With about 60,000 undergraduates, 13 colleges and over 110 bachelor's degree programs, the University of Central Florida is one of the largest universities in the U.S. Appropriately enough, given its name, UCF spreads across the middle of Florida, with the main campus in Orlando.
Greek life is popular on campus, with roughly 30 sororities and fraternities, and there are more than 650 student clubs and organizations. The school's Knights compete in the NCAA Division I. (The school joined the competitive Big 12 Conference in 2023), and you can see the famous UCF Golden Knight on the famous horse, Pegasus, at home football games.
Students come from every state and 148 countries; they also visit many countries with study abroad options in locales like Ecuador, Switzerland, Azerbaijan and Germany.
UCF is considered a leader in a wide range of fields such as optics, modeling and simulation, engineering, computer science, education, biomedical sciences, hospitality management and digital media. It partners with major companies, including Lockheed Martin, Orlando Health and Universal to offer innovative new programs and facilities to students.
According to Money’s calculations, the estimated net price of a UCF degree — before taking into consideration federal and state aid — is just over $110,000, significantly less than the national median. Plus, 70% of undergraduate students at UCF received scholarship or grant aid, allowing most to pay for college without needing to borrow. About 30% of undergraduates leave with debt.
