Questions About the Disney College Program

[nharned]

I have been thinking about doing the CP for many years. I recently graduated high-school and will start college in the fall.. so now is the time to actually start planning and saving for the program. I still have few questions though.
1. I am under 21, should I go in the fall or in the spring?
2. How much money should I take with me?
3. Should I try and find an apt outside of what Disney offers?
4.I plan on driving down (I am only 8hrs away), should I use the shuttles or drive to work?
5. Other than the parks what is there todo?
6. Is it worth "taking a semester off" because I will not be earning credit when I go

 

[disme8]

1) Fall, you get to experience the holiday seasons at Disney.
2) Leave money in a bank account and withdraw as required. but $500 should be a good number
3) Your rent is aprox $80 a week at Vista way if I remember... so keep that in mind..
4) Shuttles are good on busy days or when you have a 11am - 3pm in time shift as no new parking spots are opening. Shuttles only help when you are in a disney apartment. A car will help with 2am walmart trips with your roommates.
5) BEACHES on both coasts.
6) Disney is great to have on a resume.

 

[nharned]

1) Fall, you get to experience the holiday seasons at Disney.
2) Leave money in a bank account and withdraw as required. but $500 should be a good number
3) Your rent is aprox $80 a week at Vista way if I remember... so keep that in mind..
4) Shuttles are good on busy days or when you have a 11am - 3pm in time shift as no new parking spots are opening. Shuttles only help when you are in a disney apartment. A car will help with 2am walmart trips with your roommates.
5) BEACHES on both coasts.
6) Disney is great to have on a resume.

Thank you!

 

[BrittanyRose428]

I have been thinking about doing the CP for many years. I recently graduated high-school and will start college in the fall.. so now is the time to actually start planning and saving for the program. I still have few questions though.
1. I am under 21, should I go in the fall or in the spring?
2. How much money should I take with me?
3. Should I try and find an apt outside of what Disney offers?
4.I plan on driving down (I am only 8hrs away), should I use the shuttles or drive to work?
5. Other than the parks what is there todo?
6. Is it worth "taking a semester off" because I will not be earning credit when I go

1. I would say to go in the Fall because of the holidays (unless you'll desperately want to be at home for the holidays, then go with the Spring. But also for the weather, I would say Fall. I'm from New England, so I know Florida is not going to ever be as cold as I'm used to in the winter, but I'd rather be there in December/November than more of the Spring/Summer months.
2. The money question is really hard to answer, because it really depends on your individual situation. I've heard people say you'd be fine with $200, and I've heard other people say at least $1000. I would recommend really trying to save up as much as you can in the couple of months before you arrive. If you save an extra $1000, and don't need to use it all, it's still beneficial to have the extra money saved. I added my tax return and last 2 paychecks to my savings account, and am planning on "bringing" $500. By "bringing" I mean that I physically have more than $500, I'm just putting an extra $500 in my checking account. I wouldn't move to a different state and live on my own with only $500, so I'm fully planning on dipping into my savings if I need to. I've also tried to save extra for bills, because I know that my bills are going to be more than my take home pay during the DCP. I think this will be manageable though, because I'll have that money set aside to pay them from the beginning. But that's another thing to consider, if you have extra bills, you probably want to have that money put away before you get there.
3. I wouldn't find an apartment outside of Disney, but this could just be personal preference. I think part of the experience is living in Disney housing so that would be my pick. And even though you have a car, if you ever don't feel like driving, or paying for gas, the buses can bring you where you need to go for free. I know some people complain and say that the rent for Disney housing is expensive, but coming from Boston, I think it's really cheap. If I get Vista Way, my apartment will cost about $1400/month total, for a 2 bedroom 2 bath. (This is with each person paying $90/week.) This includes all bills/utilities, wifi, transportation, all kinds of other amenities, and it is furnished. I've been looking at apartments around here, so I can move out when I come home, and the best I've seen has been a Studio in a moderately nice area for $2800/month or a one bedroom in a really bad area for $1300/month. (Both of this did not include nearly as many amenities as Disney housing). So even if it seems cheaper to go outside of Disney housing, it all seems to cheap to me coming from Boston that it doesn't matter.
4. You could do both, depending on what you feel like that day. If there's a lot of traffic I'd take the bus to work. You could be wasting your gas that you pay for sitting in traffic, or you could use the bus' gas for free.
5. Beaches, Universal, Sea World, Downtown Disney, malls, Busch Gardens
6. It is worth taking a semester off if your school lets you simply take a semester off. My school didn't give credit for it, so if I took a semester off I would have lost my scholarship. The terms of my scholarship dictated that I finish my Bachelors in 4 consecutive years, so if I did the DCP in school, I would have ended up paying more for college. I made the mistake of assuming that I could just take a semester off and applying to the DCP before talking to my advisor or Career Services. I ended up getting accepted only to find out that I couldn't go. (I ended up doing it after graduation, so all is well now) Just make sure that you talk to your school first, it isn't worth doing the whole application process to find out later that you can't go.

 

[nharned]

Thank you! I will also read your blog!

 

[kjb101791]

I have been thinking about doing the CP for many years. I recently graduated high-school and will start college in the fall.. so now is the time to actually start planning and saving for the program. I still have few questions though.
1. I am under 21, should I go in the fall or in the spring?
2. How much money should I take with me?
3. Should I try and find an apt outside of what Disney offers?
4.I plan on driving down (I am only 8hrs away), should I use the shuttles or drive to work?
5. Other than the parks what is there todo?
6. Is it worth "taking a semester off" because I will not be earning credit when I go

1. I did the Spring Advantage program and loved it. The end of winter and summer was a great time to be in Florida. My sister did the Fall program and loved it, getting to see the Halloween and Christmas displays; however, she was sad to not be home for Christmas (but not too sad to regret going).
You'll hear a lot about how much people party, or want to party, or act like they party on Facebook. It's not like that, really, unless you want that. Being under 21 won't matter.
2. I believe it took at least 2, maybe 3 weeks to get the first paycheck. I didn't skimp on groceries (bought things for halfway decent meals) and usually spend ~$70 a week. Add in gas and some fun money. Working the regular hours I was assigned, I was usually able to put away a little under $100 a week after going out once or twice and buying groceries. As long as you don't have to pay insurance or anything like that, you won't be quite as poor as people like to act like.
3. No! Housing was one of the coolest things about Disney. People loving hearing that you "live at Disney World" and it might be one of the few chances to get to live with people from all over the world. It stinks at times, but it is overall amazing. Aside from that, finding anything as cheap as the Disney housing is on your own is darn near impossible. My girlfriend spent MONTHS trying to find anything in the Orlando area. It is surprisingly difficult on a budget.
4. I'd take the buses the first few days, just to figure out where you need to go. After that, you'll find that you will literally save hours a day by not taking the buses. You will hear many stories about how terrible the Transtar buses are. Those stories are actually true. I passed 4 broken down one day on the way to Hollywood Studios from CP housing.
5. The best thing to do was simply hanging out. I was very fortunate to have an unbelievable group of friends from work. We did a lot together on our days off and after working. Usually it was just making dinner together, sitting in the parking lot at Taco Bell, or hanging in an apartment. We also pretty much all had passes to Universal. If you get proof of temporary residency from the apartment offices, you can sometimes get the Florida resident price on an annual pass. I paid i think $200 and it was absolutely worth it. We'd go to the beach a lot, too.
6. I say it is. I was already behind in school, but I'd do it all over again. By far, the best experience of my life. It's almost been a year since my program ended and I still dream about it and tear up when thinking about all the perfect memories. But back to the question- I would not recommend taking Disney Classes (unless you really want to) because they're usually right in the middle of your day off when your friends want to do things. I took two classes online through my university and I was very happy with that decision.

I'm new to this site, but email me (if that's possible) if you have any further questions. I love talking about my CP and could do so for days. I never could have imagined anything being as good as it was.

 

[nharned]

1. I did the Spring Advantage program and loved it. The end of winter and summer was a great time to be in Florida. My sister did the Fall program and loved it, getting to see the Halloween and Christmas displays; however, she was sad to not be home for Christmas (but not too sad to regret going).
You'll hear a lot about how much people party, or want to party, or act like they party on Facebook. It's not like that, really, unless you want that. Being under 21 won't matter.
2. I believe it took at least 2, maybe 3 weeks to get the first paycheck. I didn't skimp on groceries (bought things for halfway decent meals) and usually spend ~$70 a week. Add in gas and some fun money. Working the regular hours I was assigned, I was usually able to put away a little under $100 a week after going out once or twice and buying groceries. As long as you don't have to pay insurance or anything like that, you won't be quite as poor as people like to act like.
3. No! Housing was one of the coolest things about Disney. People loving hearing that you "live at Disney World" and it might be one of the few chances to get to live with people from all over the world. It stinks at times, but it is overall amazing. Aside from that, finding anything as cheap as the Disney housing is on your own is darn near impossible. My girlfriend spent MONTHS trying to find anything in the Orlando area. It is surprisingly difficult on a budget.
4. I'd take the buses the first few days, just to figure out where you need to go. After that, you'll find that you will literally save hours a day by not taking the buses. You will hear many stories about how terrible the Transtar buses are. Those stories are actually true. I passed 4 broken down one day on the way to Hollywood Studios from CP housing.
5. The best thing to do was simply hanging out. I was very fortunate to have an unbelievable group of friends from work. We did a lot together on our days off and after working. Usually it was just making dinner together, sitting in the parking lot at Taco Bell, or hanging in an apartment. We also pretty much all had passes to Universal. If you get proof of temporary residency from the apartment offices, you can sometimes get the Florida resident price on an annual pass. I paid i think $200 and it was absolutely worth it. We'd go to the beach a lot, too.
6. I say it is. I was already behind in school, but I'd do it all over again. By far, the best experience of my life. It's almost been a year since my program ended and I still dream about it and tear up when thinking about all the perfect memories. But back to the question- I would not recommend taking Disney Classes (unless you really want to) because they're usually right in the middle of your day off when your friends want to do things. I took two classes online through my university and I was very happy with that decision.

I'm new to this site, but email me (if that's possible) if you have any further questions. I love talking about my CP and could do so for days. I never could have imagined anything being as good as it was.

Thanks! if I have ANY questions I will definitely figure out how to get a hold of you.. I think I can message you on here some how