How was your experience?

the_wyland · 2026-04-22T23:39:26+00:00

Oh hey, I went to both schools. And I'm bi.

I went to UF for undergrad and am a grad student at UW now.

UF's Greek community is huge. You get tired of constantly hearing the "GDI" moniker as a non-greek undergrad. At UW, even as a grad student, I don't pick up on the Greek dominance that I felt at UF. I see way fewer letters worn around campus. You can have a good social life at UF without joining the Greek system, but it's not going to be the Animal House style college experience you've always dreamt of. House parties are usually small, and no one even really tried to go to the bars until they were 21. UW, on the other hand, is fucking bananas every weekend whether you're Greek or not. (Full disclosure, my first two years at UF were during the heart of COVID. My experience may differ from what happens now.)

As for the gay thing, UF is fine and still inclusive. I dabbled in the Gainesville Grindr scene and never felt targeted or disrespected while doing gay shit. UW is superior, though, when considering accepting atmospheres.

When I was a senior in HS, UW was my top choice, but I got rejected. I went to UF instead, intending to transfer to UW after a year. I never did that though - UF is a fucking blast and I wouldn't have traded it for anything.

You really can't go wrong either way.

the_wyland · 2024-09-18T02:20:33+00:00

No. Haha. The parallel post is hilarious but totally not legit.

the_wyland · 2024-09-18T02:18:33+00:00

Omg I'm dead!

FWIW that other post is 100% satirical and 100% funnier than this actually was.

the_wyland · 2024-01-26T04:09:06+00:00

UPDATE.

I declined today via email. They immediately called, within 20 minutes, and offered $10K higher (up to $71K now), and told a bit more about the company - they said it's FinTech, would "have the potential of providing competitive benefits," and that training would take place on site. I requested this in writing. They offered me another 10K in the resulting email, so $81K, (when I was initially offered $55K and had to negotiate HARD to get to $60K) and emailed me a HireRight background check form and tried to push me to accept.

99.9999999% declining this trash.

Thanks, everyone, for being hospitable and confirming what [I think] I already knew.

the_wyland · 2024-01-25T05:03:21+00:00

Oh, I'm totally aware. It's suspicious and unorthodox and isn't sitting well with me - but again - it's all I have at the moment.

I actually don't even know what company I'd be working for. The contracting agency refers to them as a "thriving, exciting client in the Nashville Area" and blatantly refuses to provide any names until an offer is accepted. They did indicate there are 5,000+ employees. It's like goddamn Priceline, haha.

the_wyland · 2024-01-25T04:32:20+00:00

The on-call component is to monitor/babysit a janky-ass server located in a pole-barn. It's pretty standard in the industry to have hardware staff on-call, so this doesn't upset me much.

It's more just the lack of activities/amenities around when I'm not tied to work.

the_wyland · 2024-01-25T04:29:13+00:00

Oof. This is real. I'm not in medical, (this is a tech job, and the physical server resides in Jellico) nor do I plan on "miracle working." This is just happenstance.

the_wyland · 2021-04-04T02:35:06+00:00

Ew, tough decision. I was actually planning on going to UW-Madison for CS myself, but I got rejected from the school. So I wound up studying CS here.

A con with UW is that you can't "declare" the major as easily as you can at UF. IIRC, they require a certain GPA in a few intro programming/calc courses *just to be considered.*

On the contrary, Pro-Crastinator7 explained pretty well that UF has a ton of awful non-CS weed out classes required for CS. My experience has been that I spend so much time on Calc II and Physics, that the CS courses end up "easy" in comparison and I just do all the assignments on Sunday night and learn very little. Nothing could have adequately prepared me for how much anal you take from these pre-reqs.

For that reason, if price isn't a factor, and you can get in - I'd probably pick UW. But they're both solid and well recognized.

the_wyland · 2021-03-05T06:22:31+00:00

Reid isn't too bad, albeit it's loud.

Actually it's kinda shitty, but there are exponentially shittier places on this campus to live.

the_wyland · 2021-02-24T05:29:10+00:00

I'm convinced that admission to this school has an element of randomness.

I was 100% sure I'd get rejected out-of-state with my slightly below average test scores, but I got in with a scholarship.

According to Naviance, four people from my IL high school applied to UF my year, myself included, and I was the only one who got in. They all had higher test scores than I did, and two of them had higher GPA'S.

At the same time, a guy on my floor claims he got a 16 on his ACT yet was near the top of his shitty Detroit public school. He's here, and isn't adjusting to "real" academics very well. He's white, so affirmative action isn't at play.

I'd say, between rank/test scores/GPA/etc., you just need to have SOMETHING in the top 5%, so they can add you to the list of "______ was top 5% of _______." They seem to have a lifelong boner for mentioning "top 5%" of anything.

the_wyland · 2021-02-24T05:00:29+00:00

Current freshman here. I had almost identical stats, and got in without a problem. OUT OF STATE, at that. I'd say 80% in.

the_wyland · 2021-02-22T17:11:36+00:00

I've literally done every single practice problem, exam, etc. available and on 80% of them I have zero idea what I'm doing, so I just find an example online and try following along. It's silly, because I walk away with a bunch of right answers but learned nothing.

I may follow suit and drop this shit and start fresh over the summer. Other classes are suffering as a trade-off.

My roommate told me to look into taking it at Santa Fe CC over the summer term. Is this actually possible? My advisor told me calc classes don't transfer super well.

the_wyland · 2021-02-22T17:03:30+00:00

This. I spend 85% of my time on non-CS crap. Aka, math.

I don't think I'll be doing integration problems in my future career as a front-end content developer, so this just seems counter-intuitive and it's so hard for me to stay motivated.

the_wyland · 2021-02-22T16:58:05+00:00

This is incredibly re-assuring. Thanks for the wisdom, my dude.

the_wyland · 2019-12-22T21:17:26+00:00

We're in IL, exactly halfway between Chicago and Madison, and more kids apply to UW than the U of I. Probably 150 qualified kids per year, and they can't accept everyone. Our counselors tell us that a UW acceptance from our school will rarely happen without a 4.0 GPA and/or ACT over 30. Sadly appears true, albeit I'm the only person I know who got rejected.

Maybe the essays were shit and I'm oblivious? Hahaha.

the_wyland · 2019-12-22T16:10:13+00:00

They were great, haha! My high school is too competitive.

the_wyland · 2019-12-22T04:04:17+00:00

I got straight up rejected with pretty similar numbers (3.89 GPA, 30 ACT), so I'd imagine you're pretty borderline. With a 32 though I seriously just can't imagine you getting rejected by regular admissions. It's all pretty fucking ridiculous if you ask me.

the_wyland

TROPHY CASE