Here are some tips for selecting schools, based on an analysis comparing each school to all others across dozens of factors:
Schools Concentrating On Systems Analysts
- Focus: For schools with a focus on this career area, look at Miami Dade College, Valencia Community College, Broward College, and Tallahassee Community College.
Fastest Response From Schools
- Request Info: For the fastest information for prospective students, look at the Spotlight schools on this page.
Student Body
- Part-Time: For schools emphasizing part-time studies, consider Florida International, Nova Southeastern, The University of West Florida, and Hodges University.
- Diverse: For a diverse student body, consider Miami Dade College, Florida International, Broward College, and Nova Southeastern.
- Adult Learners: For lots of adult learners, consider Nova Southeastern, Barry, Hodges University, and Florida Keys Community College.
School Setting
- Out of State: For geographic diversity, take note of Eckerd, Florida Institute of Technology, Northwood University Florida, and University of Miami.
- Dorms: For a residential campus environment, take note of Clearwater Christian, Stetson University, Eckerd, and Florida Southern College.
Excellence
- SAT: For students with high SAT scores, look at University of Miami, Florida State, Central Florida, and University of South Florida-Main Campus.
- % Accepted: For selective institutions, look at Florida International, Florida Memorial University, University of South Florida-Main Campus, and University of Miami.
- Class Size: For small class sizes, look at Stetson University, University of Miami, Hodges University, and Bethune Cookman.
Student/Alumnus Reviews of Schools for This Career and State
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USF • Tampa, FL
Studying Computer Science (completion in 2008)
• 7/8/2011
"It's a decent college with a good faculty. The job placement is also quite decent, so I would rate it as a 9."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | It's my college and I am proud to recommend it to others. It has a decent placement ratio and the faculty is quite good. You will have good opportunities once you complete the program. All the best! |
| Program Reputation | 5 | It is not among top 10 colleges in US. It belongs in the 2nd tier list. |
| Program Quality | 9 | Tuition fees are a bit expensive. The program covers vast areas of many career options. |
| Instruction | 8 | The quality of USF is quite high. They even have research options in a variety of fields for those who want to boost their knowledge. Some research areas were Artificial intelligence and Networks & Communication. |
| How Difficult | 7 | You need to be among the top 10 to make a difference. So the work load was quite heavy. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | The style of coding encouraged in our university is very much appreciated in my office. This hands on experience has always given me an edge. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 5 | We had Spring and Fall batch. Full time student did not have options for weekend or evening classes. |
| Academic Facilities | 9 | I would rate the availability of tutors and academic advisors as a 10. Online resources are available to students as soon as they complete their application form, which is quite helpful. |
| Social Life | 5 | I prefer not to attend parties or participate in athletics. So I'll rate this as average. |
| Placement Services | 6 | It was average. People who pursue a PhD have good assistance compared to MS graduates. |
| Alumni Network | 6 | They could have provided more scholarships and had better lab facilities. |
University Of West Florida • Pensacola, FL
Studying GIS (completion in 2010)
• 7/8/2011
"Overall I'm very satisfied. I feel that my certification exposed me to cutting-edge software and showed me how to use it to solve real world problems."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | Absolutely yes. This was a great way for me to advance my education, stay up-to-date with current software and solutions while not interfering with my current job. |
| Program Reputation | 8 | The school has a good reputation for online coursework in general. They also have a physical campus as well. |
| Program Quality | 8 | This coursework was performed entirely online, which was very convenient. At the same time, the software and topics covered were current and comprehensive. |
| Instruction | 8 | The quality was very good. Software was up-to-date: industry standard ESRI ArcGIS, ERDAS Imagine and Adobe llustrator. The workload was challenging with 24 credits hours in one year, performed while also working a regular day job as an analyst. |
| How Difficult | 8 | Again, it was challenge to perform while working a day job, but it was worth it. Academically, GIS is a relatively new field so it was challenging, but also very interesting. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | There was plenty of bookwork and testing thereof. But the majority of the work was "hands-on" in the sense that we used real-time GIS data relating to current events such as the Gulf oil spill or Hurricane Katrina. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 10 | Coursework was extremely flexible in that it was performed whenever we chose to do it. Tests and projects, however, had strict deadlines and these were definitely NOT flexible. |
| Academic Facilities | 9 | The coursework was performed almost entirely online. Software was owned or licensed by the school and was operated via RDP connection to their servers. It was very well done with minimal latency issues. |
| Social Life | 8 | Kind of neutral since this was an online situation. However, students collaborated regularly on course forums. |
| Placement Services | 5 | Again, neutral here since mine was performed entirely online. However, I will say that our instructors passed on job opportunities whenever they encountered them. |
| Alumni Network | 5 | Fairly neutral on this since it was a distance learning scenario. However, of the 60 or so students in the class, about a dozen still remain in touch via email. |
NOVA Southeastern University • Fort Lauderdale, FL
Studying Computer Science (completion in 2010)
• 8/7/2011
"I happened to get a job just because I had the degree. So I guess it worked out for me. The debt is crushing, though."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | no | Absolutely not, unless you've got a huge amount of time and money to gamble with. I think you'd be better off throwing 20 grand into a world-trip vacation. |
| Program Reputation | 5 | I have no idea what it is. I got my degree and I never bother with them now. |
| Program Quality | 5 | Much of the work felt like boring busy work. And it was very expensive. |
| Instruction | 5 | I received very little instruction. I just got tasks to do and did them. |
| How Difficult | 5 | It was a lot of busy work with a few interesting challenges. Basically the challenge came from finding time. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | Every course required the purchase of a very expensive book and then doing problems out of them. Maybe there were some crappy slides or something. Wikipedia and the Internet were the best learning tools. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 5 | I took the classes online, so I pretty much did school work whenever I wanted. |
| Academic Facilities | 5 | I took the classes online. I never used any of this stuff except when required to give journal references and stuff like that. And I just used online resources for that. |
| Social Life | 5 | I took the classes online. I've never met any of my fellow students (when I was a student). |
| Placement Services | 5 | I didn't use any from them. But I guess it's pretty good. |
| Alumni Network | 5 | I have very little idea what that is. And I took the classes online; I've never visited the place. |
University Of Tampa • Tampa, FL
Studying Management Information Systems (completion in 2011)
• 9/16/2011
"My school landed me a great job with a great education to back it up. I would not be making as much money nor be as successful as I am without University of Tampa."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | University of Tampa is an up and coming school. They have been building new buildings and expanding the student base ever since my freshmen year. They have great relations with executives in downtown Tampa and many top level organizations hold their meetings on our campus. |
| Program Reputation | 10 | UT is one of only 33 schools to have MIS ABET certification in the United States. It is also one of only seven schools to have both ABET certification as well as AACSB certification. |
| Program Quality | 9 | My school provided many courses specifically for Systems Analysis. The teacher was very challenging and had us do a lot of hands-on exercises. When we graduated we were prepared to take many certifications and excel in a real work environment. |
| Instruction | 9 | We did a lot of hands on work including ERD's, DFD's, Object-Oriented design methods as well as database implementation. All our class room examples were based off work that our professors have done in the real world. The teachers also prepared us for many certifications and suggested to us the best way to take on the certification test. |
| How Difficult | 8 | The classes weren't easy. Many students dropped out of the major and overall the major was very small. The teachers challenged us with real life problems. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | We learned both conceptual and practical applications. The courses were well divided. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 2 | There were not many teachers so there was often only one class for the upper level courses. It was either take it or don't. |
| Academic Facilities | 6 | The classrooms are all up to date and high-tech. There were no tutors for the MIS courses. Additionally, the library closed at 11 pm. It would have been nicer to have the library open 24 hours for studying before test days. |
| Social Life | 5 | School spirit was low. We did not have a football team and no one way crazy about the other sport teams. There weren't many social events. |
| Placement Services | 10 | Our school's job placement program is excellent! There were five jobs for every student we had in the MIS program. |
| Alumni Network | 6 | Our school's alumni network is very small. I have not participated much in the alumni network. |
Manatee Community College (Now Called "State College Of Florida") • Bradenton, FL
Studying Systems Analysis And Design (completion in 1994)
• 10/31/2011
"At the time, in order to get a good job with computers, I needed some sort of degree (along with some certifications I earned shortly afterwards). Manatee Community College was fine for this purpose, although at the time (1994), they were still teaching some obsolete information."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | Although it may seem that I am down on my college and its systems analyst program, that isn't really the case. From what I have heard from more recent graduates, the curriculum has been modernized and is more current with the needs of someone entering that field. |
| Program Reputation | 5 | I don't think any community college is going to rate well in their systems analyst programs. Our school, if known for anything, was known for it's nursing program. |
| Program Quality | 5 | In college I spent a lot of time doing computer programming and creating flowcharts. However, in the real world, I do very little of either. Better courses in college would have been SQL, Crystal reports, and perhaps a customer service course. |
| Instruction | 5 | Quite frankly, it was over 15 years ago, so almost nothing I learned in college is helping me today. Even still, some of the courses they offered were already obsolete back then. One of the courses I took in college involved repairing old Apple II computers! |
| How Difficult | 2 | Since my hobby was already working with computers, I found the vast majority of courses very easy. I did have a little challenge with some of the math courses that were required for my degree. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | Usually for classes that required it, we had labs that were hands on. Obviously this was the case for the computer classes as well as some of the science classes. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 8 | Since community colleges cater to all age groups, many of the classes I took were available at night to facilitate people who had daytime employment. Although they didn't offer weekend classes, they offered enough late evening and summer classes for me to finish my two year degree a bit ahead of schedule. |
| Academic Facilities | 8 | I had no problems with the academic facilities. There was always space in the computer lab, and the library seemed well stocked. Most instructors were available at some point during the day. Tutors and study groups were not done through the school - usually it was something set up informally between students. |
| Social Life | 5 | Not that it mattered to me, but our school had baseball and football teams. I think the only people who cared were the people in these athletic programs themselves. Again, I attended a small community college; I suppose a four year school like Florida State has more of a "party" atmosphere than my school did. Honestly, I was only interested in finishing my associate's degree. |
| Placement Services | 2 | As I explained before, we really had no career services to speak of. The job "placement" person was just the person who maintained the list of job openings that were submitted to the college. |
| Alumni Network | 1 | What alumni support? I suppose this is more for people who went for four year degrees. I think we had a job placement advisor, and a bulletin board for job postings. Quite frankly, it is about what you would find at the local unemployment office. |
Florida Technical Institute • Orlando, FL
Studying Computer Science (completion in 1990)
• 12/24/2011
"I think that my overall experience was OK. There were likely things that would have made life better and worse."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | maybe | It was many years ago now and my memory of that time period is very foggy. I don't dislike the school I just simply don't remember a lot about it. |
| Program Reputation | 5 | I am not sure. That is likely a bad thing. |
| Program Quality | 4 | While it served its purpose, the school could have provided more support at a cheaper cost. The school was also very limited when I attended so it was not as robust as far as courses as it is today. |
| Instruction | 4 | What I went to school for relates a little to what I am doing today but I would have fit better in a programming role so a different career path would have been better for me. |
| How Difficult | 4 | The courses were not difficult. I was working at the time and going to school full time so it was a bit challenging but I made it nevertheless. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | We had good instructors who were able to take you through the lab lessons adequately. This coupled with book learning made my job easy with my limited time. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 7 | I went to school at night after work. This made it very convenient. |
| Academic Facilities | We didn't have one. | |
| Social Life | 4 | It was very limited. I was married at the time so I worked in the day went to school at night then tended to my family afterwards. |
| Placement Services | 4 | They did not provide job placement while I was there but claimed it was available. |
| Alumni Network | 1 | It is pretty much non-existent. I haven't contacted the school since I left so I am not even sure it has one. |
Daytona State College • Daytona Beach, FL
Studying Computer Science (completion in 2007)
• 12/27/2011
"It was a waste of time and effort."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | no | I would recommend not going to this school. |
| Program Reputation | 3 | It's a community college that has now been converted to a state college. |
| Program Quality | 5 | The school was poor overall, they employed megalomaniacs and educators with unintelligible foreign accents. The program was also poorly supported. |
| Instruction | 1 | Basically I learned nothing in college from my teachers. |
| How Difficult | 1 | The program offered nothing for students who have already self-learned the basic techniques and have moved on to advanced levels on their own. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | A bit of both, I prefer the hands-on learning, but there was a lot of theory that needed to be covered. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 10 | This was one good thing: year round, professors were flexible with full-time workers. |
| Academic Facilities | 5 | They spent a lot of money on equipment. |
| Social Life | 8 | The school did not offer much socially, but there were plenty of like-minded people around. |
| Placement Services | 1 | I did not go through the program, but I had friends who did and did not receive any placement despite massive amount of work put into it. |
| Alumni Network | I'm not aware of any alumni support. There was supposed to be job placement, but I've done that on my own. |
Florida Institute Of Technology • Melbourne, FL
Studying Information Systems In Business (completion in 2007)
• 4/7/2012
"My school prepared me for my current job. I felt superior to my competition and continue to as a full time employee."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | Florida Tech has only improved since I attended. With numerous investments and donations from high tech companies in the area, facilities have improved even more, and scholarships are everywhere. Annual competitions are also held to reward top talent. Career networking in that area is built-in, simply for attending through school. |
| Program Reputation | 10 | My company sought out graduates from this program at 2 career fairs. We had the luxury of finding specific booths and interviewing on the spot simply because of the school we were from. |
| Program Quality | 9 | My school required hands-on training and a senior project to grant a degree. This made me apply my academic knowledge by creating a full business intelligence system, handling a data crisis, managing a team, and presenting a detailed incident report. |
| Instruction | 10 | Computer labs were top notch. Instructors were industry leaders and renowned authors. It felt like we were learning a science from its direct crafters. |
| How Difficult | 8 | We had weekly quizzes, monthly tests, 2 main projects per semester, and multiple presentations. We were expected to treat each course like it was our only course. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | There was an even mix of book vs. hands-on learning. They had academics and tests combined with projects, system engineering, crisis simulations, etc. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 4 | I didn't like this part during my college years. Classes filled up fast, and I only had about 2 options for any class. |
| Academic Facilities | 10 | They provided excellent equipment. Classes had individual workstation, smart boards, tablet computer etc. |
| Social Life | 7 | School was small but I joined a fraternity and became campus president, so I kept busy. With 4000 undergrads, it felt like a high school. It has tripled in size since I attended, though. |
| Placement Services | 6 | They shared postings and career events. There was no extraordinary effort to "place" anyone anywhere. |
| Alumni Network | 9 | There was a local Orlando chapter and numerous events. They also provided an Alumni newsletter and a mobile app. |
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