I am an out-of-state student likely to be attending UCF in 2018. Since I’m not from Florida, I had never heard much about the university prior to my college search. Now, I’m curious about how people from Florida view the college as a whole. Is it considered hard to get into? Is it seen as a place that people go to mostly after junior college? How does its reputation among Floridians compare to other colleges like UF, FSU, USF, FIU, etc? Any information from an in-state perspective will be appreciated!
Background: I’m a prospective engineering student from the south hoping to go because of their National Merit Scholarship.
It looks like Florida may start awarding OOS students Benacquisto Scholarship, which would pay full cost of attendance (COA) at Florida public universities. If you are a NMF, keep an eye on that, we should know for sure in a week or so.
Miami is a private school, so the scholarship would only be about $21K toward the overall cost of UM. New College doesn’t offer Engineering.
UF is viewed as having the best Engineering program in the state. UCF and USF both are viewed as being only a step or two behind UF (in engineering). These two schools are usually the 2nd choice (after UF) for engineering. For some students, UCF and USF are the first choice, usually due to generous in-state merit scholarships.
The FSU/FAMU shared engineering program isn’t as well established as UCF or USF’s programs.
To give you a better idea about UCF (based on the common data set info).
UCF has over 55K undergraduates and over 8K graduate students, for a total of 64K+. It’s a fairly young, school, and the campus has been well designed to handle the growth. If you view a map, you’ll see it’s been built up in a hub and spoke type layout.
Fall 2016, 34,886 students applied, 17,441 were accepted (50%) and 6,403 enrolled (38% yield). UCF’s acceptance rate and yield, is better than most state flagship universities in the southeast (lower acceptance rate, higher yield). This reflects how much interest in-state students have for UCF.
Test scores for enrolled Freshman:
OLD SAT (25%/75% and Average score)
SAT CR: 540 to 630; average 588
SAT M: 540 to 640: average 593
SAT: W: 510 to 600: average 558
ACT Composite: 24 to 28; Average 26
33% are in the top tenth of their high school graduating class
71% are in the top quarter
Average GPA (weighted) is 3.92
All of the above are comparable to most of the State Flagship universities in the southeast (exceptions being schools like UF, Georgia Tech, Georgia, etc.).
UCF takes on more transfer students than true freshman (6,958 transfers students in the fall of 2016 vs 6,403 enrolled freshman). But all of the Florida publics take on large numbers of transfer students. Even at UF, close to 1/3 of the undergraduate students are transfer students.
If you want more information on the UCF engineering program (or any other engineering program), I recommend the program profiles at ASEE. It will list which majors are offered, how many students are enrolled in each program, the number of engineering faculty, research funding, etc.
@ufmomfriend
I am specifically looking into Computer Engineering.
@Gator88NE
Thank you so much for all the information! I will look into the UF NMS program, but I am really looking more into UCF than Florida at the moment. Mostly because of the location; it’s pretty hard to beat Orlando.
@Gator88NE
Out of curiosity, why do you think that the Benacquisto scholarship might be extended to OoS students? And how can I find out the decision made on that?
OOS Benacquisto scholarships are in the Higher Education bill (SB 374) that’s waiting on the Governor to sign. Once signed it should go into effect this financial (state) year (this Fall).
UCF is excellent for computer engineering. I know people who turned down UF to go into UCF’s computer engineering program. Their recruitment is supposed to be very good also.
My nephew went there. I know this isn’t really what you’re asking about but thought you might find it interesting anyway. Everyone in his HS called it the University of Central Happiness.
My kids graduated from a Florida High school that is about 2 hours from UF, 2 from UCF and 3 from FSU. Really, about the same number of kids went to each school (and plenty to the others too, with USF and FIU taking a number of them) Some were ‘FSU or die’ others wouldn’t step foot in Tallahassee (my nephew went to another high school near Tampa and didn’t even apply to FSU). Just personal choice, but UCF does seem to award more scholarships.
I will admit how surprised I was that so many chose UCF. One girl really could have gone anywhere. She was a top student, had a lot of awards for art, music, band, NHS, theater, etc. and she picked UCF. Money was not an issue. She received lead roles in theater immediately as a freshman and just loves it there.
UCF’s engineering program is always receiving awards. There was a big story a few years ago because students developed a prosthetic hand/arm on a 3D printer and the waiting list was years long because this hand was so fantastic.
S is starting in the fall and is accepted into Burnett Honors College. The school is huge but Burnett makes it small. The location is perfect for those in STEM fields, UCF has a multitude of intern and job programs with companies like Lockheed Martin, Siemens, Boeing, etc.
UCF makes you feel like they WANT you, can’t say the same for UF. UCF is definitely worth exploring and be sure to check out Burnett Honors too. Good luck!
Exactly what response #11 said. My kid left the tour feeling like they valued his brain and wanted him to come and study there not just be face in “The Swamp”-- the UF stadium
Both my kids were accepted to uf and opted for ucf. No regrets.
My best advice is to visit your top picks if at all possible. Each has a completely different feel/vibe. Money is important, but you obviously want to be comfortable.
The engineering programs at ucf are very well respected and provide fantastic internships with world class corporations located literally next door to campus. Many students are hired before graduation!!!
I know several kids who’ve gone there because they automatically accept anyone in the top ten percent of Florida high school graduating classes. I know many, many more who only applied there in case FSU or UF, or some other first choice school, rejected them.
UCF and USF are both trying very hard to break into the flagship tier with Florida State and UFlorida. Neither is likely to get there any time soon, and both are quite large and full of commuters. But they’re very good directionals, and each has a handful of standout programs…
My S was very seriously considering UCF for Aerospace Engineering. They were very generous with merit scholarships and lots of helpful programs. Unfortunately, he was denied admission to Burnett. This was a deal breaker.
I talked to several parents at the UCF BHC orientation and all said their S or D was accepted to U of F but decided on UCF. S accepted UCF because of its engineering bona fides, among other things.
STEM2017 – I think we both understand how arbitrary some of these college admissions decisions can be. Since your S was accepted into Virginia Tech engineering, you would think he would be accepted into BHC with no problem. I know S thought he could make it into VA Tech engineering, having been accepted into U of F, UCF BHC, and Texas A&M, but it was not to be. Guess that’s why it makes sense to apply to at least 3-4 or more schools, rather than throw the dice on one school in the admissions process. My D is interested in VA Tech so we hope to be down there for a visit sometime this fall or next spring.