Chance daughter's friend for FSU

Pasbal
Sun, 17 Mar 2013 21:33:02 +0000

The girl who was rejected last week with a 34 ACT is in the IB program. Her GPA was not up to FSU average. So rigor and test scores were there.

If that person’s FSU-recalculated GPA was just above a 3.0, that isn’t surprising at all to hear that they were not accepted. If you are in IB, FSU tends to offer you a bit of slack for lower GPA- I know, because it happens every year- especially if your other stats are excellent.
Even if you are in IB though, FSU isn’t going to accept you if your FSU GPA is only a 3.0. It would suggest an unweighted GPA around a 2.3-2.4, which isn’t at all good and would suggest that you are struggling to handle the higher-level courses.
Also, if her GPA was that low, odds are good that multiple Cs some semesters or a semester grade of a D were on her transcripts, which is a huge red flag to FSU.



I think FSU has really become more competitive the last 3 years. Prepay and Bright Futures are keeping kids in state and FSU has made it tougher to get in. I was worried about my daughter getting in even with her higher than FSU GPA and multiple legacy.

I wouldn’t say that Bright Futures is keeping people in state. With how much Bright Futures has been cut back year after year, it’s no longer a significant factor. What’s much more likely is that the costs of college are skyrocketing, and in-state is often what a student can afford, and the Bright Futures offers just make it a bit more alluring than the out-of-state bill.
It’s also more competitive because FSU had to cut back on their entering freshman class a couple years ago (although I seem to recall reading somewhere that they ended this cut, although I’m not 100%). The number of applicants continues to grow, while FSU unfortunately can’t increase their acceptance rate very much. Any blemish on your record could spell disaster for your application.



Another friend of my daughters did not get in with FSU average SAT and ACT, 3.5 GPA but had one D. Was not even deferred, rejected.

Also not surprising to me, actually. In the last year or two, FSU has cracked down significantly on grades below a C. They might forgive one if the rest of your application is stellar, but more often than not, you don’t get accepted if you have a D on your transcripts. I was surprised that there weren’t all that many cases this year of people asking why they got rejected, and then they bring up that they had a D on their transcripts.

Keep in mind too that GPA, course rigor, and test scores are not all that FSU considers. They are simply the three most important factors. There’s a number of things FSU considers. For all we know, someone’s essay could be the make-or-break section of their application. Or they didn’t meet one of FSU’s requirements and didn’t realize it.



Yeah, I’ve heard a D is fatal at FSU even with otherwise perfect grades. That said, my daughter definitely had friends who got in with Cs. In fact, my daughter got into UF with three Cs. However, she had very strong everything else including essays. I’m not sure, though, that FSU’s admissions are as holistic as UF’s.

It’s not 100%, but in many cases, a D is all it takes for FSU to deny you admission. There’s been a number of people in the last couple of years that have posted here and, assuming they weren’t leaving out critical details about their application, it’s easy to see that the only blemish on their profile was a D- some going as far back as their 9th grade year.
It’s not one C that is killer for FSU either. It’s a continual pattern of them, or in some cases, multiple Cs in a semester or in multiple semesters that can kill an otherwise great application.