Anyone else have a child interested in UCF?

[tb1972]

My DD17 has just begun looking at colleges. She's a bright student...all A's, honors courses and a great ACT score. UCF peaks her interest and we'll be visiting in July. Anyone have experience with UCF? I'd suspect with all the DVC families that students would gravitate to Orlando!

 

[disney junky]

Our dd graduated from there 10 years ago. She transferred from a college up north after a semester doing the college program. I think because she lived off campus, it wasn't the typical college experience. She graduated from the Rosen School of Hospitality Management which has a separate campus, plus she took a number of courses through Valencia Community College to keep costs down.

 

[monorailmom]

I will admit to wincing a little when I saw this thread. My DS is a senior graduating in a few weeks, and UCF has not been easy to put it mildly!!

Our son has a 3.8 average, many AP courses, respectable SATs, and plenty of leadership and community service. We took him for a tour of UCF in Dec., traveling from MA. He loved it. He was initially deferred...ugh then waitlisted. They said there are two “rounds” of waitlist, first one was May 15 ...still on waitlist. Next round is May 31.

He of course has had to choose something else while still technically waiting! Frustrating as he was accepted to a few highly respected schools up here. Not sure what UCF’s problem is LOL!!!! He is currently enrolled at a well rated Hospitality Management program, where he will be happy as it is very unlikely that waitlist is going to come through. I did some research, and last year they waitlisted over 6,000 kids and 57 were eventually accepted. Which quite honestly does not seem right, but there it is. He is pretty much hoping to try again as a transfer student, knowing he will need to keep impeccable grades.

If your daughter has a 4.0, she should have a much better shot than my DS did. I guess my warning is that we discovered it is a pretty tough school to get into, so be sure she has good backups just incase.

 

[drusba]

I am not familiar with the college experience itself at UCF but am aware that applying from out-of-state for it, or another Florida public university, can be difficult. UCF, like other Florida public colleges, favors Florida residents for admission, and UCF follows a 10% rule for such residents, in that automatic admission is guaranteed to all such applicants in the top 10% of their high school class. The result of that program, coupled with still favoring residents outside of the top 10% if they have certain minimum SAT or ACT scores for any seats left after applying the guarantee, means that out-of-state applicants are usually competing for the little space that might be left over after determining admission for Florida residents. Those admission rules heavily favoring state high school students are actually required by state regulation.

 

[disney junky]

I am not familiar with the college experience itself at UCF but am aware that applying from out-of-state for it, or another Florida public university, can be difficult. UCF, like other Florida public colleges, favors Florida residents for admission, and follows a 10% rule for such residents, in that automatic admission is guaranteed to all such applicants in the top 10% of their high school class. The result of that program, coupled with still favoring residents outside of the top 10% if they have certain minimum SAT or ACT scores for any seats left after applying the guarantee, means that out-of-state applicants are usually competing for the little space that might be left over after determining admission for Florida residents. The admission rules favoring state high school students are actually required by law.

This is an interesting post. When my DD was there, we desperately wanted to pay the in-state rate. We bought a condo where she lived, but since we were still supporting her, we couldn't meet all the requirements for in-state tuition. Had she started there, and had we time, we could have put the utilities in her name and paid a fraction of the cost we did. If I were to do it all over again, I think we might have tried to accomplish that with a long term rental and have her pay her own way. We could have reimbursed her expenses, but hind sight is 20/20. I'm not sure how it would have impacted her admission, that never seemed to be a problem, but it's something to consider. Not sure if the OP would be interested in that arrangement.

 

[tb1972]

I will admit to wincing a little when I saw this thread. My DS is a senior graduating in a few weeks, and UCF has not been easy to put it mildly!!

Our son has a 3.8 average, many AP courses, respectable SATs, and plenty of leadership and community service. We took him for a tour of UCF in Dec., traveling from MA. He loved it. He was initially deferred...ugh then waitlisted. They said there are two “rounds” of waitlist, first one was May 15 ...still on waitlist. Next round is May 31.

He of course has had to choose something else while still technically waiting! Frustrating as he was accepted to a few highly respected schools up here. Not sure what UCF’s problem is LOL!!!! He is currently enrolled at a well rated Hospitality Management program, where he will be happy as it is very unlikely that waitlist is going to come through. I did some research, and last year they waitlisted over 6,000 kids and 57 were eventually accepted. Which quite honestly does not seem right, but there it is. He is pretty much hoping to try again as a transfer student, knowing he will need to keep impeccable grades.

If your daughter has a 4.0, she should have a much better shot than my DS did. I guess my warning is that we discovered it is a pretty tough school to get into, so be sure she has good backups just incase.

Best of luck to your DS.

Yes, we have some other alternate schools for DD. She's just finishing the junior year and has some time to figure things out.

I was surprised at the scheduling timeline for visits. When I went to schedule online last month, the first available date was nearly three months away on July 3rd. Must be very popular!

 

[tb1972]

This is an interesting post. When my DD was there, we desperately wanted to pay the in-state rate. We bought a condo where she lived, but since we were still supporting her, we couldn't meet all the requirements for in-state tuition. Had she started there, and had we time, we could have put the utilities in her name and paid a fraction of the cost we did. If I were to do it all over again, I think we might have tried to accomplish that with a long term rental and have her pay her own way. We could have reimbursed her expenses, but hind sight is 20/20. I'm not sure how it would have impacted her admission, that never seemed to be a problem, but it's something to consider. Not sure if the OP would be interested in that arrangement.

Good to know this. We thought about buying a Florida retirement home early although we have another 10-12 years to go.

 

[monorailmom]

We had a problem getting a tour scheduled as well. What we ended up doing was getting a tour of just the Rosen campus booked, but then going to the main campus earlier in the day and did a self-guided tour, which quite honestly worked out just fine.

 

[Minnie824]

DD is a Junior this year and UCF as well as UF and FSU are on her list of schools she is interested in. Being out of state, and looking at the acceptance rate in general i know it will be tough, even with her being a good student and in AP, etc.

 

[princessfionasmom]

We toured Valencia College when we were down at Disney in April more for an excuse to be out of school but DS ended up really liking it. It’s small and had a very comfortable vibe to it. What I really liked is that when you complete your two years there you are automatically accepted into UCF or at least that’s what we were told on the tour. I thought it was a great option and a way to save money.

 

[ArtieRyder]

Not to be rude, but, is UCF worth the it? It sounds like they heavily favor in-state students. They're not the most respected college in florida. I would imagine that whatever state you live in probably has a better in-state option. Or, try an east coast or Californian school where they value out-of-state students.

 

[disney junky]

Not to be rude, but, is UCF worth the it? It sounds like they heavily favor in-state students. They're not the most respected college in florida. I would imagine that whatever state you live in probably has a better in-state option. Or, try an east coast or Californian school where they value out-of-state students.

Like anything, I think it matters what you plan to study. UCF has an excellent hospitality program if that's what you want to pursue. It was established to educate prospective candidates for work at NASA as I recall. So you pose a legitimate question.