Yesterday, I noticed that Luke is no longer the contact for the NMF program at UCF. Does anyone know what happened? Also, does anyone know if there will be major changes coming to the NMF package? UCF still has not released their updated newsletter.
ETA - My daughter was in touch with Luke within the past two weeks about scheduling a visit, but now we are seriously reconsidering.
That’s surely a question that can best be answered by calling the relevant department at the college.
I have been waiting for the NMF changes also. I check daily. I have no idea so I just wait. The visit for NMF in the past (2017) was excellent. It would be hard to turn down after their visit. I am hoping their scholarship returns to the pre Benacquisto scholarship. (full ride) If they do they are in the mix for my D2023. If not then its Alabama and the 5 year plan.
One of the reasons that I have questions about the future of the NMF program is that the new contact has a generic email address (scholarsprogram@domain) as opposed to Luke’s old personal email address. While I could contact UCF directly (and likely will on Monday), I was hoping that someone here would have some inside information. The school will tell me that NMFs will continue to be taken care of, etc. I am curious if anyone knows what is really driving this change in the middle of the year and the recruitment cycle.
My D is at UCF (Honors College) and is not NMS, but 2 of her roommates are. This is just hearsay, but one of the NMS moms said that because of a FL state law that they won’t sponsor any more out of state NMS after this year (freshman 2021-22 class is what I think she meant). Obviously, I don’t know much about this so I would also suggest contacting the UCF to ask specific questions about NMS future at UCF. I would suspect that they would still be offered a good deal, maybe just not as good as in the past? If you find out anything, please post here as I am curious. My D has no regrets so far about UCF.
Thank you. The first part of your reply (what you refer to as hearsay) is accurate. Florida will not be sponsoring the Benacquisto for OOS students who enter after the fall of 2021. While the new NMF packages have not yet been announced, I am wondering if there is also a decreased emphasis on attracting NMFs. Based on what we have heard, the NMFs at UCF are treated very well and receive lots of personalized attention. I am wondering if Luke, who has a stellar reputation, leaving is a reflection of a move toward less personalization.
My daughter has two COA offers from schools that we have already visited. She loved both schools, and now I am wondering if we want to tour UCF.
What is your daughter’s area of interest and other schools she is interested in?
Computer science or engineering.
She has applied to:
MIT
Notre Dame
SMU
TCU
GA Tech
UGA
Clemson
Miss. State
Alabama
UCF
She will get great packages from Alabama, MSU, UGA, and GT (at a minimum).
its a few months to go; but hope you’ll report back on all - to help out with those next year! good luck!
I’ve heard UCF has a good reputation for engineering. Is UCF high on her list? It was my D’s #1 going in and although a little more expensive than some of her options, I could tell it was the one to beat. She never had a chance to visit, but there are a lot of YouTube videos. @JimDadinmia and @jeneric have students there and have been great to give advice about UCF. I wonder what there thoughts are on NMS. I would think that an oos NMS would still get a great package and that they would want more oos diversity, but that would just be a guess. I would also like to see you report back about what you find out. Good luck with the journey!