Does UCF not do a “welcome week” geared toward Freshmen/transfers new to campus? We would like to visit, but because of covid are nervous to do so and won’t before she needs to make a final decision. The descriptions on here make us feel comfortable that she will like the campus. Good tip about UCF having more contact after enrolled. We have noticed too that UCF doesn’t seem as active in selling themselves-which is ok-I get the impression with a lower acceptance rate they don’t really have to sell themselves as much.
1 Like
I do remember a lot of activities during the first week geared towards Freshman. I think there was something every night as well. I remember D18 getting caught in a thunderstorm coming back from one event and being completely soaked. Her shoes didn’t dry out for 2 weeks. Welcome to Florida!!! She learned to always carry an umbrella and that waterproofing your shoes doesn’t always work. 
I’m pretty sure @JimDadinmia posted the events last year and what happened instead because of Covid.
1 Like
As far as communication goes, we didn’t get anything prior to her starting, not even a financial package because we didn’t fill out the FAFSA. At some point we wondered if she was really enrolled We also never get a tuition bill or grades (I think this is pretty common at all schools). I have her info so I login to her account and pay it and because of that I can see her grades and every assignment 
We are probably doing something wrong- there is probably a way to make a parent portal, but since she doesn’t care, we just do it the way we do. I have access to everything!!!
Tuition and housing wasn’t even billed until after she moved in- I thought that was weird.
D18 had been able to go to an open house, so she had seen campus. Orientation wasn’t very exciting- she stayed with 2 other people she never saw again. She had to bring her bedding, soap, towels, pillow- there was nothing in the apartment. She did meet one of her roommates and she got her ID done, which was helpful. She had already loaded her schedule into her cart prior to going to the “advising” meeting and just hit the enroll button the second she could and walked out. We spent our time going to Disney- I didn’t go to any of the parent stuff- yes I am terrible.
I really hope that vaccines pick up as much as they say they will. My mom, who is in FL is number 111,300 something and they are on 42,977- she was told it would be weeks. Meanwhile, if she came to NC, she could drive down the street and get a vaccine today- we have very few over 65 in our county. Of course when it gets to our turn- the last group for both us and our kids, the system will be over run!
1 Like
Move in Date: I don’t think it’s posted yet, but that weekend @jeneric mentioned sounds right. We’re moving off campus, and that’s our move-in weekend. Normally Greek rush is the week before, but this year they had “virtual rush,” so I don’t know what those plans are.
Hotel: We have stayed at the Doubletree in the Research Park, but usually stay at the Hampton Inn Orlando East UCF, which is just off University, also in the Research Park. There are several hotels in that area and all are good. Hampton has a good free breakfast each morning and the rooms are fine. If you enroll in Hilton Honors, you can get a double queen deluxe with wetbar for the same price as the regular double queen – MUCH bigger. The hotel is spotless.
Orientation – there are two orientations - one for students, which is mandatory, and an optional one for parents. Tell your kids to expect to invest a LOT of time in Orientation – it is extensive.
I highly recommend the parents’ orientation. There is a lot of stuff in there that is repetitive, some that’s of no interest, but it provides a ton of info for parents. I watched every installment of the parents’ orientation.
First Week activities. With no in-person orientation, they didn’t have much at all last year. The required Covid test prior to checkin went smoothly, and they greatly streamlined that for Spring.
As far as actual events, they did NOT have much last year. They usually have quite a few things (concert, comedy night, etc, etc, etc) but it was mostly one big pep rally on Memory Mall. My daughter and her roommates went, but they left because it was so boring. The UCF student government is presenting some of those events this week as kind of a “late homecoming” thing, but I haven’t heard any reports. My D did not attend any.
One thing to look up is “Light Up UCF,” which is a carnival type event during Dec-Jan. Carnival rides, a real ice rink, lots of fun stuff. They did not have it in 2020, but I hope they will have it this year. It’s a highlight, and if they have it, we will drive up from Miami for it.
Payment and access to student info. Once the kids are 18, they are protected by federal privacy laws and parents can’t access their info unless they specifically allow you to. They can do that either by just giving you their passwords, or by filling out a formal authorization. Same is true of all medical information from Student Health Services. It’s a new world when they turn 18!
As mentioned above, payment is not until the end of the first week of class, and I believe dorm payment is a week after that. It’s all clearly spelled out, and there is a deferment period for scholarship recipients. Don’t worry about payment dates; they’ll be very clear.
FOOTBALL: UCF is all about football! And, hopefully, they will have larger crowds this year. Last year was limited to 11,000 total, and I don’t think they ever had that many. Normally there are 12,000 seats reserved for students and they are distributed by a lottery the kids have to sign up for.
Supposedly (according to UCF), the Bounce House is 84% sold out for the coming season. The first game is Sept 2 when Boise State will visit The Bounce House.
UCF has one of the best quarterbacks in college football (Dillon Gabriel), but they lost their AD and head coach, both to Tennessee. They also lost a number of star players to the NFL draft as every team does each year. We’ll see how they stack up.
2 Likes
Do you think some of the orientation videos are still posted somewhere? That might be helpful to people. I know most of our kids are done with day long virtual zoom meetings/open houses for college, that the kids really don’t want to sit through that again. Hopefully they will shorten that up this year!
1 Like
I don’t think the videos are available anywhere. The parent’s orientation was passworded, so it was not open to everyone.
Here’s a link to the FYE page that describes the Pegusus Parent Program: Parents & Families • First Year Experience • UCF
The Pegusus Parent Program extends beyond the formal parents orientation program. It also includes a monthly newsletter with a lot of helpful information. It’s a really good parent’s program.
2 Likes
They call welcome week Pegasus Palooza:
https://palooza.sdes.ucf.edu/
What does “deferment for scholarship” mean when it comes to payment? D has a partial oos tuition waiver. Will it not just show up as that much less that she has to pay toward tuition? Is payment of tuition/room obvious just to the student or also parent. I think D would be happy for us to get info on payment and sign anything that would give access to that info so we can pay it. S19 has done that at his college and it has worked smoothly. Thank you @JimDadinmia and @jeneric for all your helpful information. Any thoughts to wearing water shoes (like seen on the beach) on those super rainy days or would that just look silly? I think they are designed to dry quickly.
There are water sneakers that look just like regular sneakers- I wear them for Disney. Mine are Columbia. D18 has them and still puts on her Converse! Why??? She actually wanted rain boots- I think it would be hot, but she got some a month ago and is so excited to wear them at school. We’ll see in July! It really can rain everyday, and it is so humid, stuff does not dry out. We got her damprid to put in her closet.
I will say, when you live in Towers, you are closer to the classroom buildings. We waterproofed her backpack and shoes and gave her spray, that she promptly forgot she had.
1 Like
UCF’s payment mechanism is complicated, especially if you have scholarships.
One of the problems is that payments are handled by Student Accounts, and they have no idea what scholarship monies you have for that term until Financial Aid actually puts the money into your account. And FA does that whenever they get good and ready, and not one second before.
When the money actually appears in your account, it is applied first to tuition and fees, but there may be limitations on how much can be applied to tuition and fees. Any excess will later be applied to books (if you opt-in for book payment) and housing.
Because of that process, it you have any scholarship money coming, you will get a deferment. Don’t worry about the payment dates – they will be abundantly clear.
If you have any third-party scholarships, any limitations/restrictions placed by the scholarship grantors mean little.
Our D had a scholarship which specifically limited the proceeds to tuition, fees, and books. Housing and meal plans were specifically prohibited. D’s tuition and fees were mostly covered by Florida Prepaid, so Student Accounts applied the excess to housing both Fall and Spring terms!
2 Likes
Our D is a Florida girl. When it rains, she gets wet. When it stops, she dries out. I’m actually not even sure if she has an umbrella – guess I better check that!
From mid-May to mid-October, it’s likely to rain every single day.
But Florida rain is not like other places. We get sunshowers and thunderstorms - usually 30 minutes of so, and done, and then the sun comes back out. It’s rare that we get a frontal rain where it rains all day.
2 Likes
Thanks. We won’t need to worry about scholahips going over the tuition/fees amount in our case. Does the deferment mean that you don’t pay tuition until the scholarship shows up in the amount if you have a scholarship? I hope you are right about them being clear about when to pay. If we get billed for full tuition but she has a scholarship from UCf to pay part of it, do we not pay until the scholarship amount if subtracted from it? I’m sure I’m overthinking this. I plan to go to parent orientation if she enrolls at UCF. Is this something covered at the orientation?
Yes, lol. All of the above.
First you will be notified of any scholarships. Later, whenever FA gets good and ready (and for no apparent reason), the scholarship money will magically appear in your Student Account. Student accounts will apply the scholarship money however they apply it, and you will owe the difference. You will have ample time AFTER the scholarships are applied to complete payment…literally not something to worry about, easy peasy.
Don’t worry about the minutiae of specifically what is being paid by which dollars. It’s all just money.
3 Likes
Our son has a similar OOS scholarship. For his first semester, after registration and through the first week of classes, his account just showed total tuition and housing. People assured me that it would post once the first week of classes were done, drop/add period was over and he had completed the “academic activity” assignment for each class. They want to ensure that the kid is taking the correct amount of credits for the scholarship. At first, it will show a due date of Sep 4th (or something like that) but then it is deferred to a due date of 10/31. Eventually, it all posted correctly and was easy to pay. So don’t panic if it isn’t there at the start of the semester, it is just their process. And they do not cover it at orientation and it will be impossible to get through to financial aid, so just don’t panic.
Spring semester, it was correct from the start and the due date was the original payment date which I think is at the end of the second week of classes.
3 Likes
Thank you @vannevka. I am the type to panic and your post is reassuring. I appreciate all the ucf regulars on CC like you, @jeneric, @JimDadinmia and others.
3 Likes
Is anyone in this group familiar with the BFA for Emerging Media Character Animation or Experimental Animation degree -lans? My daughter was part of a Zoom call info session and has been accepted to UCF. We wanted to come to the campus and tour and get a better idea about the -lace & program. Do you know if they had in person classes?
Thank you for any help!
I don’t know a thing about that program, but I posted a new thread with the announcement that UCF says they are going back to regular in-person classes for FALL 2021.
Congratulations on her acceptance! Go Knights! Charge On!
They are not doing in-person tours currently, but in one of the other threads I posted some detail on touring by yourself. Prepare to be blown away by the campus!
Again, welcome aboard!
2 Likes
Hello, I was wondering if it’s too late to apply for academic year housing for fall 2021? I am interested in living at Apollo or Hercules
If anyone has applied recently, have you gotten waitlisted? And how long does it take to hear back from them if a spot has opened up or if there is no room on campus?
It’s not too late to apply. I’m not sure of the process for academic year housing, but when we applied for Towers last year, we got an approval within a couple of days.
That approval date is important, because that’s what determines your choice of housing if you have a preference. They don’t actually assign academic housing until very late in the game, but they do it by your approval date.
I would apply ASAP. If you have questions, CALL Housing. They are usually very helpful with answering questions.
D committed to UCF over the weekend and scheduled her orientation. 
4 Likes