{"id":102317,"date":"2019-08-29T07:36:36","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T11:36:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=102317"},"modified":"2019-08-29T16:07:30","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T20:07:30","slug":"5-things-to-know-about-ucf-this-week-august-29-2019-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/5-things-to-know-about-ucf-this-week-august-29-2019-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Things to Know About UCF This Week – August 29, 2019 Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

From a new campus opening to breaking records in academic excellence and research funding, here are the top stories to know this week.<\/p>\n

`1. Expanding Possibility Downtown<\/strong><\/p>\n

UCF Downtown, in partnership with Valencia College, officially opened for classes on Monday<\/a>. Leading up to the opening, Interim President Thad Seymour Jr. and Valencia President Sandy Shugart penned an op-ed discussing the partnership and working \u201cwith industry to tailor our programs to workforce needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

2. Breaking Research Records<\/strong><\/p>\n

UCF brought in a school-record $192.1 million in research funding<\/a> for fiscal year 2019. Twenty-six grants worth more than $1 million each and 155 first-time lead investigators helped advance research areas including sea-level rise, education, artificial intelligence and space exploration.<\/p>\n

3. Raising the Bar<\/strong><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s incoming class set a new UCF record for academic excellence<\/a>, with a 4.14 GPA, 1332 average SAT score and 29 average ACT score. The Class of 2023 also includes a projected 90 National Merit Scholars, bringing the university\u2019s National Merit enrollment to 330, the largest in school history.<\/p>\n

4. Bolstering Educational Opportunities<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Parramore Education and Innovation District initiative received $2 million in grant funding<\/a> from the Helios Education Foundation, JPMorgan Chase Foundation and The Kresge Foundation. The UCF-led initiative is designed to reduce barriers and improve access to education in the Parramore neighborhood, including opportunities for continuing and adult education.<\/p>\n

5. Garnering National Recognition<\/strong><\/p>\n

Washington Monthly <\/em>ranked UCF 55th<\/sup> among national universities<\/a> in its annual rankings of 395 top universities. The publication also recognized UCF as No. 25 for \u201cBest Bang for the Buck,\u201d which acknowledges value and affordability, and one of the 80 best colleges for student voting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From a new campus opening to breaking records in academic excellence and research funding, here are the top stories to know this week. `1. Expanding Possibility Downtown UCF Downtown, in partnership with Valencia College, officially opened for classes on Monday. Leading up to the opening, Interim President Thad Seymour Jr. and Valencia President Sandy Shugart penned an op-ed discussing the…","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":102179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3882,17578],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-102317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","tag-rankings","tag-things-to-know"],"yoast_head":"\n5 Things to Know About UCF This Week - August 29, 2019 Edition | University of Central Florida News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From a new campus opening to breaking records in academic excellence and research funding, here are the top stories to know this week.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/5-things-to-know-about-ucf-this-week-august-29-2019-edition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Things to Know About UCF This Week - August 29, 2019 Edition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From a new campus opening to breaking records in academic excellence and research funding, here are the top stories to know this week.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/5-things-to-know-about-ucf-this-week-august-29-2019-edition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UCF\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-08-29T11:36:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-08-29T20:07:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2019\/08\/UCF-Move-In-Day-2019.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Laura J. 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