FAU have?
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Re: Tell me what FAU is like....

Yes, we are…

As are the majority of the Nest's members.

Per US News the undergrad enrollment is currently 23,107

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Re: Tell me what FAU is like....

Where do most Alumn go into career wise?

Is the alumni a close knit "group"?

Do they stay in SoFla area or move elsewhere?


Do they support the athletic teams?
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Re: Tell me what FAU is like....

CoachBotkin said

Where do most Alumni go into career wise?

Is the alumni a close knit "group"?

Do they stay in SoFla area or move elsewhere?


Do they support the athletic teams?


1) That's a hard question to answer. Like most universities, we have people graduating with a ton of degrees and then sometimes doing something in their field, sometimes not. Among my FAU friends, two of them are now dentists (one on the way to being an orthodontist), two pharmacists, a neurologist, a consultant, a mathematician, several teachers, several marine biologists, and so on.

2) I wouldn't say "close knit." What you see on this messageboard is about as close-knit as it gets right now. You have to understand that for years, FAU was a commuter school that people didn't really form close ties to unless maybe you were Greek. Students complained about tuition increases and lack of parking and pretty much everything, because that's what college kids do, so when the university called and said, "Go Owls! Care to donate and help your alma mater?" the alumni responded, "Haven't I given you enough money already?" The tide has changed recently as the football team rose to prominence, we got a new Alumni Director, more on-campus housing, more Greek organizations, our SGA President has been excellent the last two years, and there have been two Senior Class Gifts so far (Traditions Plaza and the Owlsley Statue). As a result, FAU's coming into some uncharted territory where more and more people are starting to get behind the idea of, "I'm an Owl! You too? Awesome! Go Owls!" than ever before.

3) Our largest contingent is in fact South Florida alumni but not a lot of them live in Boca Raton itself. As you might remember, Boca has easy access to a major interstate and neighboring towns are so close. I lived in the town to the north, Delray, and that was only 7 minutes from I-95 exit-to-exit. So we're all kind of spread out but within a reasonable driving distance and as such there's plenty of potential to support the program.

4) Do they support the athletic teams… mostly when they're winning, to be honest. Fortunately FAU has seen very good student support for its basketball team since Coach Jarvis took over and I expect that to continue as long as he's here. Basbeball gets a smattering of dedicated fans. We're hoping for a revitalization of our dormant football program and I expect the stadium to be a livelier place than it has been.

As to what FAU and Boca Raton is like overall, well, that's going to have to wait until tomorrow.
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Re: Tell me what FAU is like....

With more students living on campus, the new football stadium, and other new development on campus, I'm sure that today's student experience is vastly different then any of ours from when we attended FAU.  That's not to say I didn't enjoy my timme there, just that it's a much different place today then even 5 or 10 years ago (all for the better!).   
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Re: Tell me what FAU is like....

Rick, I believe enrollment is nearing 30,000 now, those were the last numbers Id been told. We are also enjoying the first few years of "wait listing" students, our application numbers have increased dramatically which increases standards and drives our "desireability".

From a degree standpoint, FAUs strengths are the Business college (our accounting school ranks top 5 in the US for passing the CPA), nursing and Ocean Engineering but Biomed sciences are really taking ceneter stage lately and weve now got a medical school.

As for alumni, there are some good ones, but as OC said, if youre over the age of 35 you went to FAU when it wasnt traditional so your ties to FAU are weak. Every student that has graduated from 2001 onward is more of a traditional alumni with much stronger ties to the school.

Feb 4th is our rivalry game against FIU, its the one to see if you guys can make it. Inface, if the two of you can come down, You can have my tickets to the game, 4 rows off the court if you dont want to bother Jarvis. I will be there but dont need the tix that night.
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Re: Tell me what FAU is like....

I can give you the gist of my speal that I give to students.

- Just over 28,000 students (although I heard it was around 29 now..I should check my facts,lol)
- Seven campus, Boca the largest, has 19,000
- Average class size 35, student to teacher ratio 21:1
- Top five majors, Biology, Elementary Ed, Psychology, Accounting, Criminal Justice
- Last year had 27,000 Freshman apps (We are actually down 1% for apps but up WAY more in COMPLETED apps at this time)
- Largest Freshman class last year
- Boca's one of the safest cities in the country

I could go on and on so just ask if you have any particular questions!
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