A Message from President Hitt


Strength in Numbers: A Record-Setting Time for UCF

Posted Monday, August 21, 2017 @ 1:21 PM

As we begin a new academic year, I continue to be impressed with how our students, staff, and faculty continually strive for, and achieve, excellence.

At UCF, we are never content with the status quo. This fall, our enrollment has reached a new high: more than 66,000. Yes, we are big — and our growth is no accident. We have increased student access because we know that nothing transforms lives so much as a college education.

We also know that being big is not enough — we must demand excellence. For instance, our incoming freshmen have an average high school GPA of 4.05 — our highest ever. In addition, the most recent rankings place UCF 11th among U.S. public universities for the number of National Merit Scholars, and we have 88 joining us in this freshman class.

UCF is proving that combining scale and excellence produces the most impact. A recent study by the Brookings Institution ranked us as a national leader at both boosting social mobility and creating knowledge through our research.

This summer, our student computer programming team beat MIT, Princeton, Cornell, and others to win first place in the U.S. and 13th in the world in the elite International Collegiate Programming Contest. Our faculty secured a record $145.8 million in research funding last year, helping UCF remain among the top U.S. public universities for patents earned.

I am also excited that the Knights will play seven home football games this year. I hope you will join me August 31 when we open the season vs. FIU at Spectrum Stadium.

Our continued success both individually and as a university depends upon your dedication and hard work. I urge you to support one another and respect our commitment to diversity and inclusion, values that make UCF a special place

I know that working together, there is nothing we cannot achieve.

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