The University of Central Florida

Date: May 23 2016
Major: Psychology (This Major's Salary over time)
This is specifically for students who are interested in applying to the Honors College at UCF. If you want to come to UCF, then that is great - overall, I personally had a quality experience as an undergraduate at this institution. However, if you are looking to apply to the UCF Burnett Honors College I urge you to reconsider. When I started at UCF in 2012, Honors had so many enriching programs and opportunities. Over the past few years, though, these programs have been rapidly disappearing and the staff who really cared about student success have mostly left. Let me provide some specific examples. For the first 6 months of my freshman year, there was an Honors Congress office led by Dr. Norburn and her assistant (Maria, I believe was her name) - they planned trips to local attractions, luncheons, film viewings, and other interactive social events for us as students. However, this office was soon dismantled, and the level of "opportunity" to interact with my peers was not even worth one-eighth of what my parents paid in dues as a part of my application (I don't recall many events after my freshman year, save a few luncheons here an there…most of which seemed thrown together at the last minute and uninspired). Up until last year, there were also many exciting programs being offered through the Research and Civic Engagement Office - my 3 favorites being ACE (Achieve a College Education Day), a study abroad trip to work with the New York Mets training camp, and Honors in the Major. While Honors in the Major still exists, the other programs do not. This was entirely confusing to me and many of my peers - many of us loved these programs and they received so much recognition throughout the Orlando community. I had even tentatively planned my schedule around the New York Mets study abroad trip with the hope to be selected for the experience in Fall 2015. However, I came back to campus in August 2015 to find that not only had this trip been eliminated, but that ACE was gone as well. Things at Honors have gotten bleak, for lack of a better description, to the point that I actually feel bad for my peers in the sense that they will not have the same level of opportunity that I had. And, with all due respect, I get a feeling that some of the recent additions to the Honors staff are not student centered. When I was a freshman, sophomore, and junior, there were staff at Honors who made me want to get involved - they were social, charismatic, and real mentors rather than supervisors. Over the last year, with two exceptions (Rex and Denise…and Denise, I learned, just left Honors sadly), the staff walked past me and many of my peers like we didn't even exist (a far cry from what they told us at Orientation - the doors are NOT always open). So, if you are trying to choose between whether to do EXCEL or Honors - do EXCEL. If you are trying to choose between UF and UCF Honors - strongly look at UF first. If you are even interested in the arts or humanities (because Honors seems to never offer classes for these disciplines) - take on a double major and forgo Honors altogether. Having Honors will not make or break your future career or graduate school goals. Honestly, your future direction will depend upon your GPA, test scores, and level of academic/co-curricular involvement - all of which you can find OUTSIDE of Honors on the UCF campus. Honors was fun while it lasted, but now it is just more trouble for students than it is worth.