UCF vs University of Oklahoma: Honors Colleges, Vibes, Opportunities, and more (National Merit)

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Central Florida
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Hi!

Earlier this year I was named a National Merit Finalist and the scholarships that schools like UCF and Oklahoma offer are hard to ignore. I have been accepted to both and was wondering as to everyone’s opinions about them, most specifically as to the benefits of the honors colleges, the respective “vibes” of each, and the opportunities (in the school, area, or beyond) that each would offer for undecided students.

Feel free to offer strong opinions or a Pros and Cons list - anything is much appreciated!

Also, some of the other schools at the top of my likely to attend list are Bowdoin College, Occidental College, or Lehigh University (and hopefully Duke and Haverford if all works out!). As you can see, these are pretty small schools compared to those in discussion! What would be the benefits of UCF, Oklahoma, or similar instead of one of the above (financials will work out similarly either way)?

Much thanks!

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Hi! I’m also a high school senior and National Merit Finalist. I applied to both schools, but I ruled out OU in favor of UCF (which I will be attending) a long time ago. So, I’ll be providing a lot more information about UCF because I know far more about it than OU.

Financially, UCF was by far the better choice. While OU waives tuition and provides some money for room and board, UCF gives a flat rate scholarship that matches an approximate cost of attendance. This means that having a very expensive room and board arrangement and a heavy schedule of classes at UCF will cost you some money, but with some planning it’s not hard to go under the scholarship amount. If your costs are less than the scholarship, you receive the difference as a stipend. So, I would rather be paid by UCF than attend OU at a very low cost.

UCF’s Burnett Honors College provides some pretty great benefits. Honors housing in Tower III has students living in apartments with three roommates. This means a private bedroom, shared bathroom with one other person, and a full kitchen. To me, that seems like the perfect balance of privacy and the social college experience. Additionally, honors courses are available for gen-ed and in-major courses and are capped at 20 students, which is a little smaller than OU’s honors courses. Students also gain priority scheduling three semesters in advance; this means that even as a freshman I’ll be able to arrange my ideal schedule for the whole academic year. From a bit of research, I was reminded that OU’s honors college does not offer benefits nearly as nice as these.

I cannot compare the vibes, since I never visited OU, but I can tell you with certainty that out of my 10+ college visits, UCF was my favorite. Everybody I met, from those running the scholars’ visit to people around campus, were extremely kind and passionate about the school. The visit gave a lot of individual attention to each prospective through scholarship and honors Q&A, dinner with faculty and administration, and small-group faculty panels. The feeling of being valued made a big difference in my fist impression of UCF. It’s also worth mentioning that, coming from Midwest weather, the warm winters are a massive plus to the vibe. The honors housing, palm trees, and sunshine make it feel like a resort.

I am not undecided, so I can’t answer what advantages UCF has for undecided students, but I can tell you a bit about the advantages it provides for my major, Aerospace Engineering. UCF is near Kennedy Space Center and has a lot of aerospace industry right in its backyard, so local internships and research are abundant. Combined with this, the honors housing in Tower III is an 11 1/2 month agreement, so I could stay in my apartment while interning somewhere local over the summer.

Perspectives from other applicants and parents are great, but don’t hesitate to contact people from the colleges you are interested in. I only know as much about UCF as I do because I’ve had a lot of communication with the Director of the Scholars Program, Luke Van Blaricom (luke.vanblaricom@ucf.edu), faculty in my major, and a current National Merit Scholar.

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@MHStiger17 Wow! Thank you so much for the reply. I have been mulling it over for several weeks now and I have designated it as my #1 for NMSC. You and some others have helped to sell it to me and confirm what I thought further!

When you visited what did you think about the campus (in terms of it’s huge size, location, and facilities)? What did you think of the students you met? It is great to hear about the faculty. I am also very interested in engineering and I know that UCF seems to do well in that area.

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@confusedaboutuni No problem! I loved the campus, and while it is very big it actually does not feel too massive. It’s organized like a dartboard, with two rings and a bullseye. The outermost ring contains student life things like housing and sports facilities. The inner ring is academic buildings, and the bullseye contains administrative buildings with the student union at the very center. Shuttles run clockwise and counterclockwise around campus, so you won’t be walking too far. I’ll live in Tower III, which is right by a bus stop. The engineering building and honors college are only one or two bus stops away, so getting around will be very easy. The facilities all feel very new and classy, and the Towers are the newest housing available on campus. Absolutely nothing appeared to be in disrepair. The location is excellent for internships, especially for engineering, because there is research park right outside campus. The area immediately off-campus feels very safe, although I did not explore off-campus very much. What really impressed me was the presence of so much industry right off campus: big names like Siemens and Lockheed Martin are in the research park, and it’s less than an hour from Kennedy Space Center which offers opportunities such as SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, and NASA. It’s also a day-trip’s distance from Disney or Universal. The location, in short, is fantastic.

The students I met were all National Merit Scholars, so they were bright, motivated, and passionate about the school. I can’t offer a vibe about the student body as a whole, but we’ll be spending a lot of time around honors students who I believe will be a reflection of the students I met. I also got a lot of contact from students in the form of letters and calls, so they seem to really care about the university. Every student I’ve spoken to was very helpful and eager to “sell” UCF.

The faculty I’ve communicated with have been amazing. Part of my visit was a faculty panel in small groups, and I learned that there’s a lot of interesting research going on that the professors want students to participate in. Everything I’ve been told is that becoming involved is as easy as building a rapport with a professor and then asking. I emailed one professor later on with a question, and he replied almost immediately and CC’d several other professors who offered their perspective as well. I was shocked to receive such swift and helpful replies from the faculty of one of the country’s largest research universities, not even being a student yet! I’m really looking forward to having small honors classes with faculty that care so much about their students.

UCF became my top choice for obvious reasons, and I’m very excited for my education there to begin!

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We visited UCF recently and were very impressed. It’s one of my son’s top choices. MHStiger gives a lot of helpful info, and did not even mention the weather is fabulous 95 percent of the time. It’s really uplifting to be in nice weather all the time.

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@confusedaboutuni What do you plan to major in college? Have you had a chance to visit either college?

My D is also a NMF. She did not consider UCF because it doesn’t have the engineering major she wanted. She is going to attend OU this fall. Some things that influenced her, in no particular order, to choose OU:

  1. Scholarship
  2. Honors College
  3. Chemical engineering major
  4. Impressed by the music faculty…she’s considering a double major in voice
  5. National merit finalist housing…they have about 200 NMF/year and most live together in separate housing

She originally wanted to attend a small private school, but changed her mind after visiting 6 campuses in the last two months. Norman, OK has a small town feel and the OU honors college/NM dorms make the university seem a little smaller. She also loved Tulane, Tulsa, and Alabama so the decision was not easy on her.

I really have no cons to share with you. I think you really should make a campus visit to a few schools if you haven’t already. College can be a $100,000+ investment or in your case a $100K+ scholarship, so spending some time/money to visit the campus is probably a good investment on your part. Work through the admissions office to arrange a personalized tour. With your academic achievements, the colleges will probably treat you like a rock star so enjoy it while you can. Good luck.

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@jerzmaster did you like the housing that the NM Scholars live in? It seemed so tight and not very nice compared to other dorms we have looked at. That was actually an aspect that I didn’t like as much about OU, and I liked a lot about OU. I wonder if I saw the right thing.

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The NMF housing at OU was a suite style dorm. Two students per room and then two rooms share on bathroom. It wasn’t the smallest dorm we visited (Tulsa) or the largest (University of Houston). Alabama had nice dormitories for the honors college…each student got an individual room. Tulane’s dorms looked the oldest. The Texas A&M dorms were similar to OU. Students at each school seem to change to different dorms or apartments after their freshman year. For sophmores and above, OU is opening up two new “residential” colleges. My daughter says they remind her of Hogwarts school from Harry Potter.

I guess since I went to college 27 years ago, all of the dorms seemed reasonable to me. OU dorms were plenty big and comfortable for 2 college students. The University of Houston dorms were nicer than anything I would have ever expected a college student needing. So maybe I’m not the best one to ask.

One thing I told my D was that she needed to put her college criteria on a list (dorms, majors, honors college, scholarship, city, exercise facilities, student programming, clubs, “feel”, etc.). After she put this on a list, I made her rank each one in importance. She realized that the dorm or cafeteria, although noticeable between schools, was not really one of the most important criteria on her list. For other kids, privacy, dorm space, etc. criteria are important and would rank higher on their list.

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@crazy4info Also, even though I did not think the actual NMF dormitory was special in any way, I still think this was one of the big draws for my D to OU. The key for her was that all of the NMF would be living together. I think other colleges do similar housing arrangements for their honors students, but there is no place where 200 NMF live together in one community. Not all NMF are the same, but they will have some common ground together that maybe they would not have with students from the general admission class. The idea sounds great to my D, the OU students we talked to had great experiences…but we’ll see how this actually works in the Fall.

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We had a NMF red carpet tour at UCF on Monday. We were told that they pair NMF with another NMF for roommates regardless of where you decide to live (Towers 3 or Neptune were the most common choices for NMF).

I have to admit that UCF was sort of an afterthought when my S was deferred at GA Tech (he has since been admitted) but we have done a ton of research and struggle to find a con with the honors program at UCF, especially for a CS major.

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@Bcabamom Honors at UCF has great benefits. Honor students are required to take a seminar, which
has them teach in public schools (got mixed reviews, based on interests)

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The seminar is in the first semester and entails going to listen to various speakers on a variety of topics, some homework/feedback and then for several weeks in the middle of the semester mentoring at a local public school. Students are taken by bus once a week and interact with one class at a public school and later fill out a survey on their thoughts/impressions about that class/school/program. It’s not really intensive, overwhelming or time consuming. It can be a good way to make friends within the honors program and can be eye opening.

From what I have come to understand, other FL schools have one of these “university classes” that is required…helps set the tone. The one I wrote about is strictly for ucf honors students.

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@jerzmaster

“One thing I told my D was that she needed to put her college criteria on a list (dorms, majors, honors college, scholarship, city, exercise facilities, student programming, clubs, “feel”, etc.). After she put this on a list, I made her rank each one in importance. She realized that the dorm or cafeteria, although noticeable between schools, was not really one of the most important criteria on her list. For other kids, privacy, dorm space, etc. criteria are important and would rank higher on their list.”

This is great advice!

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We researched UCF as poss. choice for NMF. Most dorms appear very nice at UCF (3 other roommates, private bedrooms). Comp Science majors take a Foundation Exam as requirement. I think there are 1,500 students in CS.
Students said to def. bring umbrella/raincoat for the rainy season