Chance me for UF!

GatorDad305
Wed, 26 Jun 2019 17:30:25 +0000

@hannahgomezZz I will offer some data first. If you look at UF’s Common Data set, you will see that “applicant’s level of interest” is considered by the university. It is not “important” or “very important,” but it is considered. https://ir.aa.ufl.edu/media/iraaufledu/common-data-set/CDS_UFMain_1819.pdf
Second, every school wants to have a high yield – meaning they want as many of the kids who are accepted to actually attend. I’m not sure if it is part of the US News ranking process, but US News tracks it. Also, universities are businesses that need students to survive.
This is an over-simplification, but if a school is making a choice between two students with very similar qualifications and one of them has said they really want to attend and the other one has not. Which one do you think they will choose? I know what my answer is.
Lastly, my daughter was on the bubble with UF and could have very easily been denied. She included in her application information about how a summer program she attended at UF inspired her and I made sure she stated, explicitly, that if accepted, she would attend. I think it helped, particularly that she was admitted to a bridge program and, again, could have easily been denied.
Now, lots of kids who really want to attend and show great interest in UF get denied each year. But if you are in the gray zone, it certainly can’t hurt to let them know you want to be a Gator.