[auroral]

I'm planning to move to Florida next year to attend community college for one year (to finish my A.A. and gain residency status) and then transfer to a four year university to complete my bachelor's and master's degrees. I want to attend a community college located in a city within 20 miles of a beach. The closer the better!

What I am trying to determine now is which area is best for me to live in. My biggest concern is cost. I'd like to have a studio or apartment of my own but may resort to shared housing if that option is too expensive.

I'd also like to live somewhere that has a variety of things to do (art, music, shopping) and a great night life scene. I will be 21 when move to Florida, so I'd like to experience the party life for a little.

These are the areas I am looking at:

Boca Raton
Bradenton
Cocoa
Daytona Beach
Ft. Lauderdale
Ft. Myers
Jacksonville
Palm Beach Gardens/West Palm Beach
Panama City
St. Petersburg

I don't know a lot about these cities, and I am still in the process of narrowing down this list... which is why it's so long.


In short, I'm looking for:
* cheap(er) housing
* night life/culture
* close, beautiful and accessible beach(es), less-crowded preferred

I don't know much about Florida and its cities/beaches, so ANY information is greatly appreciated!

[Prichard]

Of the ones you've listed, the one that pops out at me as being close to what you are looking for is St. Petersburg. Culture, night life, beaches are all there, and it's close to Tampa.

[daniellefort]

Daytona has a nice community college and you'd fit right in especially come spring break or during any of the annual events they have but there's night clubs as well.

[bale002]

Originally Posted by auroral

Boca Raton
Bradenton
Cocoa
Daytona Beach
Ft. Lauderdale
Ft. Myers
Jacksonville
Palm Beach Gardens/West Palm Beach
Panama City
St. Petersburg

On the gulf side, St. Petersburg is certainly a good candidate.

If cost is a strict criterion, they you may have to avoid southeastern Florida (Boca Raton, WPB, Ft. Lauderdale).

"Culture" can mean many things, but Daytona and Cocoa are good candidates on the Atlantic side.

As for Jacksonville, you may also consider a community college near St. Augustine: the region in general may offer a nice balance between cost, beach, relatively light population density, historical culture and contemporary culture (though I have no clue about night-life in Jacksonville and the surrounding area).

Maybe Sunrico or others can say a few words about Panama City.

I have not heard good things about Ft. Meyers and Brandenton, especially for your criteria, but maybe the negatives are exaggerations.

You may also consider running a search ("search this forum", "advanced search", "search by keyword", put name of city by thread, check Florida forum and the relevant city-regional forum) on the cities you mentioned, should take you the better part of a day to go through all the hits you will come up with.

Good luck!

[florida1]

I live in Ft. Myers. the bad parts are definately overexagerated! I don't know if it is what you are looking for though. You can definately find cheap housing. There are many beaches here that bank on the fact that they are so secluded. If I want to go to a quiet beach, I usually go to Sanibel/Captiva. If I want to go to a beach to see some nightlife, I go to Ft. Myers beach. We have Edison Community College, FGCU (the areas largest college), and Hodges University. There are some art galleries, but not an overwhelming amount. We also have a performing arts hall that sees most major productions. We actually had the "Lion King" come to town this year. My only complaint about the area is that there are no entertainment districts. Everything is spread out accross the county.

[miamiblue]

Originally Posted by auroral

I'm planning to move to Florida next year to attend community college for one year (to finish my A.A. and gain residency status) and then transfer to a four year university to complete my bachelor's and master's degrees. I want to attend a community college located in a city within 20 miles of a beach. The closer the better!
...
I don't know a lot about these cities, and I am still in the process of narrowing down this list... which is why it's so long.


In short, I'm looking for:
* cheap(er) housing
* night life/culture
* close, beautiful and accessible beach(es), less-crowded preferred

I don't know much about Florida and its cities/beaches, so ANY information is greatly appreciated!

I'm rather surprised that none of your criteria considers the quality of the college you will be going to, or what university you'd like to attend. To me, these things are way more important than access to a beach. If you're already in FL, you're already much closer to a beach than most other people in the country!

If you're looking for a good quality CC that will nearly guarantee (based on your performance, of course) acceptance to one of the state's best universities (UF, but I'm a bit biased), I'd suggest Santa Fe CC in Gainesville - however, it's more than 20 minutes to Crescent beach or St. Augustine.

If the beach really does take priority, then I think St. Pete is your best bet.

[SaveMtns]

Bradenton:

zero nightlife
zero charm

I'd look at Safety Harbor - loads of charm, near everything

[Chromedome]

dont know too much about the other areas, but i can speak on fort myers...

there isnt really much to do here in the areas you asked about.


the shopping is basically big box retailer and stripmall after stripmall, once youve gone into one shopping center in the area you pretty much seen it all.and its nothing special

target,walmart,publix,loews...target,walmart, publx,loews over and over and over again with a best buy and an office depot here and there thrown in for good measure.

the art scene here is very small, and you have to search to find it.

music scene you may enjoy, theres a ton of local rock and metal bands aswell as hiphop artists in the area, only bad thing about this is theres not too many venues for them to be showcased in

nightlife here for lack of a better term is garbage, there are a few clubs in ft myers beach nothing to write home about tho, then theres the bamboo club in cape coral which is actually pretty decent. everything shuts down at 2:AM.

besides that the nightlife is mainly dive bars, and hole in the wall spots where people drink, eat wings and play pool.

as far as the "beach" if you can even call it that, you will have it close to you depending on where you live, but dont expect miami beach or daytona....

i call ft myers beach "the dirty pool" (gulf of mexico), no real waves there and the waters usually murky, or has red tide which will give you allergies and leave hundreds of dead fish washed up on the shore.

the beach "scene" itself will primarily be senior citizens and older people sunbathing, and families with kids wading around the water,

it has been getting more and more youthful every year tho, but it still has tons of catching up to do to the other florida beaches.

as far as not being crowded, you should be content, the beach area is usually pretty empty besides maybe friday or saturday nights, even then its not too bad.

the actual beach district itself is pretty small, only about 4 or 5 blocks, nothing really there besides a few restaurants/bars, the aforementioned nightclubs, which are restaurants during the day and a few beach shops. majority of the district is hotels.

its a nice WALKABLE place which is rare in fort myers and you can actually see people hanging out there(until the cops tell them to go home), but its very tiny, a walk around ft myers beach would take you no more than 10 or 15 minutes before you run out of sidewalk and get into the residential areas.

unless youre going into hospitality management or medicine in college, job-wise youre going to have trouble finding anything decent here. majority of the jobs are Retail and service so get ready to wear a vest and a nametag lol
pay in the area is also lower than much of the country.

overall id suggest you come and visit the area, maybe even find a friend and stay here for a month or two until the real "feel" of the area sets in.

[Sprout]

Broward Community College is considered a good school. You can rent a studio apartment on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale for around $800/month. I don't know much about studio apartment rent once you get further inland, but it must be cheaper than that. And Ft. Lauderdale is a perfect palce for a 21-year old single girl!

Sprout

[mattvj5]

First, I work at the University of Florida and one of the posters was dead on when they were talking about quality of the program/community college. No matter where you live in Florida, a 2-3 hour drive will usually get you to the beach.
The State of Florida has an agreement with major colleges that if you get an Associates they guarantee you admission to one of the state colleges/universities. The key is that it may not be the one you want, especially UF or even FSU.
But you can get into UF alot easier as a transfer student with an AA.
Research schools and see what colleges/universities they have articulation agreements with, that way when you transfer you will know exactly what is required.
You may want to research PJC in Pensacola, Florida. That cc is one of the best in the state and has agreements with every school. The beaches run from Pcola to Panama City are great.
Good luck