@gatorcheer This is absolutely not a “my kid is better than yours”. There were many accepted that from a grades/scores perspective were FAR surperior to my son. I’ve been through this process before and seen a bit behind the curtain at other schools and while all the right academics were checked, the right genuine, verifiable and unique “passions” were checked more than 99.8% (made up stat of course) of his peers. Not bragging and not going into detail, and not bitter either, just floating the possibility that an oversight may have occurred.
@melissa96 Thanks but he didn’t get an offer. He was accepted to Pace program.
Those with the undergraduate research and 2000…is the 2000 tied to the undergraduate research? Son got honors but not undergraduate research. Just curious. @minniemouse143 Was this all in the acceptance letter? And congrats by the way!
I’ve found all of college admissions interesting. Who accepts/who defers/who gets merit and doesn’t…it seems that we have more and more kids with the high stats. When I was in high school, a few AP were wonderful. Now we have many more things that are utilized by many IB, AICE, AP, Dual Enrollment…
My son was deferred by Tulane and we were surprised. He got into Georgia Tech with OOS scholarship.
I’m holding out for things to line up that make it a clear path that he wants to take…right now he can’t make a decision.
DD accepted! WooHoo!
Honors and Research Scholars w/ $2000
In State
ACT 34
GPA 3.95uw / 4.7w
Excellent ECs- Lots of leadership and service
Daughter Accepted!
OOS - Maryland
1310 SAT
WGPA 4.2
Top 8%
7 AP Courses
Excellent ECs - lots of leadership and service plus varsity athlete
A in the 4 year Biomedical Pathway
Major: Biology - pre-med
Daughter was denied.
1410 SAT
3.8 UW GPA
4.2 W GPA
In State
AP Scholar
Lots of EC’s and Honors Clubs but shy and not popular so didn’t land any leadership roles except was a math tutor and assisted in teaching middle school band
9 AP’s and rest Honors with 3’s and 4’s in AP Lit and Calculus
Part time job
It’s tough and sorry to those that are really disappointed. My daughter has been very excited about UCF and got into Burnett Honors and received a generous scholarship. She fell in love with UCF after taking their college tour. She also was accepted to FSU and was awarded the Freshmen Scholarship so we are all happy. Both UCF and FSU are great schools. We didn’t expect her to get a scholarship at UF so we had already eliminated UF unless we got a big surprise. We did get a surprise. ? My friendly advice to next year’s applicants is to diversify your choices and be open to alternatives. UF is a great school but if you have grit, intelligence, and determination, you can be successful anywhere.
Accepted - Honors and Research Scholars w/ $2k
In-State
35 ACT
4.0 UW GPA
? UF GPA (all honors, except for Spanish 1 & 2 which only offered as regular, and 8 AP’s through 11th grade so probably 4.7 or so)
class rank: 1 in large high school
Good EC’s, leadership, awards and volunteer hours
when do OOS Scholarships come out?
My son was denied - instate
He has florida prepaid and bright futures (100% award). We have noticed other students that have both FL prepaid and Bright futures being denied.
Anyone else have both and denied?
@tooldad. A PACE offer is an offer of admission to be a Gator.
@spotty99. My son also has florida prepaid and 100% bright future and was denied freshman acceptance but offered transfer opportunity pending college GPA and prereqs for major since graduating with AA from dual enrollment. Was accepted at FSU with freshman scholarship and UNF with presidential scholarship. Also accepted to Stetson University with scholarship.
Denied
Instate
1290 sat
4.1 weighted GPA
Took AP and honors classes
200+ volunteer hours
NHS
Baseball 4 years
Band 3 years
Graduating high school with AA degree
Spotty, we had Bright Futures and prepaid and got PACE. Several of her classmates with similar stats same deal. Interesting. I really wonder about these holistic decisions. As another put it, it seems very elusive!
@Dinaltc USF (and UCF) have very good engineering programs (that are both way underrated). However, UF’s program is still stronger (it’s better funded, better recruited, has more labs, design teams, faculty, etc.).
However, picking USF or UCF, over UF, due to a LARGE merit scholarship is a perfectly valid option. Especially if it can save the student $10,000+ of debt.
The only minor caveat is making sure your son is interested in one of the engineering majors offered at USF. They don’t offer as many options as UF, but they do offer the most popular majors/u. Sometimes students will end up transferring from USF or UCF, to UF, so they can enroll in one of UF"s majors.
USF Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Program(s)
Chemical Engineering (B.S.)
Civil Engineering (B.S.)
Computer Engineering (B.S.)
Cybersecurity (B.S.)
Computer Science (B.S.)
Information Technology (B.S.)
Electrical Engineering (B.S.)
Industrial Engineering (B.S.)
Mechanical Engineering (B.S.)
Biomedical Engineering (B.S.)
UF Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Program(s)
Biological Engineering (B.S.)
Chemical Engineering (B.S.)
Computer Engineering (B.S.)
Digital Arts & Sciences (B.S.)
Computer Science (B.S.)
Computer Science (B.S.) (outside engineering)
Electrical Engineering (B.S.)
Civil Engineering (B.S.)
Environmental Engineering (B.S.)
Industrial and Systems Engineering (B.S.)
Biomedical Engineering (B.S.)
Nuclear & Radiological Sciences (B.S.)
Materials Science & Engineering
Nuclear Engineering (B.S.)
Mechanical Engineering (B.S.)
Aerospace Engineering (B.S.)
My daughter is a Florida Academic Scholar and was denied. It happens.
People don’t want to believe this, but the push for the kids to get an AA before graduating and the ability to take so many AP classes is somewhat of a fraud. The reality is that our state is so over populated that the kids need to get through college as quickly as possible, so for UF the best solution for a kid with decent stats and AA is to deny regular entrance. Your child will now graduate within 2/3 years versus 4 plus. The downside is that kids don’t get to be kids anymore. At 17/18, I had no idea what I wanted to do, so the first two years was a time to discover and mature.
Kids with an AA and extreme stats will usually be a regular admit. I saw this with my daughter last year. She had high stats, but not as many AP as her peers, and she was admitted for fall of 2018. She had bright futures and Florida prepaid.
I feel your pain, I have two more children to get through this college mess. Unfortunaley, there are not as good at standardized testers as my oldest. I think UF is not even an option. There are great schools in Florida and in all the states.
90%+ of accepted/enrolled in-state students have BF, and many of Florida Pre-paid. UF doesn’t consider BF/FPP during admissions.
A LOT of students are earning BF.
http://www.mysuncoast.com/2019/01/25/state-pumps-millions-into-bright-futures-scholarship-program/
Accepted to honors, undergraduate research, and $2000 scholarship
ACT (breakdown): 34 - 35E, 32M, 33R, 35S
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.96
UF GPA (if calculated): 4.53
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): top 4%
AP classes (place score in parenthesis): AP Psych (4), AP Chem (3), AP Physics (1), AP World (3) - did not report any
Many dual enrollment courses
Senior class load: AP Biology, AP Human Geography, Latin 3 Honors, AP Computer Science, SYG 2000, CLP 1001, HSC 1531
Subjective:
Job/Work Experience: Started my own tutoring business
Volunteer/Community service: 1001
Other
Intended Major: Psychology w/ behavioral and cognitive neuroscience
State (if domestic applicant): Florida
School Type: Public
Ethnicity (Hispanic Y/N/not reported): White
Race(s) (AI/AN, Asian, AA, NH/PI, White, not reported): White
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: Upper Middle Class
By the way, I"m no expert on UF’s appeal process. However, every year UF will make mistakes and a few kids will win their appeal. Usually due to a process error on UF’s part. You can look up some older threads in this forum on the subject.
We also have some threads from last year on PACE, that are worth looking at, including feedback from some kids in the program.
Thanks Gator88, will check into those threads.
@FLMom70 I agree with your statements and congrats on your child’s admission last year. The plus of AA at graduation is if you do have prepaid and bright futures some of that leftover money can go to obtaining a masters degree after undergrad degree to lower that cost somewhat. My niece did dual enrollment and thought it pushed her to soon to decide major. I think my child might have a good chance at transfer since we modeled his dual enrollment electives on the prereqs for UF semester plan for his desired degree so he already has them all. He will probably do FSU since so many things have to paid in advance for dorms, orientation etc before due dates for better outcomes and maybe more of the “freshman experience” being admitted as a “freshman”