Colleges Near Orlando

Anyone have any info about them. I think UCF is close. Does it offer Mechanical Engineering and/or Construction Systems Management? Is it on quarters or semesters? What's the campus like? What else is around there?

Yes, I know I can look all this up on-line and I will later tonight. I just wanted some local input.

My son is enrolled at Ohio State University. He was doing a double major in CSM & ME. He dropped the ME to concentrate on CSM. He'll be 2 classes shy of the CSM degree after spring quarter 2009. Over the summer he worked for a huge contruction firm in Orlando and they want him back next year and have already talked to him about hiring him permanently. I suggested to him that if they wanted to hire him permanently, that he could become a Florida resident and transfer down to UCF (or another) and finish his degree down there. He wants to get away from Ohio and winter and he loved the company and the actual work.

Don't know a lot about UCF, except that they are trying to bolster attendance in their medical program by awarding tuition grants.

Construction is slowing down in Florida, but that could change as infrastructure dollars make their way down here.

Regardless of what he decides, sending energy for luck on his journey. :)

I graduated from UCF!  I LOVE that campus.. it is HUGE!  I loved it there.  I was a legal studies major so I don't know about the engineering programs, but I know they have them... some of my classes were in the engineering building, and my fiance's sister got her degree in mechanical engineering.  UCF is a great school.  I suggest that he look into it.  Good Luck!

Being really close to graduation might make transfering a problem, a lot of schools require that you earn the the last X% of your credits from them in order to get a degree from that school.

Thanks for the heads up sully. I hadn't thought of that. I told him another option would be to come back to Ohio and finish the CSM as that would only be one more quarter and then hire on with the firm and finish the ME degree down there. They'd do tuition reimbursement.

Most schools require that your last 30 (semester) credits be taken at their school to fulfill the residency requirement. If he only has two classes left it probably wouldn't be worth it to transfer and get his degree from another school. If he's been at OSU since the beginning or has taken the majority of his credits there he may be able to talk to an advisor at his school to see if he can take the last classes in Florida and transfer them back to Ohio to complete his degree. Since they are his last classes it may not be as easy, but the school may be able to make exceptions for him. It would be easier to do that then to try to earn the degree at a new school.

Also - with becoming a Florida resident, he may not be able to just move there and get in-state tuition right away, sometimes you have to establish residency in a state for at least a year before they will consider you a resident for tuition purposes.

For all this I'm not trying to speak for all colleges, just giving some info I know. I suggest he talk to his advisors at Ohio, and also call/email Florida to check in with the tuition/residency thing.

UCF~ very close to the city, about a twenty minute drive to downtown. I don't know about there programs but there campus is very large, very populated, and very nice.

Valencia~ Community college all throughout Florida. Only minutes away from Downtown. 

Full Sail~ A Entertainment Speciality School for Music Arts  and Film school. Which is only ten minutes from Downtown.

Rollins College~ Very Close to Downtown and right in Downtown Winter Park.

Sorry I don't know much about all the schools except for Full Sail, I got there. E-mail me if you need any more information I can try to help you out, I live right in the city.  

I did a quickie look up at lunch and discovered that UCF doesn't have a CSM degree. They offer a Construction Engineering Degree that is different. They do have a great engineering college. Also he'd have to live in the state for 12 months before getting in-state tuition. It's looking like the best course of action is for him to come back for fall quarter 2009 and finish the Construction Systems Management degree at OSU. Then move to Orlando for the job. He can then finish his ME degee at UCF.

i go to full sail and like someone else said its 10 mins away.. theres a lot of clubs and bars around there if youre into that,, and apparenty ucf has the best looking girls in the counrty or somthing idk someone was saying playboy voted that.. umm theres a lot of traffic so if your not living on campus it can take 15 mins to get 1 mile down tthe road literally