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Down the American rabbit hole

Our youngest daughter's flatmate, who we met two years ago is a typical Englishwoman with a whole lot of brain.  Her boyfriend for the past two years (they are both studying at Cambridge) is a smart and personable American, and things are getting very serious between them.

There were long-standing plans for these two lovebirds to go back to the US, for him to join the family firm, and for her to go to medical school.  The target was Florida.  But things are changing for her.  The girls came up for the weekend and we had dinner yesterday despite a full ride Florida is no longer the target, instead, she is off to Baylor Medical School (Texas).  Now, the University of Florida medical school is ranked 35th in the country, while Baylor is ranked #22.  In Florida, she got a full ride but at Baylor, she's getting a half ride.  It appears that her parents are well off and that the additional financial burden is not a problem, but the reason for her changing medical school is what is telling.

She changed medical school because, among the student body, there is a real fear that the changes to the Florida education system could seriously reduce the future value of their degree.  Let's be clear, this brilliant young woman is taking the view that a Florida education could be devalued to such a point that it would affect her medical career, that it would be tainted.

This tells me two things; first, bright young things appear to self-select away from Florida.  Here comes the rabbit hole; across Florida universities have seen massive faculty losses (in some schools nearly 40% of the faculty has resigned), and universities are having a hard time replacing them (it used to be 5% to 10%).  Yes, I spent an hour on the internet looking at this information.

Over dinner, I asked her how her boyfriend was taking this decision?  She said he's become more supportive since his family business is in the process of moving to Texas.  Turns out there are all kinds of things wrong with Florida, and the education system is just one of them.  The family business, this is the funny part, is cattle ranching.  Her boyfriend's family owns (owned) a large ranch near Jacksonville.  Earlier this year they accepted a purchase offer for many many millions, because of their proximity to Jacksonville and the family relocating to Texas... this will be their last Christmas in the family ranch.  

Overall, I am not sure what drove the move, it's clear that Baylor is a much better school but all this could be talk,, and really just a justification to go to Texas. She also mentioned that her boyfriend's ranch has suffered from several floods over the past five years and that it was no longer economical to ranch there.  The timing of the offer was excellent.

Imagine, a farmer is selling his land because of recurrent flooding and developers are buying the land to build homes.  this will end well!

Note:  It is important to say that the decision to go to Texas for school predates the sale of the boyfriend's family farm.  Obviously boyfriend was aware that selling was a possibility, but the decision, since she starts next summer was taken almost 12 months ago.  


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