@LakeAlto you are missing my point about the discrepancies in who was accepted and who was not from the same high school. To say the kids with high GPA and test scores also didn’t have everything else needed to be accepted is false. I would not be upset if my daughter didn’t have it all and I’m not just saying that because she’s my daughter. It is what it is and it’s a slap in the face when comparing to others from THE SAME SCHOOL. Not everyone can afford to go further away from home or out of state. We really needed to get into our state flagship school and deserved to as well. It’s still a state school. Public. Everyone calling it a little Ivy is fooling themselves. What Ivy League do you know that has 50,000 students being taught by undergraduate TA’s and also online classes? And to add: half of the students accepted at my daughter’s school don’t want to go there and aren’t accepting. Most want to go to FSU. Go figure. Congratulations to everyone who got in!
@kaka711 Your thesis is that UF accepted students from your daughter’s school that had lower GPA and lower SAT/ACT and took a less rigorous course load and had inferior extracurricular activities and inferior talents/abilities and worse character/personal qualities and a worse essay and is not a first generation student?
How do you know all of this about these other students?
And UF did this for what reason?
If I understand many of these comments correctly, there are many parents here who have no insight on the application process and how to build a class of students according to the goals and constraints of UF, but they do know that the process they know nothing about is wrong. Impressive to say the least!
@GatorCheer What would UF cost for you per year?
My son is 6 for 6 with his applications, including UF, and I have no doubt that since we are a full-pay family that weighs heavily in his favor.
@MelioraScott As if the fire needed gas…
MelioraScott quote:
“If I understand many of these comments correctly, there are many parents here who have no insight on the application process and how to build a class of students according to the goals and constraints of UF, but they do know that the process they know nothing about is wrong. Impressive to say the least!”
@fl1234 That’s fact. I know this because I know all the kids. Why UF did this? I’d LOVE to know, but they will never tell you. @GatorCheer My daughter is very unique and didn’t join 100 clubs or just check the boxes, she was consistent throughout 4 years. Please don’t speak on things you don’t know about. @MelioraScott I have plenty of insight on the application process and how a class of students in built, you know nothing about me. Congratulations everyone! I wish you all much success.
Basically, SAT scores and Grades are just not enough. UF is looking for a “story” and something that distinguishes you from the crowd. It could be entrepreneurial like starting a business or patent. It could be overcoming adversity like an illness or family tragedy. It could be inspirational like escaping poverty, homelessness, drug addiction. Think what would get Oprah talking about you on TV. The “wow” has to just scream out from the essay. Someone in another thread talked about their mother being an illegal immigrant and working hard cleaning condos and doing construction to support the family yet also having amazing academics. That’s something unusual that says, wow. That’s what UF is looking for I think. They don’t want boring. Think of it like casting a reality TV show like Survivor.
I think parents and students do themselves a disservice in this hyper competitive environment when they focus so heavily on any one school. UF is not the school it was 30 years ago when you might have attended. The admissions process is radically harder to get in. Top students really need to prepare themselves for failure and the lottery aspect of the situation. Apply to many selective universities along with a few safeties and let the chips fall where they may. When you accept a lot of the decisions are random and arbitrary, it won’t burn as much. That’s just how it is. You can be disappointed but there will surely be another university that your student can excel at.
And if you are dead set on UF, enroll at Santa Fe and transfer. Honestly, the quality of gen ed instruction is many times superior in small classes instead of anonymous 500 person lecture halls at UF. Gen Ed classes in Business for example at UF are all online with a few in person multiple choice tests. It’s really a joke and the joke continues into the upper division classes. It’s been like this for decades. Before online, they used to have a UF Channel on COX where kids just tape recorded the lectures on VHS for business classes never having to attend. JOKE! Santa Fe would have been better.
I wish you the best of luck. I understand the financial struggle and I hope everything works out for you and your family.
@kaka711 Having gone through the college application process with my older daughter (who is now a junior in college), and currently, with my daughter who is a high school senior, my heart is breaking for both you and your daughter. I decided with my older daughter that there may be something to the idea that colleges have a list of priorities from year to year as to what qualities/talents they are looking for to fill in the gaps of campus life. I have no idea if this is true. It was the only thing that made sense for some of the rejections and acceptances that my older daughter received. Your daughter sounds like a hardworking, intelligent and wonderful young woman. I wish both of you all the best in the future.
MODERATOR’S NOTE: I have had to delete quite a few posts. Please knock off the bickering and insults.
I think everyone needs to take a deep breath. For those accepted, congratulations. For those who were not, review the UF appeal policy and, if appropriate, appeal. Let’s not fight with one another. Take the fight to admissions through the appeal process and present your case. You never know.
@kaka711 I feel for you. I’d be crushed under the same scenario — which believe me I feared having watched this show for a few years now… I warned my son it was like winning the lottery and I was more nervous then he was… until decision day. But here is an interesting issue at his school… So far we know of 16 who got in - 2 with PACE, and many rejected… There are a few of the top kids who got in (not my son because he’s thrilled) that they will likely not take their spots… why? Because after working so hard (their class is extremely competitive not just with grades but with leadership -there are 13 of them with unweighted 4.0s who all have over 10 AP classes) these kids feel upset about some of the other kids who got in who they don’t really feel are on the same level, put in the work or deserve it and they don’t want to attend the same school with these kids. Crazy! But they feel after all the work they have done and their ambitions etc that they want to go to a school where everyone is that dedicated. So, there is a balance too. I know one kid who really did deserve PACE who got it - he works his tail off and no, he’s not the highest ranking kid - but he tries really hard, takes rigorous classes and his grades match his aptitude via his test scores. He will prove himself through PACE and I am proud of him. There was another kid who got rejected who is a total slacker. Blows off his classes, when he is very bright and could get A’s but he gets B’s because he doesn’t care. He is in my son’s gifted class and really is a bright kid… just no discipline. he had a 32 and almost 1500 on his SAT. he got rejected. Why? I’d guess that UF could tell he was not working to his aptitude. They want people who care and are driven. I can’t say I know every kid who got in… but one that these other kids aren’t thrilled with? No, not a top 10 kid, but he also works his butt off taking lots of AP classes - sure he gets some B’s - but he also works THREE JOBS! Not many kids these days do that anymore and I think that impressed them… that he can do that, still not be afraid to try hard classes and can manage to juggle it all and still get B’s and be in some clubs… tells them he will be able to be sucessful being at UF. They look at the whole package and I think that’s great. Is is a perfect science? No. Will the girl who got into Georgetown and UF and didn’t get into honors and thinks she better than everyone else take her spot at UF? Not a chance. But I’m ok with that. I can tell you this. My daughter is a junior at UF and could have chosen Berkeley or Michigan or UVA. She has NO REGRETS. She LOVES being a gator, appreciates her Benequisto scholarship and is PLENTY CHALLENGED!!! UF WILL keep ANY top student HUMBLE. That is a good thing. She went there thinking she was a top student and then she met many just as driven and motivated and involved as she was. She applied for a ton of leadership positions and didn’t get them but she kept applying. She gets some, not all by far. UF is no cake walk once you are in. So, I think UF tries to choose people they think will be successful there, be willing and eager to work hard, invest in UF’s community through clubs and organizations etc. and contribute to the Gator Good. Just wanting to go there and have fun, or just having great grades or a great essay is not enough. Like someone else said… they want to know your story, who you are, what you are made of and what you will add to UF and if UF will be a good fit…and maybe a bit of is this kid really going to choose us if we choose them? I think they like to give some chances to close calls for people who they think can do it and really worked for it somehow or want it so sincerely… and I think they also know they can’t afford to give too many of those… it is a balance. One thing is for sure… you have to spray and pray these days… because nothing is a given in admissions. You just never know what will happen. My son got into UNC and will choose UF over that offer… he loves the gators and he won’t pay 50k OOS tuition at a school only barely ranked higher than UF, where he has no guarantee that he can even be a business major for the first 2 years. Many here are complaining about it being easier for OOS kids to get into UF… well when they put him in the honors program at UNC they told him it was for the top 10% of their class… which equated, they said to an average ACT score of a 31 and I forgot the gpa - not super impressive I think like a 3.9 weighted. I can tell you the top 10% at UF will be higher than that I’d bet on it! Certainly their honors program is. Even UGA’s honors program is higher than that! (my son didn’t get direct admit to honors with a 33 and a 4.9 and they said 10% of their EA admits get it based only on grades and test score) So for UNC being such an elite school to so many… I think for sure their in state stats are lower than OOS by a lot. No school is perfect with this process. But with spray and pray your kid will get into somewhere that is a good fit!! It sounds like your daughter has some good offers… and I willl keep my fingers crossed for her that she gets the special fit she deserves!!
@fbhsmom To your point about UNC, the In State SAT (25-75%) was 1310-1480 while OOS was 1380-1540 (Class starting in 2018). The big difference between UNC (and UVA which has similar situation) verus UF is that they receive about twice as many OOS applicants as In State. For UNC it was ~14k In state and 27k OOS. For UVA it was ~11.3k In state and 25.8k OOS.
I have not seen these INS/OOS numbers for UF, but I imagine that it is the opposite based on the number of applications received and the populations of the states. This is where UF needs to improve in order to move up in the rankings and compete with the likes of UVA, UNC, Michigan, etc. The other schools use OOS students to drive up the average scores.
UNC admitted 41% of In State applicants and 13% OOS. UVA was 38% In state and 26% OOS. They yielded 22% and 24% of those OOS applicants, respectively. Whereas, the In State yields are 61% and 58%.
It’s difficult to compare OOS vs in state gpa’s. We come from an OOS high school and there are only a couple of honors classes offered freshman and sophomore year. Most kids do not take AP’s until their Junior year and there is not a huge selection of AP/DE choices. My friends in Florida have told me that their kids can take AP’s their freshman year so their gpa’s are going to be much higher than ours. I feel being OOS could be a disadvantage but I think the admission counselors realize that our children don’t have the same opportunities for those super high gpa’s.
UF is too good a deal. If you are bright and ambitious and looking at going to UF for next to nothing while comparable out of state private universities that can cost upwards of $250k for four years it’s a no brainer. You save that $250k and spend it on law or medical school or to get that MBA down the road. The reason it’s so hard now is for the simple fact that many of the students that were going to schools like Duke, Georgetown, Emory 20 years ago are now going to UF as their 1st choice because of Bright Futures. Those schools aren’t worth the $250k anymore when UF is free.
Accepted
In state
White male
Applied Summer B
35 ACT
4.0 uw
UF w 4.7?
13 AP’s
AP Scholar with distinction
AP+PLTW
4 year STEM Capstone courses
Applied for Computer Science
National Merit Finalist(Benacquisto scholarship)
Class President junior & senior year, Vice President sophomore year
3 year varsity weightlifting 1 jv, 3 year varsity volleyball(team captain) 1 jv, 4 year starter football(team captain), Fellowship of Christian athletes 4 years
TSA Nationals qualifier 3 years(coding &quiz bowl), Gold medal winner Florida Science Olympiad
Nationally recruited for football 4.5 star #40 in the nation at my position
421 volunteer hours
Rank currently #2 of 486 Large public HS
Committed to play football for UF! 
see you in the swamp!!
@fl1234 yes - but by making it so much easier to get in as an in state student to UNC, it makes it less desireable to my student and other OOS students who feel once they are there, they won’t be among as consistantly strong students as they would be somewhere like UF where in state students are held to the highest standards…AND paying a lot more for it as well. Going to UF you know you will be among the states best and brightest thanks to Bright Futures and Benequisto which are doing their job well. I know UF wants more OOS students but I think they should be held to the same rigorous standards as in state students. With the out of state Benequisto available now and the already attractively inexpensive tuition and application fee UF should be able to recruit enough OOS applications to hold the bar up. Personally, I’d rather see higher qualified students from in state get accepted than take OOS students who wouldn’t get in as in state applicants. If it means the % of oos students doesn’t grow quite as quickly, so be it. But that’s just my opinion.
@Luska19 YOU GO!!! Way to bring the whole package! I’ll be proud to cheer you on in the swamp with my season tickets! Congrats on being a great all around student! GO GATORS!!
Could someone please tell how to find out Financial Aid offered.
I logged into https://one.uf.edu/, but it shows only FL Academic Scholars Award and Stipend.
I wanted to find see total aid package inclusive of Tuition/housing/books etc. Thanks in advance.