Sidra A.
Yelp
You should be a self-motivated student to go to this school; the introductory classes will often have hundreds of students and the guidance counselors can be rude and sometimes ignorant of basic requirements (especially if you want to go to grad school). They will tell you to take a class, and ask you the next semester why you took it. This is the reason I took both Calculus 1 and Methods of Calculus. Meet the advisors, get their stamps, and nod at their advice, but don't actually take it, or argue with them. You need to map your own plan.
Also, the registrar is extremely disorganized--right when I filed my application for graduation, they told me I never took Chem 2 lab! Crazy, because it is a prereq for all the higher-level classes I took! I actually had to find five year old graded labs and submit a petition in order to graduate. Unfortunately, they took too long to approve it and I had to wait another six months to graduate. To date, that was one of the most frustrating things ever in my life! I could not graduate, and find a job, nor did I have any more classes left! I hated FAU so much at that time.
However, since then, FAU has improved dramatically. They have added all these things in just the last ten years:
-Einstein Bagels, Wendy's, Quiznos, Papa John's, Salsaritas, Starbucks
-Dunkin Donuts in the library
-Jewish Center (24 hour computer lab and study center)
-A 60+ million dollar stadium
-Shuttles for parking
-A super fancy gym
-Nicer dorms (i still remember the cement floors and cramped rooms of Timucua and Algonquin)
-Second campus for UMiami medical school
-Home of new FAU medical school
There are several things I don't like about FAU, such as the lack of student unity, registrar disorganization, the parking issues, the fact that it is not very walkable, the lack of "hangout" places, enormous classes, and some of the faculty. It's very easy to get isolated and fail if you are not an outgoing, motivated person. If you are pre-professional, it can be hard to compete, given that there are hundreds of pre-meds/pre-dents/pre-pharm students in the same class.
However, if you have a good idea of the path you want to take, FAU is a solid, very affordable option. Many of my friends have become accountants, engineers, nurses, and doctors with their FAU degrees at a cost which is one of the lowest in the US.