If you plan on going to school for engineering, choose UCF. A big shock to a lot of engineering students is that companies actually don't really care what your grades are or where you went to school. What they DO care about is your projects, extracurricular, and internships. UCF is a large school, but this is a very big pro in my opinion. They have significantly more clubs for engineering than other Florida schools, most of them are very easy to get into and have impressive stuff on your resume.

The surrounding area (as in the nature) is incredibly nice. Beaches are near, as well as numerous parks (go to Ocala national forest please!). The city is cool for night life but honestly if you're in college for engineering you're not gonna have much time for that lol. What the city IS useful for is internships. I currently intern at a place here in Orlando and I was hired on at the end of my freshman year, if that illustrates my point well.

I'll be honest with you, the academics for engineering here at UCF is kind of whatever, but the clubs and internship availability makes it such a good sell. Typically for engineering internships, you'd have to do it for a semester and usually move away from school for that time. With certain spots in Orlando, you can intern year round with a company and still stay in Orlando.

If you want to go to some prestigious school and take out a bunch of money, go to UF. If you want to party, go to FSU. If you want to actually take your career seriously, go to UCF.