A Variety of UCF questions

<p>I've done my own research (reading forums, visiting the website, etc.) about UCF and I had many questions about UCF as a whole. Please do not judge me! :) I have received emails about LEAD scholars, Burnett Honors College, Housing - seriously, I am so overridden with information that I just don't know how to get my head around everything! </p>

<p>I was accepted into the Fall 2010 term for UCF. I am majoring in M&M en route to becoming a pharmacist. I am thinking about completing my pharmacy undergrad at UCF - four semesters (Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Summer 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012). I have signed on for the work-study program in addition.</p>

<p>First off, I am interested in on-campus housing, but seeing as how I live about 15-30 minutes away from UCF, a drive to school would not affect me much if I ultimately decide to live at home. I was reviewing the Towers on the Housing website, and it appealed to me the most because of the social and privacy aspects of it. Also, I have a few friends that live there, but not every experience is alike.</p>

<p>Q1: Is it worth the cost?
Q2: About how much more (all in all, with meal plan, etc.) would it cost to live in the Towers than other campus housing?
Q3: What are the pros and cons about the 11-month agreement?
Q4: How does the 11-month agreement work? (semester payments? WHAT?!)</p>

<p>Second, I am contemplating doing LEAD scholars and/or Honors, but I am sure that I will submit my application for one/both. I know that both LEAD scholars and Burnett Honors has housing (in the Hercules building and the Towers, respectively).</p>

<p>Q5: How "is" the Hercules building, as far as living in it? (if you have some personal experiences: noise, etc., that would be great.)
Q6: If I decide not to get into either, how about the other housing (Lake Claire, Nike)? Off campus is definitely not an option!</p>

<p>Third, this is about the academic benefits of both LEAD scholars and the Honors College.
Q7: What is the LEAD scholars program? (personal experience please)
Q8: What benefit(s) does the LEAD scholars bring?
Q9: Because of my academic plan (five semesters) is it a "good" idea to join the Honors College? (I've read about the priority the program gives to Honors students)
Q10: How rigorous is it? (I've heard about my friend's experience and I can't sincerely say I trust it.)</p>

<p>Ok, that’s a lot of questions, but I emailed them to my daughter (graduating in May) and she will answer what she can. She was in LEAD (it’s only a 2 yr program), lived in Herc, lived in the Towers, and has MM & Honors friends. You can figure the cost of the Towers vs other housing just by using the website. My D never had a meal plan, even in Herc, and didn’t miss it. </p>

<p>hang tight</p>

<p>alright I’m going to do my best to answer all of your questions. just to give you my background so you have some perspective. I’m out of state student, hospitality management major, been here since fall 2006 and graduating in may.</p>

<p>A1: On campus housing was definitely worth it for me. I lived in Hercules freshman and sophomore year and really loved it freshmen year. I lived in Herc 110 (with LEAD) and it was amazing. 50% of my friends i have met somehow through living on campus, you really feel more a part of the school that way. I actually went to the gym on a regular basis because it was so close. My room was perfectly clean and i’m sure you know you only share a bathroom with 3 other girls. Classroom buildings aren’t that far either (walking across campus is a kinda social time, as big as this school is, i’ve never made it all the way across without seeing someone i know) Also walking to class saves you the hassle of parking which can easily take just as long as walking to class. WOULD ABSOLUTELY RECOMMEND IT</p>

<p>A2: I don’t know the exact cost breakdown but a meal plan doesn’t save you any money unless you get unlimited and I only know 2 HUNGRY boys who really took advantage of it. </p>

<p>A3: I only lived in the towers for 3 months (sublet over summer shhh!) But from my understanding the pros are: you have a place to stay over winter break and between spring and summer. My friend who lived there for 2 years said the moving out was always easy because you are on your schedule rather than moving out when they tell you too. Another pro to the towers in general is the apts are a little nicer and bigger than the other oncampus apts oh and you don’t have to walk outside to do laundry (everywhere else you do). Cons: if you (like the girl i rented from) get a job else where over a summer, you are screwed. also a few general cons about towers: you are surrounded by athletes (not as cool as it sounds) they can be really loud and quite obnoxious, and you farther from classes than if you lived in herc. They have really built stuff up around the towers but the heart of campus is still the union, breezeway and reflection pond (far from towers).</p>

<p>A4: The 11 month lease is paid at the beginning of each semester. Fall, spring and summer in essence its every 3.5 months. Kinda sucks to front the money, but once you’ve paid you don’t have to worry about rent for a while which is nice.</p>

<p>A5: i lived in herc 110 freshmen year and i loved it. since you considering lead, let me explain. You are surrounded by other fun AND smart people. I never had any problems with noise. The shower is small (just a stand in square) but there is always AWESOME water pressure and the toilets never clog. Sophomore year i lived in 113. It was smallish and of coarse the furniture they provide isn’t the cutest or most comfortable but it gets the job done. You only have to share a bathroom with 1 other girl once in the apts which is nice. the vanity and bathroom area is big. Only major complaint is twin beds.</p>

<p>A6: personally, i wouldn’t live in any of the other ones except nike. lake claire, libra, and all of those are old. I loved that the buildings and rooms were brand new, i felt cleaner and like I was in the more “happening” area of campus.</p>

<p>A7: LEAD Scholars is for students who value school, fun, and volunteering. DO NOT JOIN IF YOU ARE NOT AN OUTGOING LEADER TYPE. almost everyone in lead can be described as bubbly and driven, if those kind of people aren’t for you, don’t join. Most of my friends still (2 years out of the program) were in lead with me. Some cool things i did: participated in homecoming skit and parade both years, held 2 carnivals for a local elementary school, made PBJs to give out to orlandos homeless and got to mentor freshmen as a sophomore. I met so many amazing people, got to give back and learned a lot. I would highly recommend it.</p>

<p>A8: i think the biggest benefit is the large amount people you will meet and know across campus. LEAD acts kind of as a jumping off point for other campus involvement, since it is a 2 year program. Here’s some examples: I’ve known every homecoming queen, members of SGA and presidents of sororities and frats because all of them were in LEAD. I went from day 1 not knowing a single person and by day 7 I had a huge group of friends. That was really great. Also gets you recognized in all the right ways if you do want to go on to other involvement.</p>

<p>A9: honestly i don’t know a lot about honors, but lead gives you that same priority enrollment for classes each semester(add that to my benefits of LEAD too).</p>

<p>A10: Its 10 hours of community service a semester, you really suck if in 3 months you cant figure out 10 hours. Grades wise (since your MM) shouldn’t be a problem either. they send you info on up and coming service opportunities all the time. also (if I’m remembering right) you have to go to 2 of 2 different kinds of events each semester too, also not difficult. They have this huge board in the lead lounge in the union saying when and where each even is and what it can count towards for your LEAD requirements. </p>

<p>Wow, that was long but I hope it answers your questions. If you have more, just post again and I’m sure my mom will let me know. GO KNIGHTS!</p>

<p>Wow, great questions, and a wealth of information provided. If you don’t mind, TooRealistic, I have a few questions:</p>

<p>1) You stated you wouldn’t personally live in any community other than Hercules or Nike. However, I know that OSSM is housed in Libra, which I heard is a great way for out-of-state students to assimilate (other than LEAD, Honors, etc.) Do you think the disadvantages of Libra would sort of outweigh the benefits of OSSM? Another concern is that although I’m sure my daughter would much prefer a clean and new environment, the room dimensions of Hercules and Nike seem to be quite a bit smaller than Libra.</p>

<p>2) How do you like the hospitality program? Have you been able to find internships fairly easily? We were told that each of the three required internships have to be a semester long with a minimum of 16 hours per week. Has that been manageable with your course load? Is the post graduation placement very good? Does is make much more sense to live at Rosen for the last 2 years? (Sorry, that was a lot of questions lumped into #2)</p>

<p>Thank you so much for your insight!</p>

<p>Thank you very much TooRealistic/daughter! All that information really helped! Nothing beats actual experience.</p>

<p>I have a couple more questions about the Towers:
What year (sophomore, junior, etc.) did you stay at the Towers?
Which semesters?
Is there a way to stay during Spring-Summer-Fall?</p>

<p>But I’m definitely thinking about staying at Hercules and doing LEAD!</p>

<p>Hey mom, can you post my answers for WhiteLabCoat (I already answered LiveYourDreams)</p>

<p>I lived in towers the summer after my sophomore year (May-August)
I don’t think you can stay spring-summer-fall just because everyone is fall spring summer. You could call them if you want, but logically I highly doubt they would do that. Especially since your roommates would have to stay that way too and then they would have to leave the room empty a semester to catch up with the rest of the leasees. </p>

<p>Hope this clears up some more stuff for you, if you do have more specific towers questions, 3 girls in my close friends stayed there 3 years so feel free to ask and I can get their answers.</p>

<p>My daughter has lived in the Towers (Tower 1) for the past two years. She is moving off campus this summer. No, you cannot live there spring/summer/fall. You must do fall/spring/summer or just summer. Last summer she was the only one of her roommates who did a summer session and stayed in the room. The other three got out of their summer leases somehow (so it is doable, probably for a fee). My daughter is a health science major and is planning to go to pharmacy school AFTER graduation (her choice, she wants a 4 year BS degree before she gets her doctorate in Pharmacy). It will take her 4 years of Pharm school to do this. The towers were great for being able to roll out of bed and run to class and she loves the location (and the shops, especially the noodle place, right next door). I wish she would just stay there all four years but, she wants out of “student housing”. Good luck with your decisions.</p>

<p>LiveYourDreams:</p>

<p>I have actually never heard of OSSM until I just looked it up. It sounds good from the website but I’ve never heard of it. It might be because they aren’t any kind of club on campus, or if they are they don’t get involved in any of the big stuff (homecoming). You are correct though, Libra dimensions-wise is bigger than Herc but I still wouldn’t live there. Consider me shallow, but I loved living somewhere I thought was pretty and libra isn’t pretty. I also didn’t like the layout of the rooms as much in Libra. Your daughter should definitely look at the room layouts online. Libra does have other benefits as well; it is closer to classes and the union. Herc is close to the gym, pool, and IM Fields. Oh and Herc has its own parking which is really convenient.
I absolutely love the Hospitality program. The campus is gorgeous and really new. They take great care of it. It’s the only campus is the nation that has a beer and wine classroom and people under 21 can drink in it (UCF has the ONLY permit to do that) for learning purposes of coarse. Jobs are not hard to find. I have not worked a single internship but jobs count towards your internship credit so it doesn’t matter. I have worked at Hilton for 2 years; I did an externship (week long internship) in NYC over Christmas break with Sheraton and have worked for Rosen Hotels. I have done everything from banquet server, regular server, front desk, and now I work in accounting. All of those jobs I got through the school (career fairs and such). That seems like a lot but I have managed it with school just fine (3.89 GPA in major and a 3.5 overall). Most of your coarse load at Rosen (Hospitality campus) is projects and if you are taking mixed mode (half online) classes you have weekly assignments due but you have all week to get them done. The school brags a 100% placement rate post grad. Honestly, if you find a company you like and work for it while you are in school, have some drive, it’s not going to be too difficult to get at least a supervisory position. And frankly, several companies head hunt at the career fairs. They show up, interview the people they like the next day and even offer jobs that same day. I love the campus but no I wouldn’t live there, ever. There is nothing to do college-wise around the school, it is really convenient for commutes to work but it’s very boring very there. Part of what I love about UCF is that by main campus it’s UCF Town, and you don’t get that at Rosen. If your daughter doesn’t care about college life or already knows a lot of people going to UCF it wouldn’t be so bad but I would not live there. Here’s a good way to put it; I drive 30 mins/25 miles to Rosen every Tuesday and Thursday and 40 min/30 miles to work every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for work that’s how much I love it by main campus. </p>

<p>Please ask more questions if you have some! I love that I can be helpful!</p>

<p>TooRealistic - Thank you again for all the great info! Initially I thought they were pretty rigid with the 3 semesters, 1000 hours internship requirements, but it sounds like you can add up your hours from jobs here and there, to meet the 1000 hours requirement. So happy to hear you enjoy the program!</p>

<p>LiveYourDreams: My daughter is a freshman and is presently living on the OSSM floor in LIBRA and loving it! We are from NJ. She also lived in Nike this past summer for Summer session so we have a good comparison of the two dorms. While Nike is newer the rooms are much smaller. Libra is much closer to the center of campus. Libra is setup around a central “pod” (living room type area) with the rooms around it. The room has a large vanity area which has enough room for a very large fridge, micro and then has drawers and the sink, mirror. The bathroom has four large shelves for towels and individual bath items. The closet is a bit smaller than Nike if I remember correctly. The walls in Nike are sheetrocked walls, the walls in Libra are the old dorm cinderblock. As to the OSSM program and the out of state student floor, my daughter tells me the mentors are great, the activities are fun and she liked meeting alot of kids from out of state. The kids obviously don’t go home for weekends or single day holidays so there are always people around. She is actually staying for Spring break, as they are allowed in that dorm to stay. They can stay at Thanksgiving as well, although my daughter came home. They go on a couple discounted trips as well and have their own advisor.</p>

<p>I never looked into doing my BS first, but after you mentioned that about your daughter, it sounded like something I’d want to do. How did she come to the decision? Is your daughter enrolled in a school program such as Honors or LEAD?</p>

<p>Do LEAD. Do Honors. Live in LEAD housing. Don’t don’t don’t get a meal plan of any sort. :)</p>

<p>Whitelabcoat - My daughter wanted the entire college experience, she loves UCF and dosen’t want to leave early or without a degree. She also didn’t decide on Pharmacy until this year and so is missing 5 classes (Organic Chem 1 and 2 with lab, Precalculus, Calculus w/geom, and Bio 2)that she needs to get in (which she won’t have finished until the end of her junior year). She is not in honors or LEAD. She is in a sorority though which does take up some of her time.</p>

<p>What is the LEAD Housing like, redslash?</p>

<p>It’s nice–it’s an incredibly social dorm! Four people sharing two bedrooms and one bathroom sounds impossible but it’s really not bad. I’d highly recommend it unless you don’t want to make friends!</p>