New College of Florida
- Academics

Great academics but limited courses

The good: this is an intense and demanding school. We have students transfer in from top-notched honors program from other schools and they say their former schools were nothing compared to NCF. Read other reviews on this site and you'll see everyone says NCF is tough. There's a lot of stress and every semester there will be some students who come apart, more than at other schools.

Most students come here because they intend to go to a certain grad school and they want to get a good recommendation. Like someone said, if you don't want to go on to a great grad school, what's the point of putting yourself through this? Strange but many of the students here end up getting into a regular state grad program that mediocre students who went to inferior state schools also attend.

Because it is a small school you have to understand that courses are not offered every semester or even every year, sometimes they rotate to every other year. That's why so many students end up here for 5 or 6 years, they can't get the required classes to complete their AOC. So you better plan ahead or be flexible about your major (AOC, area of concentration).

But academically I say 5 stars if it's your thing to have non-stop intellectual discussions. Just be honest with yourself.

Challenging, but Good Professors

The academics are incredibly challenging here. Many believe no grades should mean less work, but the opposite is true. Professors are allowed to and do set the standard for a "satisfactory" higher than many other schools. Most professors are extremely knowledgeable and assessable.

Environmental Studies Major

My AOC, environmental studies, seemed like a very promising, interdisciplinary track when I chose it my second year here. Since then, however, the program has lost most of its best faculty. As a result, I feel a lot less is expected of me as compared to other AOCs. I feel challenged by the classes I choose to take, but not my AOC as a whole. If you are interested in Environmental Studies, please choose a disciplinary AOC and do Environmental studies as a slash.