<p>My daughter has been accepted to UCF for fall 2010. My concern is 2 fold; is it communiter school? She will be on campus on all weekends since she is from out of state, will there be things to do and people to be with. What is the Jewish life like?</p>
<p>My daughter is OOS and the weekends on campus are just as busy as during the week. </p>
<p>If you will be attending Summer session:
The ONLY time the campus seemed quiet was 4th of July weekend in the Summer. My D made plans with friends she met and went home with them that weekend.</p>
<p>So, Fall and Spring are very activie on weekends, but the 4th of July holiday weekend, is very quiet.</p>
<p>As far as Jewish life, here is a link for more info:
<a href=“http://www.chabaducf.com/[/url]”>http://www.chabaducf.com/</a></p>
<p>We live about 2 hours from UCF. Our guys never come home on weekends, and always seem very busy with friends and stuff on campus when we call them on weekends. Agree about July 4, but like jerseymom said, by then your student will have friends to head home with.</p>
<p>Huh? UCF crowded on weekends???</p>
<p>I’ve been at UCF since Fall 07 and the weekends are deserted on campus other than game days or concerts. Maybe there’s stuff going on at some of these off campus apartment complexes, but the dorms always emptied out on weekends.</p>
<p>The food service even had greatly reduced hours on weekends. </p>
<p>Maybe something every now and then, but if it’s not football or a concert I found UCF to be desolate on weekends.</p>
<p>My D says weekends are boring at UCF and everyone goes home. However, we are from the Orlando area. Out of towners/staters seem to feel the opposite. Most likely because they are there with others in the same situation, so make friends more easily. There is ALOT to do in Orlando, on and off campus. I agree though that the food service on campus is very reduced on weekends, but there are TONS of places to eat within walking distance. There is a Jewish life down here, but it is not abundant. Synagogues are few and far between.</p>
<p>My S stays in the dorms on weekends, we live about 3 hours from Orlando and he was coming home quite a bit at the beginning and now hardly ever does as he now has weekend plans. Parties, basketball games, etc. There are lots of students around in the dorms (I’ve seen them on the weekends when we’ve come up to visit). And I’m not sure about the hours for food service but my son manages to get something to eat several times a day without leaving campus on the weekends!</p>
<p>I’ve lived on campus for three years and there’s always something to do on the weekends. I live at the Towers and there’s always something going on at Knight’s Plaza, whether it be restaurants, Movies on the Plaza, Bingo Night, UCF basketball games, the Farmer’s Market, etc. The only way I could see someone being bored is if they lived in one of the residence halls toward the middle of campus where the only things near you are closed academic buildings. My friends lived in Hercules at the Academic Village on the south side of UCF and they would take SEPS (free golf cart escort) to come visit me at the Towers, where we’d get ice cream and what not.</p>
<p>Every now and then, UCF’s Campus Activities Board (CAB) host Late Knights. They close the Student Union from 9pm to 2am and have nothing but fun activities, free food, and giveaways. Each one has a different theme and they decorate based on whichever theme they do that time. CAB also does a variety of other events that are funded by our Activity and Service Fee (part of our tuition).</p>
<p>I suggest students visit [UCF</a> CAB - UCF Campus Activities Board](<a href=“http://www.cab.ucf.edu%5DUCF”>http://www.cab.ucf.edu) to find out about these events. I take full advantage of them and have a blast.</p>
<p>Hope this helps!</p>
<p>P.S. If you’re on campus for the holidays, I suggest visiting Light Up UCF. This year they have ice skating, a ferris wheel, a carousel, and holiday movies on the lawn. If you have a student ID you get a discount!</p>
<p>i know this is a wrong place to post this but i went to ucf for 6 years for engineering. i dont know the current situation but there were always atleast 30-40 people working in the engineering bldg no matter it is july 4 or christmas or whatever. so “deserted” term, i think, applies to other departments probably but not to engineering and optics at ucf.</p>
<p>I also live in the UCF area. None of my kids have attended there. What I’m going to describe is therefore third-hand, at best. </p>
<p>The answer to the OP’s question about UCF being a commuter school is – compared to what? There are certainly far more students at UCF whose families live within a couple of hours than at, say UF. There are also plenty of students who live with their families in greater Orlando, plenty of students who live off-campus in the greater Orlando area, and plenty of students who live off-campus in the UCF area. The UCF area is filled with national-brand fast-food restaurants - those places don’t close on weekends, of course. Neither do the clubs, both in the UCF area and in the rest of greater Orlando. The UCF undergrad population is the 3rd largest in the country. There are plenty of students on campus on the weekends, even if many others don’t stay. However, if your child is looking for a more insular kind of student life on campus, or for a university-town, then UCF might not be the best choice. </p>
<p>Lots of the students at UCF do indeed come in knowing many others from their high-schools – it’s a state university, and that in general is the way it works. I think that coming from out-of-state is a bit of a disadvantage in terms of having that instant social network, but the extent to which that is a problem depends on your kid. </p>
<p>Jewish life at UCF - well, there’s certainly quantity. UCF has the 5th largest Jewish student population in the U.S. The UCF Hillel website says there are 6000. It’s relatively inactive as far as Jewish/Israel-specific activities (such as regular synagogue services, Torah study, Israel advocacy, Israeli folk-dancing) go. It specializes more in the bagel brunch/pizza break/sushi night kind of manufactured social occasion for Jewish kids to meet. Hillel also offers community service projects and the usual Birthright program of travel to Israel. There is a newish Chabad organization nearby that offers free Friday night dinners - I believe I’ve heard they get 80 or so kids some weeks, and some other activities (challah making, introduction to Jewish life class, etc.) The Chabad couple are definitely trying hard. The Hillel also offers Friday night dinner - don’t know if it’s free - they don’t get as many kids. There is very little to no kosher food available on campus, depending on yr definition. There’s one cafe that sells felafel and various forms of chicken sandwiches and turkey shawarma. They do not have Orthodox kosher certification. There is a Jewish Studies major at UCF, but it is not big or highly active.
The most common form of active Jewish life at UCF is through participation in the Jewish Greek organizations on campus.</p>
<p>So, in short, the place is too big to be deserted on weekends, or to be devoid of Jewish social life. The quality will improve with time, and depending on yr child’s level of interest, may be just right.</p>
<p>You guys are making me worried Dx I hope I don’t come there and turn into one of those kids that sits in their room all day long. Or those kids that comes on CC ranting on about how much they want to go home because of no social life and/or failing in school.</p>
<p>How’s Asian life at UCF? Haha</p>
<p>Social life at UCF should be the least of your worries. Some students come to UCF because of its social life.</p>
<p>My two cents.</p>
UF social life >>> UCF social life. From my experience as a UCF student and a UF transfer: UCF is a commuter school, majority of people go home to their mommies if they don’t already live at home. UF on the other hand is in the middle of nowhere(which I love) this allows for vibrant college town environment with great social life because a minority’s of people live at home at UCF. Also screw what people say about UCF having a better engineering program. It’s bs. Plus, people at UF are smarter and that is what makes the programs better
^ lol
this topic is 5 years old