My D was just denied and not offered PACE because she chose Education/Special Ed major. She had a 4.8, UF 4,4 - no fluff electives boasting GPA - 18 DEs and APs. Was every honors society, club and had a 1300 SAT. Hispanic. in state. Fla Prepaid. Started her own non-profit after being involved with special needs community and has a current patent pending for a medicine management system. Also was class president, homecoming court and 600 community service hours. Also a legacy gator.
Kids with 1050 SATs, 3 honors classes, no de’s and ap’s were offered PACE or full admission due to being 1st gen. and choosing a PACE major. Some just had good connections.
That’s life!! Iif you really want your kid to have a shot at UF - do not apply for engineering or specialized programs unless they are a National Merit Scholar despite SAT and GPA just chose journalism/communication and then change major.
Three other friends (all amazing resumes - 2 white and 1 hispanic) in the top 5 of her class were denied. 2 engineer majors and the other was undecided (1450 SAT) (this was the Hispanic friend) and felt like a slap in the face being offered PACE with impressive everything. 1 was offered Sante Fe engineering transition but will go to UCF on full scholarship.
Heartbreaking day for many yesterday yet a lot of joy for others!
@TeamBlessing That is just letting you know other pathways to be a Gator in the future. UFOnline accepts lower division transfer students and campus accepts junior transfers. If your student had a lot of AP/dual enrollment then that could be as soon as Spring Semester
@gatorsonline Could the fact that I didn’t apply for housing early have played a role in the reason why I was accepted into the PaCE program? Also is there anyway to like avoid the PaCE program because I’m already a dual enrolled student at my local community college and I’ve accumulated around one entire year’s worth of california IGETC college credits.
@mn030301, truly happy for you, but I know there are literally thousands of kids who had both better grades and a better test score that did not get in. I think that is what makes this process so tough on kids and parents. I can’t imagine what you could write that was so much better than thousands of other kids essays. I feel like if a kid has proved it for 4 years he is a great student, kids that have not should not move up because someone wrote or bought a great essay. Again very happy for you, I just think the process is broken. No sour grapes on my part my son got in, just think there must be a better way for a school to decide.
@JamesFl what a classless thing to say to that young person. Just because you tried to cover yourself by saying you were happy for @mn030301 it doesn’t change that what you said what hurtful.
yikes! i don’t think tagging someone and comparing them to others is appropriate at all.
i have noticed that a lot of oos applicants that have posted on here and gotten accepted have lower test scores than a lot of in-state applicants, but test scores definitely don’t define an applicant. i can see that uf is pushing to get more oos students to attend the school, but even before uf would accept people in-state with lower test scores in comparison to others. i think they really are just striving for diversity (even though most of the student body is hispanic), and the admissions office seems not to care as much about test scores and coursework as much as other parts of the application, at least from what I’ve been told by them when they’ve spoken to my classes a few times.
That is interesting information. I wonder if my daughter had not declared Nursing as her major if that would have made a difference? In the past few years’ comments it seems like a lot of OOS are getting in with lower stats. Does it make a difference if you’re at a large Florida high school in a heavily populated area? We only heard of a few from my daughter’s school that got accepted to UF. Your daughter sounds like she has some very special extracurriculars that you would think would weigh heavily with a holistic approach. I am really baffled by UF.
@LongwoodMom I think coming from a big high school affects your chances negatively. I know people in my school that have gotten into more than one ivy league school and other top non-ivy league schools at my school that got rejected from UF, and I go to a very big, competitive school in one of the biggest cities in the state.
I think your major (namely the school its in) does make a difference. I got into a program at UF because of the major I chose. If I chose a different major I might have recieved a straight rejection.
@guyfierifan for summer/fall campus applicants major is not considered. After that when it comes to PaCE or the Santa Fe programs, Major is considered.
@melissa96 But she isn’t a transfer student, she was full time ina private schoo not attempting to get an AA degree. Such is life but was heartbreaking
Accepted to ChemE, no honors, no undergraduate research, no scholarship
OOS
ACT: 35
SAT: 1570
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.91
AP classes: 6 total, 3 x 5, 3 in progres
No volunteer hours
4-year varsity athlete
NMSF (NMF still pending, acceptance depends on being selected NMF)
Average essay
Below average EC
@studentin2023 My son emailed the local admissions rep to get an explanation. I don’t think it will make that much difference as I’m not sure how competitive he will be for admission, but he and you deserve a proper decision based on how you applied. We will see what happens.
@ufalumn1997 Thanks! Yes, everything was included in the admissions letter. The 2k is not tied to research, although I am sure it could be used for it.