Then the reality of this school hit me.

My classes were either a joke or extremely hard, depending on the professor and which class you were taking.  The physics department is a disgrace.  I had a good class and professor for the first semester, but for the second semester I had a professor from Bulgaria who did not challenge me as a student and I suffered on the final exam as a result.  Oh, they also have department wide final exams for the physics classes, so that means if you have a horrible professor your not going to do well on the final exam which is worth 25-30 % of your grade.  I know that someone is going to say “well you should have studied harder.” The fact is I did, I studied the material that my professor made me responsible for and knew it, but when your professor doesn't take the time to be responsible and give you an idea of what to expect then you are not going to do well unless you are a genius.

My math professor was good.  I had the same one for two semesters for both Calc III and Diffy Q.  I was very happy with my Calc III grade and learned the material.  I didn't do so well in Diffy Q (I'm retaking it).

Next the Humanities Department.  I found the classes to be interesting and did very well in them, and found the professors better able to teach the material than those in the more technical classes.  The only problem with this is I came here to get a good engineering degree, not a humanities or communications degree.

The college life is what you make of it.  I was lucky to find a good group of friends that helped me out when things got rough.  You had to leave Daytona almost every weekend to find something to do.  Cocoa Beach, Orlando, or University of Florida up in Gainesville were the places to go.  I was the one with a vehicle so I made friends fast.

Not many people have commented on this, ROTC.  Many say it's better here than anywhere else.  That depends on what you think makes an ROTC program good.  If you think that taking ROTC instead of going to an Academy means the military stuff won't be as intrusive than this is not the place to be.  It's not as bad as say the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets, they don't inspect your dorms.  The upperclass cadets and mids here make sure that you will not have fun.  They're goal is to get rid of cadets and mids, not keep them as they would at a smaller ROTC program.  The instructors (who are active duty officers) teaching the classes are very helpful and know their stuff.  Just don't be careless because cadets and mids who don't study their stuff will be taken note of and have a bad reputation among the instructors.

For those asking, yes, I am tranferring and happy I am doing so.  The school I'm moving to has a great engineering program.  It doesn't have a big name, but the education is worth it.

A student goes to Embry-Riddle to pay for a name, not earn a valuable education that you can be proud of.  Many who decide to stay are good people and good students, but the school has a lot of closeminded individuals who believe this is the only AE school to go to.  It's not.  California, Colorado, and North Carolina also have great AE programs.  I would take the AE program at USAFA over this any day, having already had a chance to compare both.

My advice to students looking at this school is to visit it first and see the programs for yourself, you will be glad you spent the time and money to visit and see for yourself if you like it or not.  I don't consider my time spent a waste, I got a free year of school from the military and am glad for it, but it's not for me.  Those of you coming on a military scholarship have a year to decide on the school.