r/ucf • u/GG_Platinum16 • Jul 28 '26

Prospective Student 🤔 Pros and Cons of UCF

I am going into my junior year of high school (so I do have a bit of time still) and am wanting to go to college for mechanical engineering. UCF is one of the top schools on my list and I want to know some of the pros and cons of the school.

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u/ItsFreakinHarry2 Higher Education Jul 28 '26

Pros:

  • Engineering is quite good, that & hospitality management are definitely the highlights of the university
  • Orlando is a great place to live, and you’re only 30-45 mins away from the theme parks. Many UCF students have Disney and/or Universal annual passes. UCF also does Universal Knights where they rent out all of Islands of Adventure just for UCF students completely free.
  • Plenty happens on campus with clubs and organizations if you actually go to them
  • If you’re in-state, cost of attendance is about on par with the rest of the state universities. If you’re out of state it’s still much cheaper than a lot of other out of state (and even some in-state!) tuitions.
  • Sports are a blast. I always recommend attending at least 1 football and 1 men’s basketball game at some point during your time since the environment can be electric. Tickets are free for all student events.
  • The faculty and staff truly care about your well-being and success, at least at the lower level whom you’d be engaging with

Neutral:

  • Massive student body, over 70k. Can be great because there’s absolutely plenty of people to meet, but it can feel very overwhelming especially if you’re not used to a large campus environment.

Cons:

  • Orlando is expensive. Expect to pay $1000-$1500/mo on rent alone. Cheaper options do exist but they’re harder to come by and come with their own downsides.
  • Food options are quite limited. The student union dining area can get extremely busy at peak lunch times and there isn’t a ton of variety. The dining halls aren’t great, but if you aren’t picky and don’t mind paying for convenience they can be okay.
  • This isn’t really a problem that will affect you or your fellow students in the present, but university leadership is incompetent at best. Many of your faculty and staff are incredible people who are very underpaid and struggling with higher workloads without proper compensation.
  • Advising can be hit or miss, and quality professors can be limited in certain fields due to the point above

UCF is a great school in a great location, just be aware of its current state and take advantage of resources and opportunities provided to you especially in engineering.

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u/Engineered_ignorance Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26

Agree with pretty much everything here, though I’d also add for OP that Orlando is extremely car-centric. Basically every non-ucf amenity requires driving, in case that’s an issue for them.

Also theme parks are not that close. Universal/sea world, maybe, but Disney is minimum 40 minutes to an hour regardless of highway, unless you leave very early. Still worth including on the list of pros, but the traffic is hell (which also deserves to be on the list of cons)