DD was accepted at UCF for Fall 2021. Would love to hear what others think on dorm options. She will be OOS although we are moving to Florida Gulf Coast in August 2021 from California and are familiar with the area. Business major.
Well…where to start?
I’ll start here – apply for dorms as early as you can. You will get a confirmation date, and that date will determine a lot of things.
Two systems – there are two types of dorm contracts – annual contracts and academic year contracts.
Annual contracts are for all 3 terms, Fall, Spring and Summer, with a significant discount for the summer contract. I’m not sure about this, but I think only Towers and Northview are annual contracts.
Both Towers and Northview are apartment style units with individual bedrooms and either private bathrooms or bathrooms shared with one other resident. Both have full kitchens and living/dining rooms. Our daughter is in Towers, and the apartments are VERY nice!
With an annual contract, you are assigned a room selection date determined by your housing confirmation date and you pick your exact room – by building and actual room number.
Academic year contracts are for Fall and Spring only, and I think all of the other housing at UCF is academic year.
In July, or early August – just a few weeks before move-in – annual contract residents “pick” their dorms. Actually, you pick a dorm complex and a room is assigned to you…I THINK.
You will have to check the details of the academic year contract dorms. I know Lake Claire has kitchens, but I don’t know any other specifics. I don’t think any other academic year dorms have any kitchen.
Some of the academic year dorms have shared bedrooms and four residents to one bathroom. For guys, four guys in one bathroom is a “So what?” For young women, it would be a disaster, IMHO.
There is a ton of information about dorms on the UCF Housing page. And after you wade through all of that, call the Housing office if you have any questions. They are very helpful.
If you take a tour of UCF (recommended) you will tour some of the dorms after the main tour.
One warning on the campus tour – prepare to be blown away! The UCF campus is amazing, and the best thing about it is the smiling faces of happy students lovin’ it.
You can also get some info from videos on the Housing page, and also on YouTube.
Believe it or not, I found some of the move-in videos on YouTube to be the most helpful because some of them showed sweeping views of every room, obviously filmed by a kid with a cellphone. But…you can PAUSE those videos and actually see the rooms and get a good sense of the space.
Congratulations, and good luck!
“DD”…hmmm. Don’t see term everywhere.
Are you a DISboard member?
Thanks JimDadinmia We have taken the Campus tour when were were househunting last November but they only showed us Libra Dorms. Not the others. Appreciate your input.
I can’t post pictures here, but check out Towers move-in videos. There is a WORLD of difference between Towers and Libra.
We chose Towers because of the private bedroom, spacious living/dining room, and full kitchen with dishwasher.
The cost is a little higher, but not bad if you use all or part of the Summer term. Students have to have 9 hours earned during the summer to graduate anyway, and our DD is going to do Summer A 2021. (You can take the summer courses online – don’t need to be on campus – but she’s going to stay up there for Summer A.)
One other thing. No matter which dorm you choose, there is a roommate matching system available once you are confirmed for housing. The girls can exchange Instagram stuff, chat back and forth, etc, and get to know each other. The roommate with the earliest confirmation date does the room selection, so all benefit.
Our DD’s roommates are great and they’ve really bonded well. In fact, at least 3 of them will probably get an off-campus apartment together starting next Fall.
@JimDadimia Is on campus housing more difficult to get the 2nd year or off campus cheaper or some other reason upper classmen would choose off campus instead of on? Thanks.
That depends on several factors – Burnett Honors college, which dorm or LLC you are in, etc.
My understanding is that Burnett Honors College (and medical honors) are more or less guaranteed dorm housing if they choose. Burnett Honors LLC is in Tower 3. I’ve never researched the other LLC’s, so I don’t know how they work.
For regular folks, however, freshmen are given priority for dorms. After the freshman year, a lottery is conducted – but that lottery can vary widely. There is more competition for academic year contract dorms, so those are the most difficult. Annual contract dorms like Towers or Northview are easier to get.
From the students’ perspective, however, I think the off-campus decision is more about independence, amenities, social, etc than anything else. And UCF makes it easy to live off-campus, even without a car. They have an extensive free off-campus shuttle bus to campus system, and a lot of other support.
In many college towns, off-campus is all about cost, but not at UCF. Off campus apartment rentals are expensive. I haven’t fully researched off-campus yet, but at first glance nearby apartments look like they are at least as expensive as the dorms and probably more expensive.
We are OOS and people highly recommended that my son apply to the OSSM LLC which is for OOS students only. They live on two floors of a Neptune building and have peer mentors and a lot of activities for the kids. This way they are meeting others like them who are likely to not know anyone else at the school. Since something like 90% of students are from FL, many of those will already have friend groups from high school, hometown.
If you apply for the Academic Main housing, the most popular dorms were Lake Claire (which is older but in the best location and have full kitchens in the suite) and then Neptune (Newer, 4 singles in a suite with 2 bathrooms and a shared kitchen (a stove and sink) on the floor; no common space within the suite.) Libra were the lowest on the list.
Apply for housing early, you can apply even before accepting enrollment, and you’ll get an early appointment date to pick which is important if you want Academic Main as the best dorms go quickly.
@1Lotus freshmen get priority for dorms. Upperclassmen enter a lottery for the limited rooms not allotted to freshmen. The lottery is on an individual basis so you won’t be able to move with a group of friends. The lottery happens in January and many off campus apts offer deals in the fall to get people to sign up. So many choose to do that and not risk the lottery though off campus is more expensive.
Thank you @JimDadinmia and @vannevka . D was accepted to honors and I think her top choice would be the Honors LLC. Are you thinking that if she chooses to go to UCF (which is high on her list) and lives in Honors the first year, she would be able to continue to live there the second year? The OOS option sounds nice too. Are both of these options available for upperclassmen? I keep hearing to apply to housing early. What is considered early enough? I would like to see the merit information before having her sign up for housing. We are OOS. Thank you for your wisdom. 
The issue with housing in Towers is you have to pay for Summer and if your D does not plan on staying for summer, you probably don’t want to chose it. I think most kids would pick Neptune for the 2 semester typical housing contract.
As far as the summer requirement, those can be done online. so you don’t need to be there in summer.
Living on campus the second year is typically hard to get. Most people D knows, did not get into housing the second year. The exception is Rosen and Union West.
In a typical year I would say you need a deposit by late November. This is not a typical year and UCFs applications are down by over 20%, so you could hold off. If dorm choice is important, it might be worth the deposit to get the dorm you want.
I have a friend whose daughter is in the Honors LLC at Tower 3. She is also OOS.
She has been told that her daughter is set for Tower 3, same room, for all four years guaranteed.
If that’s a factor for you, I would certainly call Housing and ask them that question directly.
With Towers, you do have the three term commitment, but the Summer term is much less than the other two. These are not exact numbers, but I think we’re paying about $3,600 per semester for Fall and Spring and about $2,000 for summer.
The comparison I do with Towers is NOT the academic year dorms, because the accommodations are so different from Towers. I compare Towers to an off campus apartment with full kitchen, living room, etc. Off campus, you will have the same year long lease commitment that you have in Towers.
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We are out-of-state and interested in the OOS LLC in Neptune. We have put our housing deposit down but can’t remember if they asked about joining LLC’s during the application process. Anyone know if that was done during the initial application process or do you select LLC’s at a later date? We just did our research lately on LLC’s and can’t remember.
LLC applications are not out until January, they are separate from the housing contract, and will show up in the housing portal when available. I believe my son received an email about the OSSM LLC when the application opened.
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