The University of West Florida

UWF is defiantly an interesting college. Being a History major I learned that UWF was designed to be a one-on-one type of university where learning is supposed to be more personal and individual attention is more stressed unlike other college.

The sad reality is that in college the ideal of one-on-one learning does not work so well. College isn't a place where instructors are supposed to hold your hand and walk you through the park. The whole reason students come to a university is to be on their own and to hold personal responsibilities that get them closer to becoming an adult.

UWF has a very unorthodox campus in comparison to other colleges. Similar to FSU, it's in the woods. Unfortunately, it looks like crap. The trees aren't taken care of properly, nothing is organized very well, maintained sucks, etc. Parking sucks at all colleges but at UWF it's really gotten to the point of diminishing return. Every time I walk to my car I have people asking me if I'm leaving so they can try to take my spot. Next year it's going to get worse since the student population is going to rise yet again and with the new dorm being built, the chaos will continue.

UWF lacks a proper student union. The University Commons is basically all thrown together and even many graduate students that work there can agree. There are many important individuals who work there and don't even get their own office.

There is an entire 3 places to eat there plus the Nautlius Market, a random smoothie place in the Gym (since yeah that makes sense, let's serve Doritos chips and Coke at the GYM) and some sandwhich place that has the sandwhich menu from the Nautlius market that's in some building nowhere near classes. It gets redundant real fast. Then again that's the least of UWF's problems.

Student Life at UWF is weak. I've met friends and went greek, but the student life here is nowhere like other colleges. UWF is WAY too conservative about everything it does. I've been to about at least 5+ seminars about how drinking is underage, how so many bad things can go wrong and what not. I get the point already. Drink smart, it's really not that hard. Stupid people do stupid things and pretty much this is the product as a result.

Students at UWF range in intelligence. Considering you only need at least a 2.5 to be accepted into UWF, you get some real "winners" here. At higher level universities such as UF and FSU, you still get these type of people probably, but most of them drop out after the first year. Some how at UWF you have people on the Sophomore and Junior level and you really wonder how some of them have lasted so long.

Academics are not too difficult. I been doing pretty good, the lowest grade I have obtained so far is a C in Biology which is my only C so far in college. As long as you do your work, make an effort, and not slack off, you should graduate and/or transfer out to a better college.

I could go on for hours about UWF but to sum it up in a nutshell, these are pretty much my basic thoughts.

1. Intelligent students are far and few
2. Greek Life is really weak and isn't worth 400 dollars a semester in dues.
3. Living on campus sucks and so do most places to eat.
4. Financial Aid is good, campus jobs are available and hire easily.
5. UWF has low standards academically (and in trying to be admitted) and classes are semi challenging. UWF has very few graduate programs and most of the standard normal undergraduate programs.

6. Pensacola is fun if your 21. If not, good luck. Pensacola is a cheap place to live and UWF is cheaper than most other colleges. The Beach is the beach. Nothing exciting.

7. UWF sucks for athletics (no football) and tries too hard to have school spirit. They need to lose the argonaut image but considering they spent so much money on their new logo, it looks like its never going to go anywhere.

8. Student organizations outside of greek life are all lack luster. Being greek at UWF is basically a must to go anywhere at this college unless your involved with housing, SGA, or student affairs which again all want greeks.

College is what you make out of it. My experiences at UWF have taught me ALOT about life and alot about myself. While I do try to make it a positive experience attending college at this experience, it's really tedious to do so. In the end, I will probably leave the university come next fall. I would love to tell people that I like UWF and it's a great college, but the sad truth is that it sucks and it's not a place that I would recommend anyone to go.

I'm sure there are worse colleges such as FGCU, UNF, any CC, but UWF really isn't that much better.Go to UWF if you liked High School since it's basically part 2. Go to a big college if you want an actual college / greek experience. It's defiantly a step up from community college, but not far off.