She’s been a strong candidate for quite a while!
First year she was in Neptune- none of her roommates had the meal plan. They sometimes cooked in the kitchen or ate out or ordered delivery. With Towers and having a full kitchen, you really have all you need, I doubt anyone would bother with the dining plan. If no one has a car, there is a shuttle to get groceries. They all said the dining hall was terrible. There are restaurants on campus that take Knights cash. We would put some money on that monthly- also worked for laundry. She had a credit card for all her other expenses.
She went with Neptune because she was in the OOS LLC- otherwise she would have lived in Towers.
Very few of her friends got housing on campus the second year- it’s a lottery. Most are in off campus housing in apartments. She is over at Rosen and will stay in the dorm next year.
Does she like the Rosen dorms? My daughter (also out of state–Pennsylvania) is going to live there from the start. Sam does like to cook, so that should help. Or, rereading it, is she just heading into second year and thus hasn’t lived there yet?
@rebeccam31 Yes, she is currently at Rosen. She really likes it there. She is done with all of her GEP classes, so is fully into the major. She does not have to go to main campus for any class. She likes being closer to the parks! She is currently doing her internship and in the Disney College Program, so being close to Disney has made her commute easier. A lot of kids work at Disney or Universal.
There is a Publix grocery store across the street. That’s great she likes to cook!
Thanks so much for the info! Sam is really excited to live there (and is hopeful she can minimize the travel back and forth to main campus). She’s wanted to work at Disney World forever. 
There are pretty regular scheduled shuttles between Rosen and the Main Campus. The require some planning, obviously, but they run roughly every 90 minutes. Here’s a link:
https://parking.ucf.edu/shuttles/rosen-college-shuttle-schedule/
Thank you!
Financial Aid Award was zero grant or merit money and only loans for my OOS student. Anyone else? This will be the end of the line for UCF on our list, unfortunately. Good luck to everyone!
Same. They did offer a parent plus loan of almost 32,000 though ?
Finally heard about scholarship. Received Pegasus gold
@OceanIsle someone on another board said they only received loan offers and had an EFC of $0 due to a disability. People are telling her that UCF will work with you. It appears there are some hoops to jump through. So if you have a low EFC, I would contact the Fin Aid office to discuss if there are other options.
We also got only loans as an offer. We have another offer from FIU that is much better, so we’re trying to figure out how to evaluate that.
But UCF remains her top choice.
YAY!
@Roscoe66 Do you mind sharing what $ amount that is–or do you know somewhere that UCF lists the $ amounts for each scholarship amount? Congratulations-I am getting ideas for my hs jr. who will be searching for merit. Thank you.
@vannevka , thanks for the info!
Same for us as well.
@1Lotus - from 2018- Gold OOS- $38K over 8 semesters, Silver OOS- $34K there is also a Knights Achievement for OOS that gives in-state tuition. I assume these numbers are close.
Come Fall 2020 UCF says they will no longer require the FAFSA to be completed for merit awards.
@jeneric-thank you for all the great information!!
For Fall 2020? It’s still a little early to apply online for Parent Plus for 2020-21; just checked FAFSA Website and 2020-21 is not yet open for application.
I believe FAFSA reopens October 1st.