<p>My son, husband and I just returned from visiting UCF this past weekend. We are from Pennsylvania. My son has been accepted to UCF and their honors college through their National Merit Scholars program. We really loved the campus and were impressed with the school. All the buildings at the school are beautiful and we toured the Towers Honors Dorm which was gorgeous - almost like a hotel and maid service too! That's more than he gets at home! He visited a class which he enjoyed and we met with the Dean of the Honors College who was very informative. </p>
<p>We stayed for the weekend so we went back to drive through the campus on Saturday night and the whole campus seemed deserted. We are concerned that the school is more of a "suitcase" school where most of the kids that live on campus leave over the weekend. Could someone please give us their opinions as to the social atmosphere at the school and whether the school empties on the weekends. Being from Pennsylvania my son would have to stay on campus over the weekend.</p>
<p>My S is in the Honors College at UCF. He lives in the Towers. He's a local kid; we live 15 minutes from UCF, but we wanted him to have the experience of being on campus. His roommates are all in-state students, all from South Florida. My S is there every weekend. He doesn't leave campus to come home, except every other week to do laundry. <g> My H has lunch with him once a week, and we see him at church ... passing in the parking lot as we go to different services. Anyway, his roommates are here most weekends, too. They go home periodically ... but by no means every weekend. I know several other local kids who are staying on campus, and they behave similarly as my son. If you came over this past weekend, I will note that it was President's weekend for all the local schools. Even though UCF tech. had classes, all the secondary and primary schools were out. Two of my S's classes were cancelled on Monday. Perhaps his profs had kids in the local school system. So, I know that more kids from the university treated this past weekend as a three day pass. <g></g></g></p>
<p>Yes, many of my friends kids who go to UCF came home this past weekend because of the three-day holiday (they didn't have any class on Monday...and two of them had no Friday classes to begin with). One of my neighbors did go back to school on Sunday because he had a mandatory Fraternity Chapter meeting. He did spring RUSH and he is very happy with the social scene. Incidently, this is a kid who never thought he would be into the Frat scene but it really does make a big school smaller. He is loving it now.
My own daughter will be a freshman at UCF this summer. It is a 3 hour drive home for her. She will probably come home twice a semester (about every 6-7 weeks) to visit but she has already told me not to count on it!</p>
<p>Well, if you go to any college campus there will not be a lot of people roaming around when it is not football season. If you go over to the Intramural sports fields, gym, pools or just walk around you will usually find people playing sports or having a picnic or something. Since only a few thousands students actually like on campus you will also find a lot of activity at the pools off campus or people going bowling, to movies, or to hang out off campus. Also, a lot of people are working during the weekend and a lot more activity is going on at night There is so much to do at UCF and while there arent a lot of people walking around the classrooms on campus, why should there be?
Our school used to be a commuter campus but it has changed a lot and there is a lot to do during the year. With over 40,000 students i guarantee your son will make a lot of friends and will never want to come home.</p>
<p>I have a daughter who is a sophomore at UCF, and another daughter who will begin in the Fall (she will be in the Honors college & dorm). We live in south Florida, and my sophomore daughter comes home very rarely. She has made many great friends at UCF. She is very involved in Campus Crusade so does many fun activities with them. She has also attended a salsa dancing night, a swing dancing night, she goes to yoga class at the fitness center, and of course football season was very fun. She has gone to basketball games, soccer games, etc. There is plenty of social life if your son takes advantage of the opportunities available. I know that the honors college also offers social events, too. Guess we'll be seeing you June 2-3 for honors orientation??</p>
<p>I'd say it definitely had something to do with the three day weekend.</p>
<p>I know a lot of people here (2 or so hours from UCF) that are going there next year and don't plan on coming home much on weekends. I, for one, am avoiding home weekend visits. </p>
<p>So I think there will be plenty of folks there.</p>