is moving to jacksonville good?

[FSUMOM]

Another area to consider is Macclenny or Glen St. Mary (Baker County) to the West of Baldwin. Land prices are still reasonable and has a country atmosphere. We have lived here since 1988 and love it.

[daedalo]

I would not recomend the move. 1) $upport for schools in FL and Jax in particular is low historically. 2) SAT scores of students in FL with parents of income of over 100k is the same as scores of students with much lower incomes, 70k, in the northeast (MA). That is telling us not the family environment but the facilities/resources/faculty of the educational system in Florida is well below the NE/NY/NJ level. The economy in the NE/NY/NJ is diverse with a large component of professionals. The component of professionals in NE Florida is substantially lower and the economy substantially less diverse. Compare the want-ads from the two areas. This is a service driven economy that perpetuates low wage earning families and understandably has lower academic achievement as compared to other school systems elsewhere. Put simply, if the local politics is not driven by a substantial professional population, politics will seek the lowest common denominator for a political constituency. You will be in a minority in Jacksonville. The University of Florida, the best institution in the state, is approximately 25th among all state universities, and not in the top 50 overall. But Florida is the 4th most populous state. Need I say more?

[chinesecrested02]

This is in response to some stats on the University of Florida that were stated incorrectly in this thread...

According to US News and World Report, the University of Florida is ranked #47 among national universities (public and private). It is tied for 13th with five others among the public universities.

Engineering:

It's Undergraduate Engineering program was ranked 30th among national universities (public and private)and ranked 17th among public universities. A few individual departments were ranked in the TOP 10 (public and private) for Graduate, Undergrad or both programs (Agriculture, Environmental, Materials, and Nuclear).

It is #26 among national universities (public and private) for it's College of Engineering Graduate programs and it is ranked 15th among public universities.


Business:

U.S.News & World Report Undergraduate Rankings 2007
#29 Overall
#18 Among Publics

Specialty Rankings Overall
#12 in Accounting
#14 in Finance
#19 in Management
#9 in Marketing
#13 in Quantitative analysis
#12 in Real Estate

Among Publics
#7 in Accounting
#9 in Finance
#14 in Management
#7 in Marketing
#7 in Quantitative analysis
#9 in Real Estate


BusinessWeek Top Undergraduate Programs 2006
#47 Overall
#20 Among Publics


SAT score ranking
#20 Overall
#7 Among Publics

[daedalo]

Ok, I stand corrected. 47th instead of 50th. Tied for 13th, but really there are something like 24 schools ranked higher.

[chinesecrested02]

You said not even in the Top 50 overall not 50th as you are trying to say now (BTW- ONLY 25 states even made it into the Top 50 and Florida is one of them). Translation: 25 other states do not even have a Top 50 school. It is an accomplishment to be in the Top 50 of all private and public schools in the entire country.

As for just the public schools, how does tied for 13th with 5 schools equate to having 24 school public schools ahead of them. That does not add up, as 12 plus 5 is only 17 and the next school listed after those tied for 13th is 18th. Really, you are just trying to make Florida sound more negative than it really is. That is your own issue. The facts speak for themselves.