The University of Florida

I graduated from UF in 1999 in the height of the tech boom. As I was getting ready to graduate, stories about graduates walking into jobs with high 5-figure salaries were rampant. Everyone I knew who graduated the semester before me, was working in a lucrative field. As soon as I graduated, the economy plummeted. Most of my friends who were doing so well, got laid off and moved back in with their parents, or were racking up lots of debt while they worked temporary jobs at Target. Nobody I know of, including myself, has ever attained anything like the success of that period. Many UF graduates now work as public school teachers in Orlando, and some work freelance writing or programming. Some graduates go on to work in careers they could have done with a high school diploma. The best job I have had in the past five years is an Adjunct Math Professor at a community college. I have learned more in the past year just by buying books and reading them, then I ever did by attending the University of Florida and spending thousands of dollars. What is my point? University/College in America is a giant scam. Why? Because the jobs that undergraduates are supposably being trained for are being outsourced to India or China, or they are importing cheap engineers/PhDs from those countries under the the H1B Visa program so employers don't have to contribute to their IRA's (in other words, foreigners are cheaper). Economists and politicians are becoming more aware of the shrinking middle class - life for grads of state schools will just get tougher. Ivy leagues and other elites will be fine. University of Florida is a state-school desperately trying to be an elite school. They treat their undergraduates with disdain once you leave, and the only thing you will be considered for is UF credit card offers, or for fund raising phonecalls. UF graduate programs do not give any type of preferential treatment to any UF graduates at all. Who I attend UF again? No. If anything, it probably hindered my overall intellectual growth because of the general disinformation and lies that is propagated in the American education system. I say again, if you really want to learn about the world, economics, finance, ect, then go to the bookstores, pick up some books and read. After a while, you will learn that pretty much everything you thought about the world, is based on fallacies.

4th Year Female -- Class 1999

Perceived Campus Safety: B-, Education Quality: F