University of Central Florida
PA-7: Affordability and Access

The Financial aid office offers a multitude of programs targeted at minimizing the cost of attendance for low-income students including: Pegasus Scholarship Programs Pegasus Scholarships are awarded to entering high school graduates by Undergraduate Admissions to recognize outstanding academic performance. There is no separate application for this scholarship program. Students who apply for admission to UCF for summer or fall terms are automatically considered. The Pegasus Scholarship Program includes: National Merit Scholarship National Achievement Scholarship National Hispanic Scholars Scholarship Pegasus Scholarship Provost Scholarship Pegasus Waiver Knights Achievement Waiver

Training is provided for faculty and staff through the office of Diversity and Inclusion targeted at better ways to serve students from low-income backgrounds, including: -Inclusive Communication This workshop identifies some common mistakes made when communicating about age, class, disabilities, ethnicity, gender, language, looks, race, religion, and sexual orientation. It also highlights words, phrases, and behaviors that can enhance the process of communicating about and across various dimensions of difference. -Framework for Understanding Poverty (one 3-hour session)* Socioeconomic status or class is an often overlooked, but critically important, dimension of diversity. Since 1995, Dr. Ruby Payne’s A Framework for Understanding Poverty has helped educators and other professionals understand individuals from all socioeconomic backgrounds - poverty, middle class, and wealth. This workshop provides an overview of Dr. Payne’s work including the “hidden rules” among classes, the characteristics of generational poverty, and the significant role of available resources. -Intersectionality (one 1-hour session) The concept of “intersectionality” refers to the interactivity of social identity structures such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation in fostering life experiences, especially experiences of privilege and oppression. This workshop will discuss the origins of intersectionality and explore this concept as it relates to issues of diversity. -People Like Us: Social Class in America (one 3-hour session) This film discusses the impact that social class has on Americans and how it plays a role in all of our lives. The documentary follows the lives of Americans ranging from all walks of life and how they see social class in America. -Understanding Power and Privilege (one 3-hour session) This session looks at the concepts of power and privilege in detail and describes actions that can be adopted to mitigate the effects of social injustice.

BEST: Building Exemplary Scholars for Tomorrow Project BEST/Student Support Services is designed to increase the college retention and graduation rates of its participants and to assist students to make the transition from one level of higher education to the next. The Project is tailored to meet the needs of 140 students who are pursuing a degree in any major. Project BEST recruits students with SAT math scores of 490-590 or ACT scores of 18-23 and who are first generation in college students, who have a demonstrated financial need and/or those who have a documented disability. Student Support Services (Project BEST) Objective 1— Persistence Rate: 85% of all participants served by the SSS project will persist from one academic year to the beginning of the next academic year or will have earned a bachelor’s degree at the applicant institution during the academic year. Objective 2— Good Academic Standing Rate: 85% of all enrolled SSS participants served will meet the performance level required to stay in good academic standing at the applicant institution. Objective 3— Graduation Rate: 70% of new participants served each year will graduate from the applicant institution with a bachelor’s degree or equivalent within six (6) years

The Financial aid office offers a multitude of programs targeted at minimizing the cost of attendance for low-income students including the UCF Scholars Award. UCF Scholars Award is a campus-based grant that is awarded to financially needy students who have academically performed well while enrolled in UCF classes. It is a non-renewable grant that is awarded to full-time undergraduate students who meet the priority application deadline date. The only exception to the full-time attendance requirement is granted to students during their graduating semester.

The Admissions office does specifically target low-income students through outreach and active recruiting techniques.

Transfer students who are offered admission to UCF with an Associate in Arts degree from a Florida public community college may be eligible for merit-based awards including: Ralph C. Boston, Scholarship High Achievement Scholarship Phi Theta Kappa Scholarship Direct Connect Scholarship Articulated Honors to Honors Scholarship (nomination only) Cultural Diversity Scholarship (nomination only) UCF is a key member of an alliance to educate the other institutions about its DirectConnect to UCF program, which allows students from Eastern Florida State College, Lake Sumter State College, Seminole State College and Valencia College admission to UCF upon achieving an associate's degree. The alliance features institutions such as Arizona State, Georgia State, Iowa State, Michigan State, Oregon State, Purdue, Ohio State, the University of California at Riverside, Kansas and the University of Texas at Austin.

At UCF Creative School for Children, we believe that all children have the basic right to be educated in a safe and nurturing environment. All children should be provided with time, space, and opportunities needed to discover, accept, and develop themselves to their highest potentials. In order to become lifelong learners, young children need to be provided with concrete meaningful experiences to help them develop a positive self-esteem, skills in problem-solving, creative thinking, self-reliance, and interpersonal communications.

The Non-Traditional Knights (NTK) Project is a collection of resources for non-traditional students at UCF. The goal is to create an awareness of these resources and opportunities so that all Knights may have a positive experience at UCF. The NTK Project is an SDES Horizontal Team that is made up of representatives from 20 various UCF departments, offices and areas. It was created in late 2008 by a group of committed staff, students, and educators interested in improving the connection between UCF and its non-traditional students. The team recently launched the NTK Project Website: www.ntk.getinvolveducf.com

The percentage of entering students that are low-income taken from the 2015-16 report for 2014-15 and includes Group 1 students (all undergraduate). For the Summer-Fall Full-Time FTIC cohort students identified as being in a Low-Income Bracket when entering the cohort: 6-year Graduation Rate: 65.4% (2010-2011 cohort); provided by Institutional Knowledge Management The average percentage of need that was met for students who were awarded any need-based aid 2015-2016 Common Data Set (H2, Full-time undergrad). Percentage of undergraduate students who graduated during 2015-2016 without incurring interest-bearing loans while attending UCF (7034/12,774 for 55.06% ) was determined by: Looking at undergraduates that graduated in 2015-2016 (for our aid year that included 1550, 1560, 1570 = 12,774). Then excluded anyone that received an interest bearing loan (Unsubsidized Direct Stafford, PLUS and Private) during their career at UCF.