University of Florida Top Questions

living at UF gives students a quintessential college experience. from the community feel in dorms to gator game days to 24-hour pizza delivery, there is always something going on to make students feel comfortable. the accent speakers bureau seems pretty popular lately and the bars always are. greek life seems pretty prominent. they are active even if they only represent a minority. personally, i was sad when sorority bid day (and the subsequent running of the bulls) was no longer covered by the alligator. that was one of my favorite fall traditions! if social greek life is not your cup of tea but you want that fraternal feel to your organization, there are many non social greek orgs like alpha phi omega national co ed service fraterenity (haha i had to plug my frat, sorry!) in general, there is always something to do at UF no matter what time of day or night.

Football and basketball are the cornerstones of social activity. beyond this, there is a heavy population of students who associate with at least one student group and are able to assimilate within the society, broadening their horizons through it. On a Saturday night, one can go to midtown and see live music falling into almost any category at any of a number of places. During the fall, No Idea Records puts on "The Fest" which is a giant punk and indy music bands converging on Gainesville for a great time.

I'm a brother of the National Co-ed Service Fraternity Alpha Phi Omega.

UF always has something going on from sports event to guest speakers, we just recently had the mythbusters come out and talk. students that live in the dorms are very social with their dorm-mates and create really close bonds. partying at UF really just depends but there is always a party to go to somewhere. i met some of my closest friends from being a part of Alpha Phi Omega and also living in the dorms.

Sororities and fraternities are big here. Even if you aren't in one, odds are you know someone who is. The parties and events that the Greek life puts on is always fun. It doesn't matter if you are involved or connected to them, you know what is going on on campus because of them. Otherwise, the mix of organizations on campus is so vast, I can't even say what 'most students' are involved in. However, I do work with the Dean of Students Office and I know that places like the DSO and the Union sort of suck their employees in. If you are involved in one part of the DSO, odds are you are involved in another; the same with the Union. Again, if you put the time into working with those organizations, you clearly want to make an impact, so you are more likely to be overly involved. The dorm experience is so personal. I stayed in Jennings Dorm my freshmen year and my entire floor got along. We left our doors open all of the time and worked together on homework while hanging out. We loved one another. A few floors above us, the experience was completely different; they never hung out in the ways that we do. We were lucky with the kids on our floor. If it had been a different group, we would not have gotten along nearly as well. We still stay in touch and hang out. The athletic events here are awesome. Besides the regular sports (football and basketball), I have seen some awesome things. Our soccer team is really intense and I LOVE our gymnastics. The gymnastics meets are amazingly entertaining and I really enjoy seeing them on our campus. Guest speakers are very popular here, with some very notable celebrities coming to campus through Accent (the organization that runs the guest speakers). I've seen Elie Wiesel, Margaret Cho, Bob Saget, Mythbusters, Kevorkian, and a ton more. It's been really fun seeing all of these people on campus and it is something that I would not expect to get out of college for free! I met my closest friends through my co-ed fraternity. We are a community service fraternity (Alpha Phi Omega). I have met such a great group of people that have the same interests as me. Together, we have so many events planned that it is hard not to hang out with them all of the time! I am so glad I joined the fraternity because it gives me the chance to give back to my community, make a difference, and be with people who have the same goals. It is so much fun and I would recommend it to anyone I meet. I also got very close with my friends from my freshmen dorm. Like I said, we still hang out 2 years and a whole new living situation later! I'm always awake at 2am on Tuesday! I usually am doing homework by that point but there are definitely nights where people will be over at my house just having fun. Movies and coffee shops are still open. There is always something to do here. Steak and Shake is good for that kind of late night fun as well. People party here just as much as any other campus. There are sorority and fraternity parties pretty regularly but you don't necessarily go to them all of the time. I feel like I always know about them even though I've been to one my entire career here. There are lots of parties in general on campus and in apartment complexes - it's part of college. We love tailgating for our sporting events too. Those are always fun times if you plan it properly. The downtown area is also a lot of fun if you like to dance too. If you don't drink, downtown is still a fun option for you because you can dance with your friends and meet new people. And if you don't like downtown and don't drink, there are tons of events put on by campus for you to have fun (movie nights, guest speakers, groups putting on benefits, etc). There is something for everyone if you take the time to look for it and get out there. Part of the fun is trying new things, too. Once you get past freshmen year and get involved, you spend a lot of time off campus. I live off campus, so I do a lot of shopping there. I definitely like to hang out in the off-campus places, like Starbucks. We take mini-road trips to the springs and go tubing when the weather is warm enough. The springs are so nice and it is very relaxing. We also have Lake Wauberg, a lake that is free for UF students that has supplies for you to use, like paddle boats. It's also good for a day off campus, to relax, and to have a chance of pace from the monotony of school. It isn't hard to find things to do on campus but off campus offers a more open place for you to get out and have fun. It all depends on what you like to do - there will be something for you in Gainesville.

I am part of alpha phi omega and it is a great service organization. But if you aren't into that, there are plenty of social organizations as well as heritage ones.

The most popular activities are campus are getting involved with the greek life and intermural sports. I'm involved with Alpha Phi Omega, a co-ed services frat. It's a good idea to pick something to get involved with to make 50,000 people seem a little smaller. Dorms are decent at UF. I live in Beaty and I've made a lot of friends there. My room mates and I leave the door unlocked when we're in the room and people come in and out as they please. It's really nice. Parties are popular on the weekends. Lots of house/apartment parties to even goign downtown. Sometimes even Wednesday night is a popular night to hit the downtown area and go clubbing.

UF has so many opportunities to have a safe place to hang out with your friends. I am a member of Alpha Phi Omega, which is a community service fraternity that also has the responsiblity of running the information booth on campus and I will never forget my experience with my fraternity. UF holds "Gator Nights" at our Reitz Union every Friday night with various activities throughout the night, including a movie that is inbetween theaters and DVD. UF also brings in many different speakers. My favorite one that I went to this year was listening to the Mythbusters from the Discovery Channel.

Alpha Phi Omega was my saving grace during college. With an amazing group of people I developed leadership skills, provided service to my campus and community and made lifelong friends. I still hang out with my Brothers often, despite having graduated.

I think UF offers a lot of great social events. I really enjoyed seeing Bob Saget and the guys from Myth Busters. I wish I had gone to more sports events, since I only went to the football games. When I lived in Tolbert during my freshman year, I didn't make many friends. I'd say hi to people in the hallway and chat in the kitchen, but I wouldn't go out with anyone regularly (I also only lived there during the Spring semester.) No one ever left their doors open and rarely hung out in the common area. I met my boyfriend at Salsa Caliente, although he is not a UF student. I love the dancing clubs (swing and salsa) but they are also not strictly UF clubs. It's probably 60{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} 40{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of UF/non-UF people. Because I've been so busy with school the last few semesters, I haven't partied that much. When I do, it's usually when a friend from high school is throwing a party, or there's an occasion at work (RepDials for the Florida Fund) to celebrate. I prefer house parties to going to the bars, and I'm not really thrilled to the clubs downtown. I love dancing and going out at night (especially in Europe!) but the Gainesville night life just doesn't do much for me. To me, it is a sterile environment with too many Greeks and not enough genuinely cool people. On most nights during the week, I'm at home taking care of business or studying or else just hangint out wiht my boyfriend.