Is anyone else going to the UCF semifinalist visit?

I was just wondering in anyone else on here is attending the Director’s Forum for National Merit Semifinalists at UCF. Any other oos students attending?

It’s just you.

congratulations.

Not confirmed but thinking of attending from MA. Do they pay for the flight?

Contact Luke Vanblaricom. I think they do and pay for hotel as well if you come during the NM visit

@tnknes Please let me know if you find out if they reimburse for flight/hotel.

We decided not to go on 11/15, but instead have a personal tour on 11/25, the week of thanks giving

We are coming from Minnesota! They did not offer to pay for our flight, but did offer hotel accommodations for Friday night, 11/15.

@Mommieakin When we visited with our DD it was late November and 83 and sunny. We were sold, beautiful campus. I think you’ll like it.

We are planning to attend 11/15 and have hotel stay offer (no ticket). See you guys there.

Very excited, can’t wait to see everyone there

Is UCF covering for flight / rental this year for semi finalists as it did for prior years? Can someone share there experience, pls?

UCF is local to us but we’re going as well. We haven’t been on an official tour yet and I hear that honors housing is amazing. Looking forward to seeing everyone there.

I wonder how many families will be there? We are making the 90 minute drive even though our private tour day was very informative. Meeting one-on-one with departments and getting questions answered was even better than the golf cart. S is fairly sold on the CS program because of the focus on research and projects. Also, FREE is amazing.

@1FloridaMom Here is my summation of our trip last year:
“This was, by far, the biggest turn out UCF has ever had for this event. There were 98 NMSF there (around 300 total people). Pretty well run-Luke’s minions were everywhere-keeping us on track and not lost and moving along. Parking was smooth, chance to talk to NM Scholars at everything, but a very packed in schedule. Tours were run by the regular UCF tour people so quality was variable. (For example, the guides didn’t always know that Towers 3 was the current housing for the Honors College/NMF kids.)
Luke answered questions at the next stop while we waited for the rest of the tour groups to arrive. Then, he did his presentation with lots of discussion of $$ and benefits. Next, the Dean of the Burnett Honors College spoke. About 1850 kids in it and it usually runs under 2,000 students total. The “integrated humanities” class was a disappointment, but it would have been tough to do that format with 40 people and she was trying with 300. (Plus, I didn’t think she was prepared or tech savvy enough for that group.)
Dinner was good. My kid enjoyed the focus group with someone from her major. Parents heard from current scholars at the same time.
Overall, it was a great visit. Definitely geared toward the kids with enough $$ to make the parents happy. Got the feeling that 50% or more were shooting for selective schools. Many would likely use this as a safety school, I would guess. Many, many Florida kids. But 16 other states had kids there.”

So I would expect even more than 100 NMSF there this year.

@Reebtoor, thank you for painting such a picture of the event for us. I’m looking forward to it. I wonder what the UCF enrollment hit rate will be with the 100+ NMSFs and their many options. All of the Benacquisto universities are trying to land a big one from the river as they swim by going upstream, some with sights on selectives.

Son and I attended the event last year. We came a day early so that son could tour the art school and meet with an adviser there. That was really helpful as she mapped out a course plan for him and told him what his AP credits could be used for. Since we are OOS having the extra time at UCF was nice. We tried out the dining hall and just wandered around a bit. ESPN College Game Day was visiting so seeing them set up was kind of fun. Director’s Forum was as Reebtoor described. Towers housing is amazing. UCF did not pay for our flights but did cover the 2 nights at the hotel. For awhile UCF was the first choice but in the end son chose UT Dallas.

I am a current NMS at UCF, if you (or anyone) have any questions while you are here, feel free to reach out!

In case anyone is considering going next year, I’d like to say that I HIGHLY recommend it. I just got back from my visit (oos) and it was amazing. They really put a lot of effort into the visit and I feel like I got a good sense of what being a national merit scholar at UCF is like. I was the only student there for my major (materials science) but they still had a professor in my field there to talk to. Definitely high up on my list after the visit. To everyone else who visited, is UCF now your top choice? If not where else are you looking?

It was a great experience for us two years ago. Really sold us on UCF.

@Marie190: Thanks for offering to help. DD considering UCF among other schools and have a few questions:

  1. Are you instate or OOS? If OOS, where from?
  2. What is your major? What are you planning to do after finishing UG?
  3. Did you consider any other school? (U Florida, for instance). Why did you choose UCF
  4. How is experience so far? Would you recommend it?
  5. We are planning to visit UCF next week? Do you have any tips to make the visit fruitful? Any specific question we should ask or check out

Thanks