I think that the Varsity is the ultimate college bike. It should do you right.

As an FSU alum it is more hilly than most of FL but not to bad. Drove thru Tally a few months ago and there seem to be bike lanes everywhere now, was not like that ten years ago!

I Have always kept the drop bars on my Schwinns. Turkey levers will not work that well on steel rims, but if you are going to lock it up outside of class, I would leave them on as theft deterent, even if you got some alloy rims. Same for the derailers and stem shifters. I rode a varsity all over that school with all original parts. It was an absolute rust bucket, and I told all my proffs that rode newer bikes that as soon as enough of the frame rusted out, it would be almost as light as thiers

I was just up there a week ago visiting some friends and checking out the campus. I have only seen the main campus and not the engineering campus yet were I will be spending 95% of my time (I will have my 2 year from a community college before I leave). I think you are right about it being a good campus bike. I saw several stripped bikes still locked the racks around campus. Many of them were cheap and mid range mountain bikes though. I don't think most average people would look at the varsity and want to steal it. Personally, that is the most important thing about this bike. Anyway I ordered a cheap rack to throw my backpack on and some new grip tape. Also the masking tape on the brake cable there is temporary, I ran out of zip ties for the bike computer.