CgnNrs

I think that the prestige (or whatever) of a university tends to get undersold on these forums, but that's just my impression. There is of course no way for me to know given my current position (just an applicant). Just to give my perspective; I've been lucky enough to interview at a handful of places. One of those schools typically gets ranked as a top ten school in the area I'm applying. To me it was very blatant that this school's training program was of a higher quality compared to a university of much lower prestige. It was clear that more thought had been put into the structure of the program. It had a more thoughtful curriculum and first year project structure. The faculty were more influential and had strong collaborations with other impactful faculty. The students also had more presentation opportunities, higher impact publications, and more sensible mentor-trainee relationships. Unsurprisingly, the placements were much much better at this higher ranked school. This could be unique to this university and not true for all of the prestigious schools. However, speaking to students at lower ranked universities, they also tend to be of the mindset that they will have to work harder to make up for the fact that they don't have brand name recognition when they're applying for post-docs. So, I think that going to a prestigious university has clear advantages for people looking to go into academics. That doesn't mean I'm going to default accept the higher tier school though. At least for me, other things are just as important. Like how I get along with students and faculty. Or how I like the city. Or thinking the research is something I can thrive with.

Not every undergrad lab really gives their RA's a chance to get quality research experience, and in a lot of ways it is hard to get quality research experience on a limited volunteer schedule. School's are really going to look at your research experience, so just make sure you are getting worthwhile experience from whatever you're doing. Based on what I've experienced so far, a lot of the people you attend interviews with will have something like a masters degree +thesis or a full time research job. So keep that in mind. And of course, a lot of people get in to grad school with neither of these gap year experiences. I feel like I a really benefited a lot from taking a full time research job, and it's something I would definitely recommend to others in a similar position. If you can't find that, maybe you can discuss with one of the lab PI's ways to expand your involvement and beef up your application. They will probably be open to helping you.

No problem! I'm glad I can help. Another place that I know is pretty popular with grad students is the Avalon Park area. It's mostly houses, but it's pretty easy to find roommates in the area. As a side note, since you are concerned about traffic, you will have horrible horrible traffic if you live of colonial. Goodluck!

I did four years of undergrad there and potentially will be doing graduate school their too. You have a lot of options around campus. If you want to avoid the noisy undergraduates, just stay away from the student apartments (Lofts, knights circle, the edge, etc. any of those that come with furniture and pre-select your roommates). There are several quiet options around UCF, but it depends on your price point. Tivoli was pretty decent (I spent one year there), I also have friends who really like Traditions at Alafaya. If you look around waterford lakes town center (which is ~10 minutes south of campus down alafaya), their is also a lot of apartments with families, and waterford is a nice little town center with some good coffee houses that you can work from (Vesper, starbucks, barnes & noble, boston coffee house). In the other direction, Oviedo is getting more apartment options, and it would definitely be quiet. There are sketchy options near campus that are very cheap and not student affiliated, and I would avoid them for safety concerns honestly. Living in winter park(near rollins/trader joes), around Lake Eola (downtown), or Lake Baldwin (especially if you have a dog) would be very nice quality of life. A lot of food options, activities, less students. You could expect a 20-30 minute drive though depending on traffic and location. The drive isn't bad, I used to make a drive to lake baldwin in between classes, and without traffic it's pretty quick to get around (as long as you're not way out in the far part of winter park). PM if you have more questions. I really love Orlando, you're going to have so much fun! I've lived in Florida my entire life and it's been my favorite city by far.