Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Skip navigation

Find Another University

Add topic

Post

Find Another University

Find Another University


SigEp77 said

I don't think it's a matter of being picked on.

While I attended FAU ('98 - '02) that phrase was very common on campus as MANY students used FAU as a launch pad to transfer to other state schools. Reason being, they did not have the grades or SAT/ACT to get admitted to UF, FSU etc. out of high school and as long as you have an AA, you can transfer to any state school without a problem. You may not get into the College (major program) that you want if your grades aren't up to their parameters.

So, for anyone who attended FAU during that time, they should be able to vouch for this "nickname."

Not exactly a time period to be proud of. FAU Junior College? ???That wasn't happening while I was there. The nickname goes back to when I was there and I am assuming even before that. I really don't remember anyone leaving back then except drop outs. It kinda pisses me off that FAU became that for a while. Did Cantese lower the admission standards?

This is the truth though, a friend that lived in the dorm next to mine could not make the grade in OE. I saw him everyday. He worked his butt off. That is a HARD program!! He transfered to UF to study a less difficult engineering field. The program I was in, accounting, numerous drop outs as well, 80%.

FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
Back to the top

Post

Find Another University

I don't necessarily think it's a matter of FAU lowering it's standards but as demand grew for UF their standards shot through the roof. I'm just ballparking it when I say this but about 5 years ago I had some HS Seniors working for me and they were all applying to UF, the only one's with a shot had 3.5 GPA's 1200+ on SATs and Student Gov't/Community Service and were hoping to get summer enrollment!

I only hope that my FAU degree becomes so prestigious in the next 15 years!
Back to the top

Post

Find Another University

FAU raising academic standards is a double edged sword. It raises credibility and prestige on an academic level and, therefore, arguable makes our degrees worth more. On the other hand it hurts our sports. One of the ways FAU is able to compete with schools with longer and more storied histories, better facilities and more money is that we can get some marginal students into school.
Back to the top

Post

Find Another University


owldaylong said

FAU raising academic standards is a double edged sword. It raises credibility and prestige on an academic level and, therefore, arguable makes our degrees worth more. On the other hand it hurts our sports. One of the ways FAU is able to compete with schools with longer and more storied histories, better facilities and more money is that we can get some marginal students into school.

That maybe true but I can tell Howard is carefull not to get too risky with academics. There were a few kids this past signing period FAU was looking at. They never got an offer and ended up at a J.C.

FAU never recruited a University High grad either. Thats an old thread.

FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
Back to the top

Post

Find Another University

TeamBeer and IllinoisOwl are right. As for the self-deprecating moniker Find Another University: This has been around, for better or worse, since at least 1967. In those days, FAU had no freshman or sophomore classes – just junior, senior and grad school. It (and the University of West Florida in Pensacola) were designed as upper division universities, built to complement Florida's community college (then called junior college) system. FAU and UWF subsequently determined that this approach wasn't satisfactory and won approval to add freshman and sophomore classes. In its earliest days, FAU did make exceptions on entry standards because, in part, enrollment fell short of what had been projected. I remember an amusing line in the long dead student newspaper, The Atlantic Sun (yep, it had the name before the athletic conference did), satirically proclaiming FAU was "The Nation's Only Uncrowded University." (This was in the Viet Nam era when student deferments were much sought-after and enrollments of males across the country were generally up.) That said, FAU, it had some very good programs, including (as mentioned on this board) ocean engineering the social sciences, etc.

Earlier on this board, someone mentioned the stricter admission standards at UF and correctly asserted it is a supply and demand issue. It is not uncommon for the flagship university in a state system to be so sought after that it can be more choosy. It's true in Florida, California (Cal-Berkeley, UCLA), Colorado (CU), etc.

I think I recall that FAU's admission standards are just fine now, but that President Brogran was studying whether they should be raised.
Back to the top

Post

Find Another University

Those negative bullets under Misc. must have been quite recent (the last 2 months or so) because i've never seen them before. Definitely someone who's bitter about FAU. Maybe he or she was rejected. ::)
Back to the top

Post

Find Another University

I've heard the find another university nick myself, I'd be kinda pissed about it too if I happened to attend florida atlantic.

State schools admissions standards in Florida tend to be dependent much more on admissions numbers and available space than schools individual standards. It's easy to be picky with admissions when you have far more applications then you have openings.

As the number of applicants increases then the trend will continue to more schools in the state.
Back to the top

Post

Find Another University

Hello everyone. I am new to the board. I also defend FAU on Wikipedia.

The situation, as I see it, has been laid down in the discussion there. But let me reiterate it here since you are curious:

Wikipedia is an open book that anyone can scribble in, more or less. Someone can come in and write "FAU sucks" on the FAU page, but someone like me is going to find it and delete it a couple of hours later. In that sense, Wikipedia is self-policed by people who are supposed to want to uphold the truth.

I joined Wikipedia because nearly everything (90%) that was written in the FAU article was negative. What wasn't negative was trite facts. The Wikipedia article was simply a collection of bad news compiled by mysterious people.

Who were they?

In the exchanges, it seems as though the people who were interested in keeping the school down had no connection to the school at all except that they lived in the area. When the "Find Another University" dispute came up, one poster said, "Oh, and I live in Delray and I've heard the nickname for years." I also thought the UCF-Rice article was ridiculous (why is that quote even in the article? it's completely unrelated) but the article from the UP… that's another story.

But obviously these people didn't want to let it go and were straining to find examples to support their argument. They went on and on about how they're just trying to keep the article true to the encyclopedic nature, how what is written or said – as long as it is verifiable – basically merits inclusion. However, if you stop by any of the other Florida college websites, you can see that this is clearly not the case.

A case in point: an article was brought up that discussed how FAU had some of the lowest 6-year graduation rates in the state of Florida. The article they referenced, if you actually look at it, also mentions FIU in this same light.

You would be led to believe that if these posters' true intentions is to simply update the Wikipedia sites for these colleges with new information without bias for or against a school, that FIU would also have this information on Wikipedia's page for FIU, correct?

Try to find it on the FIU site. Good luck, 'cause it isn't there.

Another example: the first thing written under Academics used to be a line about how a quarter of FAU freshmen didn't meet minimum entrance requirements a couple of years ago. The sentence was structured to make it look like FAU students are idiots. The article it referenced turned out to say that this quarter was actually "alternative admissions" that almost all universities have "to ensure diversity in the student body." When put into context, the line made FAU look… normal.

But somebody "forgot" to add the qualifying information to the article. So it was edited. Now the section is true to what was reported.

A more concerted effort has been put forth to add in positive elements – you'll notice that more pictures have been added, info on campus traditions, Greek Week, the University Scholars Program, Business rankings, info on "making the Owl Eyes" (I think they moved it to "FAU Owls" now, the athletic section), etc. It's starting to shape up and all the criticism, when given it's rightful context, doesn't hit as hard as it used to when people were using it as their own personal punching bag.

I'm proud to go to FAU and I'll be damned if someone is going to slide my university's name through the mud.

Go Owls.
Back to the top

Post

Find Another University

Welcome to the board owlcountry.

I've done a few word battles on the wikipedia board with one or two writers. One who calls him/her self, "interestingstuffadder" I think. This person lives in the area and feels lead to take command of the FAU article for what ever reason. He/she won't back off of the "find another university" subject and is quite articulate in his arguments to keep that one line on the article. Much more articulate than I am. I've read the discussion page and it is hilarious that some people who are not students or alumni want the article to include very negative material and will argue in its favor.

I don't know why FAU attracts the negativity it does.

ERROR: A link was posted here (img) but it appears to be a broken link.

Back to the top

Post

Find Another University

I have also corrected some negatives over the last year. I would guess that he attended some other School or maybe was rejected by FAU and has an ax to grind. It is going to take a concerted effort by all to keep it in check, goof job owlcountry and welcome aboard.
Back to the top
Control functions: