Welcome

CGS Friends,

As we reflect on the past academic year, we celebrate a time of innovation, achievement, and growth for the College of Graduate Studies (CGS). Together, we have strengthened our foundation for continued excellence, and I am honored to work alongside our outstanding team and partners to advance this mission. This report highlights our 2024–2025 accomplishments and the opportunities ahead.

This year, we focused on building community and enhancing student and postdoctoral success. To improve the graduate student experience, we introduced a designated Graduate Student version in the UCF Mobile app, providing curated information and connecting students to graduate-specific resources. Graduate Student Life hosted more than 60 events attended by over 5,000 students, from professional development sessions to social gatherings, building a stronger graduate network.

Admissions also reached new heights. Our team processed nearly 14,000 applications and welcomed 4,154 new graduate students. About 1,000 prospective students engaged with our virtual Grad Fairs, while more than 100 joined campus tours led by graduate student ambassadors, bolstering our recruitment efforts.

We awarded over 200 competitive fellowships, 57 Graduate Dean’s fellowships, and more than $277,000 in Graduate Presentation Fellowship funding. In addition, 3,339 assistantship agreements provided vital financial support and professional experience to 1,879 full-time graduate students to fuel their success.

Operationally, we streamlined key processes to serve our students and graduate programs. The Student Services team reduced medical withdrawal processing time and updated the Graduate Plan of Study for smoother credit transfers. We expanded thesis and dissertation support, increasing final submissions and broadening global access to UCF research through our collaboration with UCF Libraries.

This year also marked a significant milestone in UCF’s journey to preeminence. CGS played a vital role by increasing the number of postdoctoral scholars from 75 in 2016 to 340 in 2024. To support these efforts, we launched outreach initiatives to encourage PhD graduates to pursue postdoctoral training and gained approval for postdoctoral scholars to use the Employee Tuition Waiver, demonstrating our commitment to our postdoc community.

Finally, our endeavors to enhance orientation and onboarding reached new levels. A redesigned orientation experience, developed with Advantage Design, introduced new online modules and live sessions for summer 2026 admits. Attendance at live sessions rose nearly 68% from the previous year, setting the stage for our new Grad Launch: Graduate Student Orientation.

Ultimately, CGS continues to drive excellence in graduate education and advanced training through innovation, community, and service. We remain steadfast in our commitment to support the success of every graduate student and postdoctoral scholar at UCF and beyond.

John F. Weishampel, PhD
Interim Dean
UCF College of Graduate Studies