<p>Hi all - My senior daughter has been accepted to UF. She is #1 in her class of 600 and a National Merit Finalist. We live in Florida. She has never been a "ra-ra Go Gators" type of girl as she isn't really into spectator sports. My husband (her dad) graduated from UF and we have several aunts, uncles & nephews that have gone there, all being successful.. Her desire was to go to MIT but after being waitlisted, she was rejected. Her interests are engineering (possibly biomed), math, or biology. She tells me last night she doesn't think she wants to go to UF as she just doesn't like it and thinks she wants to go to UCF. We want her to be happy but dang, to us that seems like a wrong academic choice. Any words of advice? Any thoughts? If not, thanks for letting me just vent it out :).</p>
<p>My husband and I are both Gators – our son is at UCF – loving it – but don’t think that UCF is not as “rah-rah” as the GatorNation – there are 50,000 students and they love their Knights! Campus is beautiful and high-tech. Dorms are new and clean (comparatively to UF’s older dorms). UCF is a top 10 engineering/science school. On the other hand, UF is Florida’s only public “ivy” and something to definitely consider before pulling the plug. You could go to UF for two years (get straight “A’s”) and then try transferring to MIT. My final words of wisdom are to be sure that where ever she goes – she is happy. An unhappy kid creates unhappy parents. Good luck.</p>
<p>It’s hard to offer advice without knowing why your daughter wants to go to UCF and is having second thoughts about UF. Can you provide more detail?</p>
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<p>… I’m assuming you mean in the State of Florida? Because UCF has a nationally UNranked engineering school.</p>
<p>MIT accepts about 10 people off their transfer list each year. It’s best not to entertain those thoughts. Once upon a time, I applied for transfer out of UF and was accepted to much better schools, but ultimately I decided that the draw of a cheap education was too enticing. She should stay at one school unless it turns out to seriously affect her perceived quality of life.</p>
<p>Top Engineering School 2008 No.10: University of Central Florida College of Engineering and Computer Science</p>
<p>Sept. 4, 2008</p>
<p>No.10: University of Central Florida College of Engineering and Computer Science
4000 Central Florida Blvd. PO Box 162993
Orlando, FL 32816
(407) 823-2445
Fax: (407) 823-6334
[UCF</a> COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & COMPUTER SCIENCE : Home](<a href=“http://www.cecs.ucf.edu%5DUCF”>http://www.cecs.ucf.edu)</p>
<p>Total engineering school enrollment 298
Hispanic engineering school enrollment 37
Percent Hispanic graduate enrollment 12.4%
Total postgraduate degrees earned 168
Postgraduate degrees earned to Hispanics 25
Percent of postgraduate degrees earned to Hispanics 14.9%
Full-time Engineering school faculty 157
Full-time Engineering school Hispanic faculty 5
Percent Hispanic faculty in Engineering School 3.2%</p>
<p>The UCF College of Engineering and Computer Science Office of Diversity actively recruits and retains minority students by providing services from academic assistance to career planning, scholarships to peer mentoring. The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) also plays an active role in engaging students in professional engineering activities, conferences and competitions.
Located next to the 5th largest research park in the nation, students from all backgrounds have access to Orlando and Central Florida’s high-tech industry leaders like Lockheed Martin, NASA- Kennedy Space Center, SAIC, Harris and Siemens. Supportive faculty, real-world application and powerhouse industry connections as well as a diverse environment, culture and the perfect locationmake UCF’s College of Engineering and Computer Science the ideal place to study.</p>
<p>Source: HispanicBusiness.com (c) 2008. All rights reserved.</p>
<p>Gosh, if I knew why she has suddenly turned against UF I would gladly share with you. I know most of her friends are going to UCF but she has always said she was looking for a clean start at college so didn’t really want to go where her friends were going. She’s one of those smart kids that hates that everyone thinks she is smart…I know, doesn’t sound smart :). We used to drag her to football games with us and she hated it, but I just can’t believe that is the reason for the change. I mean, I know she never really wanted to go to UF but she showed no interest in looking at colleges - she only applied to MIT, UF, UCF and Vanderbilt (we’ll hear soon). She knows UF is the best ranked college in our state and that UCF can’t compare for what she wants to study - oh if she decides engineering is not for her she’d likely go into pharmacy…again back to UF…arrggh she’s driving me crazy!! She’s a great kid, never gotten into any sort of trouble and is a joy in our lives. Lastly, she accepted into Honors college at UF and applied for housing at Hume and now even wonders if that is where she should be…I’m starting to think college has caught her by surprise and this is all starting to sink in. Thanks everyone for advice/thoughts.</p>
<p>Aventura mom,</p>
<p>That “top 10” engineering ranking from HispanicBusiness is bogus. I couldn’t quickly find a link to their methodology, but the title of their ranking (“Top 10 Engineering Schools for Hispanic Students, 2008”) gives an idea of how its biased. I don’t have any problems with the rankings, its just important to understand what the rankings mean.</p>
<p>Here is their “top 10”</p>
<p>No.1: Georgia Institute of Technology
No.2: Purdue University College of Engineering
No.3: The University of New Mexico School of Engineering
No.4: University of Texas at El Paso College of Engineering
No.5: Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Engineering
No.6: University of Florida College of Engineering
No.7: Florida Atlantic University College of Engineering & Computer Science
No.8: The University of Texas at Austin Cockrell School of Engineering
No.9: New Mexico State University College of Engineering
No.10: University of Central Florida College of Engineering and Computer Science</p>
<p>bbfgator, are you familiar with “cognitive dissonance”?</p>
<p>goufgators - nope, but I know what it means now but I will admit I had to go look it up.
I think she is definitely suffering from that condition!</p>
<p>My niece lasted at UF three days before she came running home to her parents.
Ended up enrolling late at UCF where most of her high school friends were attending.
She says UCF still feels like high school and kicks herself everyday for leaving UF.</p>
<p>There were some underlying family health issues back home however that prompted her rash move.</p>
<p>Maybe your D just does not want to get out of her comfort zone?</p>
<p>xNYer - Oh no, I hope the health issues all got taken care of. My daughter would be very sad to attend grade “13” so to speak. I will certainly mention these posts to her - in fact, I think I’ll just have her read them. I will leave the decision up to her but really feel like academically she is capable of doing well at UF and they have so much more to offer in the way of majors should she decide engineering is a no go.</p>
<p>I think your daughter has misconceptions about the diversity of experiences and friends she will have at UF. She will be surrounded by many “ivy-league” caliber students in the honors program. And I hope she realizes that UF has world-class engineering programs that she would be passing up (see my post comparing MIT and UF in the college search forum from a few days ago…it might make her feel better)</p>
<p>bbfgator, to corroborate what xNYer said, I too have friends that went to UCF and had the same high school 2.0 opinion of it. I have made other posts in the past regarding this.</p>
<p>my s was accepted last yr into UF Honors and had similar struggle–didn’t want to be one of the “honors/geeky” students at a school that was more well…rah rah. we visited UF and spent time with a friend/ a bright and motivated senior at the time. She pointed out (in her opinion) that the “honors” students at Hume were well, mocked. I was surprised to hear this from her, since she was a good student, serious kid, but she discouraged living there for its social consequences. My son still considered this option and then as it happened he recvd a full ride to a private small LAC and opted to go there.</p>
<p>She is just trying to recover from her MIT rejection. She wished to separate herself from the family’s long history of attending UF. She doesn’t want to attend a college with a big football/partying culture, she wanted to attend one with a math/science vibe. Once she has gotten over MIT she will see the advantages of UF. She has some time before she has to send in her letter of intent and deposits. Let her be.</p>
<p>BBFGator, I have a son at UF in engineering and his good friend (who was also accepted at UF) is attending UCF. They are both very happy with their school choices, and both doing very well in school. I think the key was that they chose the school that felt right to them. </p>
<p>UCF does not have the same national rankings as UF, but it is improving all the time and some of their engineering programs are top-rate. Also, they have a close proximity to NASA and good ties with aerospace companies that support NASA. I understand that if you are interested in optical engineering, UCF is the place to be.</p>
<p>Sometimes rankings are not the only factor that should be considered. Good luck to your daughter, wherever she decides to go!</p>
<p>Thank you all for the replies. I will give her some time…well a few days - she has to tell National Merit by 4/1 what her school of choice is - so we won’t be talking about this for too much longer :).</p>
<p>Took my son back up there April 2007 for a “is this the place” look. Take her out of school and let her wander the campus with the kids there. It isn’t all football and sports, we made an appointment to the dept. of his major. He talked with the profs and saw what was there to offer him. It sealed the deal.</p>
<p>Do well at UF and go to MIT for the masters. She would have a better shot of getting in from UF than UCF. Go to grad school with no debt.</p>
<p>Everyone at UF is smart, she will find a fit.</p>
<p>My daughter sounds very similar to yours bbf (may, I call you bbf?:)) She’s also first in her class and coming from a similarly sized school. She applied to GaTech, UCF, and UF. She got into all three, and she decided to attend UF after some soul searching. Anyway, we live fairly local to UCF so a lot, a lot of the people she knows are going to UCF (including her brother who’s in his second year). She’s going into engineering, but she seriously considered pharmacy at one point … and who knows if she’ll swing that way again. LOL As much as she likes parts of UCF (the honors college for one thing), she’s decided on UF. She’s very pragmatic, and she’s afraid that if she remains at home, going to UCF, she’ll never step out of her comfort zone … she’ll be in year 13 from high school, and she will not have seen what she can do as far as being on her own, away from her best friend (since she was 2 years old) and meeting people who don’t know her as “that smart girl.” She’s filled out her application to the honors program, too … just waiting for 4/10 when they notify if she’s been accepted. She will be living off campus, however, with a couple of girls from our church who she used to be closer to when they were in middle school, but due to re-zoning, they all ended up at different high schools and drifted apart. Some days she seems more nervous than others … I think it’s a lot of stuff. She’s taking 9 weeks exams this week, she’s got 5 AP exams coming up soon … and she’s just trying to finish up w/ school. It’s hard not to second guess yourself, ya know? Maybe it’s just “normal” end of the year oh my gosh … i’m going away to school in 5 <gulp> months! Ack!!</gulp></p>
<p>zebes</p>