@CrackintoPieces See also https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/09/opinion/sunday/frank-bruni-a-prudent-college-path.html
Does UCF cover any of the summer class requirements mandated by Florida (my understanding is that Florida requires college students to take credit hours over the summer)? How does that work? Do you end up having to pay out of pocket for those summer classes?
@njballer we just visited UCF and discussed the summer requirement- Luke said that one way to handle it would be to apply some of the transfer credits coming in (from APs and/or DE) to the summer requirement. He made it sound like not a big deal.
All Florida schools do require the summer hours (9 total I think). Benacquisto doesnât cover summer (yet) but most of the schools do allow instate tuition for those credits.
There are other ways to get the summer hours in like studying abroad in the summer (youâd have to pay) or just doing them quickly in one summer or half summer, doing an internship for credit, doing the May term for 3 years (I think May term is 3 weeks) It may cost you a few thousand dollars for the entire college education.
@FrozenMaineMom, how is your daughter doing now? Is she still happy with her decision ?
@Labmom324 My daughter is loving UCF and would sing the praises of the Honors College and the who National Merit program. She went from being very homesick the first month (and overwhelmed with the heat!) to being more social than she ever was in high school and extremely involved with clubs and opportunities. She feels she definitely made the right choice and has plenty of money from the âfull rideâ for food and fun. She has been living the good life in my opinion between the extra money (and the theme parks to spend it at) and the great housing situation at the Towers. It is really cool to see the growth of this girl coming from a small Maine town. She loves the diversity of the student population as well. The Honors College makes all the difference at UCF though I think (and the NM perks) because I read plenty of negative stuff online about âregular UCFâ problems such as huge classes and the housing shortage. She does not have to deal with those issues. She has made many friends that are also NMFs and some are banking the extra money for grad school (some even live close by so are commuting and REALLY banking some good money!). Since she is so practical, I think if she had to do it all over again she would do the same thing. She knows she wants to go on for more schooling (is still thinking med school) and she knew free undergrad was the responsible choice for her and that she would make the situation work. Sure, she would have liked the same opportunity in New England but it just did not exist so she will give up her snow boots for flip flops for a few years and I will go visit as much as I can 
@FrozenMaineMom Thank you for the reply. I have twin daughters who have been accepted to UCF. We are going down to the National Merit dinner Friday. We have never visited and it will be interesting to see what it is like. We are from PA, so not quite as far as you, but still far.
Congrats @Labmom324. My twin girls have been accepted as well and we will be there tomorrow. We are local however and live in Orlando and my girls are on the UCF campus all the time. One is currently taking Calc 3 there through Dual Enrollment.
@PPuggle I wish we would have had more time to talk vs the quick hello before we were moved off.
More questions then ever now. âŠ
We were also at UCF for DD20 NMF dinner on Friday 11/15 and it was well attended session. We kind of still having more question on UCF fit for pre-med track. How it is compared with pre-med track at UF and USF?
Does UCF offer guaranteed research opportunities for undergrad students and if so what are possible options?
How much an OOS NMF is able to save (if any) with typical expenses while residing on-campus.
Finally, we are from Texas and if down the road we apply to Texas Med school, would we be considered in-state for Texas while DD20 does undergraduate from UCF (we will maintain Texas residency meanwhile).
Many thanks for answers.
If your DD is considering Med school make sure she applies to the Burnett Medical scholars program. Students accepted there are guaranteed acceptance to the UCF med program as long as they maintain minimum GPA requirements.
@Philpper; thanks for your reply. DD had poor start of High school and is not in top 10% of HS ranking, so I guess she did not qualify. Besides she missed deadline for application submission that was Nov 15, I think.
@sibpuri we visited UCF in October and asked about research (DD20 is interested in becoming a research chemist). 30-40% of the Honors college students are involved in research at any given time. The Honors college has a dedicated Office of Honors Research and also an Office of Prestigious Awards for Goldwater, etc. In the spring they have a Honors-specific presentation from professors looking for help in their labs. The assistant dean talked a bit about things like applying for NIH summer research grants - so basically they seem to have their bases more than covered.
Going to college OOS will not impact Texas residency standing for med school.
I donât know how pre-med at UCF compares with the other Florida colleges, but there are definitely a lot of pre-meds there, and we were very impressed at how many resources UCF Honors puts into advising for their kids.
Hope some of that helps.
@sibpuri I just saw your posted and wanted to let you know that my daughter is on the pre-med track at UCF and we could not be more impressed with the opportunities she has already been exposed too. She is part of the Burnett Medical Scholars Program and I would definitely tell you to tell your daughter to apply for that. She has not done much with that group yet but will be in the coming years. She has, however, met several of the other kids in the program and they have already started studying together and itâs a nice small group for some friends for those who know nobody when they start school. She has had lots of volunteering opportunities already - she mentors a young girl for a program that promotes women in STEM, and she also volunteers at Hearts for the Homeless every week (they go as a group to downtown Orlando to take blood pressures of the homeless). She also had a couple of interviews for research. I am not sure that these research opportunities are guaranteed and she is pretty determined so I do not know if all other Freshman have set something up. However, she knows several Freshman in her friend group who have research all set up for next semester. She turned down one position because the professor wanted her to stay for the summer as well and she is not willing yet to stay in FL for the summer. She then interviewed for another position which she is extremely excited about. She also just learned she was accepted to be a TA (teacherâs assistant) for Immunology for next semester. Truly I am still blown away by the opportunities that UCF has afforded her and she knows she is not even taking advantage of everything.
Oh, and in regards to Medical School, she will likely come back to New England for that (at least that is what I am hoping!!). Your home address of TX would still allow for her to pay in-state tuition for med school unless she at some point changes residency to be in FL.
Good luck with your decisions and feel free to ask questions!!
@FrozenMaineMom - Had a question on your response to other parent.
Can your DD goes back to Maine for Med School, if she has already accepted the Burnett Medical Scholars Program?
With most of NMF students having enough credit to complete the under grad in 2/3 years, can they use the last year scholarship towards grad school coursework or they graduate early to start med school early?
Yes she could choose to go to Med school any place and likely will apply at a few but it is nice having UCF as a âsafetyâ since it is apparently so hard to get into any med school. She is not bound to them by being in the Burnett Medical Scholars Program. I actually do not believe they are allowed to use a year of the scholarship on med school or graduate school however. I know at this point she figures she could be done in 3 years with undergrad but will likely decide to take a minor to extend it for the whole 4 years (which might possibly make her courseload a little lighter each semester which in turn will keep the GPA up). I know when she toured USF, they would pay for the 1st year of med school if she went there but she preferred UCF overall.
@TxSenior - The answer to your question about âwhat if you finish early?â will depend on the school. My NMS is at Arizona State on a 100% tuition scholarship (not 100% CoA). They guarantee to fund the scholarship for 4 years. My DS will finish in 3 years. ASU offers âAccelerated 3+1â degrees that allow students to graduate in 4 years with a Masters in their major. They will pay tuition for the 4th year, even though it is graduate work. The other program I have heard of that allows students to use the balance of their scholarship for graduate course work is Alabama. I am sure there are others. This is a great question for an advisor at any prospective school.
@FrozenMaineMom My NMF twins are starting at UCF this fall. They will be living in Tower 3 and donât want to do a meal plan because they want the flexibility to eat anywhere on campus. Do you know if there any way to purchase Knights Cash or Dining Dollars and put it on their bill like you can with textbooks? I wasnât sure if we would just have to pay for all meal up front and wait to get reimbursed with the excess left over in their accounts. I emailed UCF dining on Monday and they still havenât replied.
Also, when do they receive the funds from the overage from their accounts?
Thanks!
@PPuggle I can tell you that my daughter had no desire for a meal plan and after eating once at Knightros she felt that was enough. She loved learning to cook and did that quite a bit. However, she also liked some quick meals on campus (or elsewhere) and just used her credit card for those. Before she left for college she got a credit card (not a huge credit limit) and we felt it was safer for her to continuously use that and just pay it off each month. She did really well managing her money and basically ended up coming home with much more in her bank account than she started school with. We never used Knights Cash or Dining dollars though, just her credit card. I can answer the other question though!! She got $3390 from UCF on Sept 9 and another $1250 on October 15. This was the overage she could use for food and fun for 1 semester - plenty of money for her to have a blast!!! That second deposit was 1/2 the money from becoming the Scholar (that final part of National Merit where a corporation awards the student with $2500 âŠwe originally thought she would not actually see this money and it would be absorbed by UCF but she got it both semesters so that was a bonus). Overall she did get slightly less the second semester but I think that was because of higher lab fees or something. The one thing she really lucked out with is that there should have been a $2200 amount due to Towers for that summer housing portion. Since they closed the dorm for the pandemic, they did not charge that this year. She knows that she is responsible for paying for that next year though so will need to budget accordingly to pay that out of what she gets deposited. I think she still will have plenty of money though to live very comfortably. She is returning to Tower 3 and cannot wait. If your twins (or you have any questions) please let us know and she would be happy to help!
Thanks @FrozenMaineMom and @usma87 for the detailed replies.
As @usma87 said, will need to check with the Advisors to see if the scholarship can be used for Graduate courses. That will really help with the overall cost.
DD is interested so far in TX, FL and Arizona schools.