<p>(Im not sure which university to post this in)</p>
<p>I have a dilemma. I paid my $200 deposit for tuition and i paid for orientation and yesterday USF gave me 11k in grants and scholarship money whereas UCF only gave me 2,400. If I go to USF it will be a full ride because of bright futures and pell grant. Im trying to visit Tampa but im not sure when i can. I would like opinions on what i should do. help please? :(</p>
<p>If you’re on the fence only because of the $250 you already paid UCF, just think of it this way – USF is giving you nearly 10 grand that UCF isn’t. :-P</p>
<p>I took a tour of USF a few years ago; it too is a nice campus, just nowhere near as large.</p>
<p>Call UCF and find out if some of the money you paid is refundable. The orientation fees likely are not, but the admissions deposit might be, esp if USF gave you a lot more money. Explain the $$ difference. Who knows, UCF might try to match that. or they might not care. Call and discuss. For that kind of money I would go USF. What is your planned major?</p>
<p>Hmm I’d probably go to USF. It’s a nice school and I love Tampa.</p>
<p>USF’s approx. 1797 acre Tampa campus is actually about 382 acres larger than UCF’s approx. 1415 acre Orlando campus. UCF’s campus maybe seems larger because of all of its circular roads that go nowhere but in circles on its campus.</p>
<p>Yeah I was going to say USF’s campus is pretty big. For some reason when I visited UCF’s it didn’t seem too big even though everyone was talking about how huge it was.</p>
<p>100%, absolutely, positively USF. Money should never be a sole motivator in anything one does, but is a necessary evil. It’s scary enough out there without having debt when you graduate. Relieve as much stress as possible and take the cash money!!</p>
<p>I got 50,000 from USF and 0 from UCF, and I’m going to UCF because they have the program I want.
Money can’t be a factor in choosing your school.</p>
<p>^ Huh? Money is a big factor for choosing a school for 99.99% of people.</p>
<p>Well you won’t be happy if you don’t like the school or the location or the major…</p>
<p>Well, obviously the OP likes the school, otherwise they wouldn’t have applied and considered in the first place. It’s great that you can afford to go to your perfect school, but many people can’t, and have to settle for their 2nd choice. I’d personally love to go to MIT, but I’m settling for UCF because it’s the best in-state, and Bright Future + Instate tuition surely beat the piles of money it would cost to go to MIT.</p>
<p>And just to remain on topic, if your heart is REALLY set on UCF, then I would go there, if you think that the extra $10k wouldn’t keep you in debt beyond reason. If you are hobbling between the two schools anyway, and could have gone to either, and I’m sure you’ve already evaluated the quality of your major, and all that jazz, then I’d choose UCF.</p>
<p>There’s also relativity: “Although located near attractions such as Disney World and Universal Studios, University of Central Florida students know how to work hard too, which places them as the number five college in Florida and #179 in the United States. UCF’s 2010-2011 in-state tuition is $4,526 and its out-of-state tuition is $20,005. As of 2009 total enrollment was 53,537 with an acceptance rate of 47 percent.” </p>
<p>“Located in Tampa, Florida, the University of South Florida is in the top 200 schools ranked by U.S. News & World Report. In Florida’s 2011 rankings, USF is the number six college in Florida and #183 in the United States. 2010-2011 in-state tuition is $5,124, and out-of-state tuition is $15,933. In 2009, USF’s total enrollment was 40,022, with an acceptance rate of 48 percent.”</p>
<p>Also check with UCF to see if this is a one time grant, or a renewable one. A friend of mine believed that hers was only one time, but really it renewed over 4 years. If that were the case for you, it still wouldn’t add up to -as much-, but with the amount less that UCF’s tuition is than USF’s, they’d balance out by the end of 4 years.</p>
<p>Hope I helped!</p>
<p>Your user name is futureMD. If you’re serious about that, by the time you start applying, the tuition and fees for medical school will leave with close to $300k in debt. This is not accounting for interest that will accrue while in a residency program, and sometimes even while in med school if all of your loans are not subsidized, and they won’t be. Adding the undergrad debt, so seemingly small, is still a lot to add on. Until you have experienced debt from a closer perspective, you don’t know how much of a difference a couple thousand makes in the payments and interest. </p>
<p>If it were a difference between a school that you hated and one that you loved, then there’s a difference. But you clearly must like both schools if its even a thought and you applied to USF. And as far as them not having a particular program, I find that UCF doesn’t really have that many programs that are beyond the basics that every college should have. In fact, we lack in many areas IMO. So that shouldn’t be a problem. As far as the location, Tampa is nice. Definitely a place I’d consider living permanently. Unlike Orlando, way too busy for me. Maybe in Oviedo its a tad better. But I digress.</p>
<p>Point is, yea UCF is cool, but if they didn’t offer me a pegasus scholarship and another Florida school like USF did, it wouldn’t be a hard decision for me.</p>
<p>I’d agree domrom, just throwing in that the tuition for UCF -is- cheaper. Not that much cheaper, but you’ll save about 4k bucks over the years 
Plus, the UCF one might be renewable, because I know someone with that size scholarship, but it’s renewable over 4 years.</p>
<p>My major is Biology / Psychology. Im not sure which on yet but (as you seen by my name lol) i want to go to medical school. The only thing is that UCF seems bigger in a way . I have a little bit of family there and im scared at USF im not going to have fun. I also called UCF but they seemed like they didnt even care at all about matching USF. Ive been to Tampa but i dont remember it at all and I cant go for probably another 3 weeks.</p>
<p>Of course they don’t care about matching. Its the third biggest school in the nation, theres plenty of people waiting. </p>
<p>Being honest here, UCF isn’t the bees knees. Sure its a nice school, the area is tremendously busy (take this as good or bad, but most college towns are), relatively new, sports are getting better, etc. But how much fun you have is based more on the person than anything. A social butterfly will have more fun at any school than a book worm who only studies. I don’t think the school will really determine how much fun you have. I stand by my decision. Take the money and run. This has nothing to do with you only caring about money. Debt isn’t fun.</p>