{"id":444768,"date":"2026-11-02T03:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T03:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/444768\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T03:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T03:28:08","slug":"trick-or-treat-which-florida-school-cant-be-beat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/444768\/","title":{"rendered":"Trick or treat! Which Florida school can\u2019t be beat?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo of pumpkins, taken by Matt Longmire, contributed by Wikimedia Commons.<\/p>\n

The three top-ranked Florida schools \u2014 University of Florida, University of Miami and Florida State, all celebrate Halloween a little differently.<\/p>\n

University of Miami:<\/p>\n

Miami offers an extremely vibrant scene, with fraternity functions and events.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUF and FSU have more of a college-town atmosphere, while UM is heavily focused on Miami nightlife. Miami has a lot of options around the city,\u201d Nico Verdu, a sophomore at UM, shares.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Factory Town offers an event called \u201cHocus Pocus,\u201d from Friday, Oct. 30 to Sunday, Nov. 1. DJs such as Meduza, Prospa and John Summit will be playing sets. Club Space also offers a multi-day Halloween event series known as \u201cHalloweek,\u201d which runs from Oct. 30 to Nov. 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of us go to house parties. We also go to Key West the weekend before actual Halloween for \u2018Fantasy Fest\u2019 where 21 and older students bar hop on Duval Street,\u201d Verdu says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

People go all out for costumes. \u201cLast year, I saw lots of angels, athletes and devils. This year, I expect more celebrity-inspired costumes. I was Top Gun Maverick last year, and will likely be a character from the Hunger Games this year,\u201d Verdu shared. \u201cWe are definitely festive here. I have found that a lot of people decorate their dorms.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Florida State University:<\/p>\n

\u201cHalloween at FSU is more than just a holiday \u2014 it is an experience. Although Tally gets really packed and the nightlife might be more crazy than usual, it is still a lot of fun to see everyone in their costumes having a good time,\u201d Oti Vitier, a sophomore at FSU, states.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFSU\u2019s contained college-town makes it simple for students to go out and have a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Florida State University, the weeklong celebrations are called \u201cTallyween,\u201d revolving around FSU and Florida A&M University (FAMU).\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Tallahassee, they have a Halloween-themed \u201calley cat\u201d bike race, as well as a scavenger hunt in which participants find the fastest route to competitively return to their designated spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cHalloween at Florida State is absolutely crazy. However, it is so much fun. So many people from different universities come to celebrate Halloween. There are a ton of different events and parties to pick from,\u201d Vitier says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is awesome to have my friends visit from different colleges after not seeing them for months.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The costumes are also well-done at FSU. \u201cLast year, I saw a lot of princesses, superheroes and pirates. This year, I expect to see a lot of people dressed like Michael Jackson and Nikki from the movie called Obsession,\u201d Vitier continues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI dressed up as Barden Bellas and Fancy Nancy, and this year I\u2019m planning on being Sharpay Evans from High School Musical and Barney Stinson from the show \u201cHow I Met Your Mother.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vitier also expresses that she thinks dorms are well-decorated, and that apartments tend to have even better decorations, \u201cespecially in their living rooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

University of Florida:<\/p>\n

\u201cHalloween at UF is truly a whole ordeal. Throughout October, fraternities throw costume-themed parties. During the week leading up to the weekend of Halloween, there\u2019s many Halloween date functions (if you\u2019re in Greek life) as well as bar hopping,\u201d Mia Shields, sophomore at the University of Florida, shares.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing to a big school, there isn\u2019t just one path \u2014 Halloween definitely looks different for everyone, and it\u2019s what you make of it. UF has lots of options that cater to different demographics and interests. I think it\u2019s a pretty classic college-town Halloween experience.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cFrankly though, a lot of people go to FSU for what is called Tallyween, since we don\u2019t have any crazy, sought-after events,\u201d Shields states. \u201cMy friends and people around campus like to go to pumpkin patches as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were lots of candy-themed costumes from the girls. I really loved seeing people dressed as Paddington Bear. I feel like most of the costumes were pretty mainstream in what was trending on social media at the time. I think it will be similar this year with cute animal-inspired costumes, dolls, princesses, etc. The halls are usually decorated cutely by the RAs.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, I am going to be a Victoria\u2019s Secret Angel, Marie Antoinette and then do matching costumes (mimes) with my roommates.\u201d Shields also expressed matching costumes are particularly popular at UF.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Final Rankings<\/p>\n

#1- Nico Verdu: \u201cI would rate Miami an 8.5\/ 10 for Halloween. It has great nightlife and a variety of choices, but it is a bit spread out,\u201d Verdu added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tied for #2: \u201cI would rate Halloween at FSU an 8\/10. While it is such a fun weekend, and there are so many different things to do, the amount of people visiting makes Tallahassee extremely overcrowded,\u201d says Oti Vitier.<\/p>\n

Tied for #2:\u00a0 \u201cI would rate Halloween at UF an 8\/10. It\u2019s definitely fun, but I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s the best weekend here,\u201d Mia Shields says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oct. 31 might be reserved for Halloween and its differing celebrations at every school, but one thing these three schools do have in common is football. Each anticipates a game that same night.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo of pumpkins, taken by Matt Longmire, contributed by Wikimedia Commons. The three top-ranked Florida schools \u2014 University…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-444768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}