Florida International University

If you are looking to enter the field of International Relations (IR)/Foreign Policy/Diplomacy/International Business, there is no better university than Florida International University (FIU). The quality of the instruction cannot be beat; the professors are culled from the best working professionals in the field - Ronald Cox (phenomenal instructor and author), José Cruz (in-depth real-life experience working in Latin America), and Marcie Washington (conflict and refugee expert) are just a few of... Read More the professors that join Florida Senator Marco Rubio at FIU to provide a world-class education to the many students studying IR there. Possibly most notable is Nicholas Onuf, the father of Constructivism Theory, and a former professor at FIU. I also received my minor in Economics and, again, the instruction was unmatched - thankfully, there is no economic theory or law that Joel Carton cannot succinctly explain. There is a ton of school spirit at FIU, and the campus itself is GORGEOUS and has everything that a student could possibly wish for - modern, state of the art facilities; free wifi; free concerts with top musical and comedic talent; numerous school sports teams and fraternities/sororities; plenty of well-known restaurants and coffee shops; and a fully-equipped, modern gym (membership included in tuition). The campus is centrally located in a beautiful, safe middle-class Miami neighborhood and close to all major highways, three major malls, with a supermarket, gas station, and commercial strip mall right across the street from school. All in all FIU provides a top-shelf education close to home. I am grateful for the quality of instruction I received there and for the care and attention I received from my instructors and the administration; I am proud to call FIU my alma mater!

FIU Law is a great law school. Although it is a rather new institution compared to most law schools, the faculty, career office and the overall administration has made it a great environment for learning. My favorite part about FIU Law that sold me when I was considering what law school to attend was the small class size. With only about 130 students in my class, the intimate environment has made it easier to become personal with the professors, other faculty and even the Dean, who is extremely approachable... Read More and truly cares about the law students. The career office is also great, and genuinely cares for the students to become successful. In addition, FIU is not expensive compared to other law schools, which will really help me financially once I graduate. Overall, FIU has managed to jump ranking spots significantly every year and in only 13 years we are ranked in the Top 100. I am a very proud to be an FIU Law student.

Florida International University offers programs that fit the everyday demand of the working professional. Various online, hybrid, evening, weekend, and accelerated programs make it easier for the non-traditional students to pursue higher education. As well, FIU is a well-known and highly esteemed institution. They have an outstanding reputation in academics, especially in all of the business disciplines. Additionally, FIU houses an array of delicious restaurant selections, art exhibits at the Patricia... Read More and Phillip Frost Art Museum as well as, the Steven and Dorothea Green Library an eight-floor library equipped with quiet rooms and areas for group work. However, the main set-back of this university is how overcrowded their campuses are. Because the education provided at FIU is highly sought after and their amenities add a sense of comfort, there are thousands of individuals around campus at all times. Parking garages and lots tend to be filled quite quickly forcing students to be on campus hours before their actual courses begin. And, requesting overrides into professors' classes is the norm since it is always a race to get the class before it is filled. Overall, FIU's pros of superior academic competitiveness outweighs their cons.

The real strength of this graduate program is the people. The faculty are always available to help graduate students and the staff are extremely supportive. This is a very diverse program, as women make up approximately half of the faculty and minorities are well represented in the faculty and graduate student population. The history graduate student association is very active on campus and we hold many professional development and social events throughout the year which foster strong professional... Read More relationships between the faculty and graduate students and help bolster career development. The only downside to this program is that Miami is expensive and is getting more so every day.

Florida International University (FIU) charged graduate students amounts much greater than the standard amount approved by the Board of Governors (which oversees public universities in Florida). The amount of overcharging ranged from $14,000 to $40,000 per student per program (depending on the program) in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences. In the process of inquiring, I found out that these charges, (going back to 2005; my inquiries were in 2012-13) were never submitted for approval to FIU's... Read More Board of Trustees or to the Board of Governors. The person responsible for the charge in my program used a regulation for continuing education programs, when my program was not continuing ed., but a regular program. This was so that overcharging could be hidden from the Board of Governors (continuing ed. is administered on the university level, but regular course cost changes require approval of the BOT and BOG). So, it was overcharging without a legal basis for doing so. In addition, most of the professors in my program were terrible, either in their instruction or assessment. One professor gave only 3 exams in each course - no other assignments - and a number of exam questions on each exam were invalid. Some because the grammar was so poor it was hard to know what was being asked, others because they required information not provided in or accessible from the course. When a student failed an exam (B- and below was failing), he, she had to repay to retake it, sometimes having to wait 1 year. If he, she failed a second time or another course, it was grounds for termination, in which case all tuition money, coursework, and time and work in 4 practica is wasted. Students coped with this situation by cheating on this professor's exams, using copies of exams when posted earlier for online courses. So, a student unwilling to cheat was not in control of his, her destiny, because no amount of studying would help to answer these invalid questions. The professor was intransigent at the suggestion that his exams needed to be revised. He never changed anything, saying it wouldn't be fair to the students who failed in the past! I also think he didn't want to make any effort regarding his teaching and wanted everything to run systematically. On the whole, my experience at FIU was extremely terrible.