There is much more to the Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg metropolitan area than beautiful beaches and pleasant year-round temperatures. Home 2.3 million people, Tampa Bay is one of the fastest growing places in the country, a commercial, cultural and educational center of Florida's west coast.

Just accross the river, University of Tampa students attend concerts and art exhibitions at the Museum of Arts, the Ice Palace and the Performing Arts Center. Busch Gardens and the Tampa International Airport are located conveniently nearby. Situated on a beautiful, parklike campus on the Hillsborough River, the University is just two blocks from downtown Tampa. At the center of campus is Plant Hall, once a luxurious 511-room hotel for the rich and famous. Its ornate Victorian gingerbread and Moorish minarets, domes, and cupolas still remain a symbol of the city and one of the finest examples of Moorish architecture in the Western Hemisphere. Although Plant Hall receives most of the attention, the campus has forty-five other buildings, including a new student center, a library, an art gallery, state-of-the-art science labs, a computer resource center, a television studio, a theater, six residence halls, and complete athletic facilities.

Eckerd College's 280-acre campus in St. Petersburg is bordered in part by a one-mile waterfront on the southern tip of the peninsula that makes up Pinellas County. This city of 425,000 has become the national and regional headquarters for many corporations. Dormitory life is one hub of the College social environment. More than 75 percent of students live in dorms, and the majority live on campus all four years. The dorms are small and informal; friendships are easily developed in this setting. Upperclassmen may choose to live in the apartment-style town houses located right on campus.