It's Alright...

Introduction
Ok, just because all your friends are going to a College, doesn't mean you should follow them to somewhere you don't want to go. It's cheap here if your an in-state kid, about $3,200 a year for tuition, $16,000 if you are out of state. That being said, UCF (University of Central Florida) is huge. Tons and tons of people. Seriously. You take for granted things like: a parking space, instant checkout at the bookstore and a seat in a classroom, etc. We have 40,000 something kids here, and not nearly enough facilites to have all small classes. If you want personal attention and small class sizes, check out the Burnett Honors College. As an honors student, the only reason I am here is because the Honors College offered me early registration for classes, free computer access and unlimited printing, class sizes 20 or under, and services strictly for use for only honors students. If you want to succeed because you want to, not because the school puts pressure on you, go here.

Campus Life and Social Life
Partying is mainly in the Nike and Hercules dorm, maybe Lake Claire. Kids just walk in with beer and as long as they don't get break things or throw up in the hallways, no one cares. Beware, if you are caught with anything (drugs, alcohol), you could be kicked out of your dorm, and you still have to pay for it. School spirit kinda sucks here, no one really cares about the athletics, except football and maybe men's basketball. Orlando is full of clubs, and the campus is a ghost town after Thursday night, with tons of kids going to vairous clubs throughout town. Now, like campus clubs? Well, the SGA gives out lots of money to clubs, but because most of the leaders of SGA are in a sorority or fraternity, most of the money goes to them. Weekends mean local kids go home to wash their clothes or the kids with easy majors go out and party. Academics
Well, UCF was once Florida Technological University while back. So engneering and computer science are our strongest academic departments. Science is pretty big here, and so is business. Now... the fine arts. Well, let's say our band plays in a trailer, and our current theatre was once a chemistry lecture hall. Bascially, no funding for new facillites for Arts and Music. If you are into liberal arts, go to Florida State. Academically speaking, the school is quite challenging, so just because we aren't as old as UF or Florida State, we are by no means an easy school. Professors are top notch, so are TAs, most kids don't visit their professors during their office hours, so there is virtually no waiting to get help or advice from your professors or TA. Workloads can be stressful, especially anything engneering or math and science related. Watch out for Labs, they are 1 credit hour (a typical class is 3 credit hours) and require about 12 hours a week.

Student Body
The typical student here is a local Floridian who didn't get into the University of Florida and dosen't want to go to FSU or Miami. There are a lot of local kids here, and some kids from out of state. There are so many students here, you can't really classify a "typical" student as far as interests or hobbies go. We have goth kids here, 40 year old mothers who bring their kids to class, 60 year old grandpas in at least one lecture hall, veterans, gays and lesbians, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, and just about anyone else you can think of, you will find here. A lot of kids are into greek life and intramural sports are also popular here. Basically, if you have an interest, out of 40,000 people, there will at least be 20 who have the same interest.

In Closing...
This school is on the rise. We are going to build a new football stadium on campus, possibly a new medical school, a new basketball arena/convocation center, 3 new 500 bed apartments, the north side of campus is going to be basically a little downtown Orlando with thousands of square feet of retail. There is talk of a skate park, Ron Jons Surf Shop, movie theater, all right next to each other... and it will all be on campus. So, if you want to be at a rising school, with tons of new ideas (and buildings) come here and enjoy yourself (not too much hopefully for your GPA's sake).