<p>I took a private tour with the director of UCF's National Merit Scholar program and with his Student Assistant, a freshman in her second semester who is also a National Merit Scholar.</p>
<p>Here are some notes I took (I fleshed some out, some others I just left as-is)</p>
<p>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</p>
<p>-The campus actually has some pretty parts (granted, I live in Orlando, so it's very familiar, but it's not as horrible as I expected it to be).</p>
<p>-The campus is pretty big, but you can walk across it in 10-15 minutes.</p>
<p>-The gym is awesome. It's really big and is clean with up-to-date equipment.</p>
<p>-The library is pretty cool, but it's open to the public. My friend has run into a few homeless people there before. You can get time on computers there, but if you're in the HC, you have your own computer lab.</p>
<p>[[Towers:]]</p>
<p>-The housing in Towers is excellent, and it leaves a lot of room (no pun intended) for personalization. Having my own room is a huge plus.</p>
<p>-I don’t need a meal plan if I’m staying in the Towers (I'm fine with cooking using my own groceries), but if you get a meal plan, shoot for the smallest one available.</p>
<p>-The kitchen in each room has an oven/stove, sink, cabinets, full fridge, and plenty of pantry space for each of the four in the room.</p>
<p>-You share a bathroom with one other person. There are two bathrooms per Towers room. </p>
<p>-The walls in the Towers' rooms are thick enough to block out a good bit of noise—important. </p>
<p>-Proximity to the stadium and true hub of campus is a huge plus.</p>
<p>-Towers' residents have a laundry room and mail room on every floor. This means no hauling laundry to a separate building like you would have to do if you stayed in normal housing</p>
<p>-Each Tower has its own parking garage, so no competition to park.</p>
<p>-You pay for three terms (11.5-month contract for about $8750).</p>
<p>-Bring a skateboard or bike! The Towers are quite a walk from from the Burnett Honors College building (which Honors College students will have a number of classes in) as well as class buildings in general. You're kinda on the other side of campus (but you're where all the cool stuff is!).</p>
<p>[[The Honors College:]]</p>
<p>-priority registration (like... before everyone else. That's super important in a college of 57,000+ students)</p>
<p>-Honors advising (no peer advisers messing things up!!)</p>
<p>-super small classes (20 or fewer people)</p>
<p>-actually meeting and getting to know your professors</p>
<p>-The Honors College building has a beautiful meditation garden, exclusive computer lab (free printing and copies), and reading room.</p>
<p>-The BHC (Burnett Honors College) is a cool place to hang out between classes or to study at.</p>
<p>-The HC staff encourages students to talk with their professors; the director of the HC has an open-door policy if you ever want to talk.</p>
<p>-The HC aims to bring a small-school feel to the third-largest university in the U.S. and is pretty successful, from what I can tell.</p>
<p>[[National Merit stuff:]]</p>
<p>-National Merit Finalists can become a student assistant to Ryan Woods and give tours to prospective students as a paid job. </p>
<p>-At this point the laptop is this: you meet with Ryan and explain what you’d like in a laptop. They order it through Dell. There’s the possibility of this process being converted into a $1500 stipend. That’d be great.</p>
<p>-You get a $750/yr stipend for books (in addition to the $16,000/yr NM scholarship), though you can use it for other stuff if you choose
-Bright Futures is stackable with the NM scholarship</p>
<p>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</p>
<p>Let me know if you have any more questions that I didn't cover here. I don't remember every single thing that was said, so your question may spark my memory :)</p>
