<p>Florida has a talented 20 program, you automatically get accepted into one state school even though it may not be a university of your choice. So…if you apply to another state school do you automatically get accepted? </p>
<p>I was reading an article about texas capping there automatically accepted students. Do Florida residents automatically get accepted?</p>
<p>The Talented 20 Program is part of former Governor Bush’s One Florida Initiative - a program that provides a way for students to be admitted to a university in the state of Florida. Students eligible for the Talented 20 Program are guaranteed admission to one of the eleven state universities and are given priority for the awarding of funds from the Florida Student Assistance Grant, a need-based student assistance program.</p>
<p>In order to be eligible for the Talented 20 Program, as student must:</p>
<ul>
<li>be enrolled in a Florida public high school and graduate with a standard diploma</li>
<li>be ranked in the top 20% of the senior class after the posting of seventh semester grades</li>
<li>take the ACT or SAT (no minimum score is required)</li>
<li>complete all 18 college preparatory credits as specified in State Board of Education Rules</li>
</ul>
<p>Florida applicants ranked in the top 20% are guaranteed admission to “a” public university, but not necessarily the one of their choice. In other words, you are not guaranteed admission to U of F if you apply for it. If you apply as a 20% there and get rejected, you will be offered admission elsewhere. You may get admitted up front to more than one but the 20% rule really does not determine that, your overall qualifications do. The Florida rule is actually similar to California’s 4% rule under which anyone in the top 4% of thier class in California is guaranteed admission to a UC but not necessarily the one of their choice. Florida’s rule was the Jeb Bush administration’s replacement for affirmative action so they could get the votes necessary to prohibit affirmative action; in Texas, the 10% rule was the George Bush administration’s replacement for affirmative action to accomplish the same thing when W was governor there. The Texas rule requires admission to the public university of your choice and has come under attack there more than the Florida system has in Florida because louder voices are screaming about their kids not being able to get into University of Texas Austin (which gets huge numbers of 10% applicants it must accept) just because they are not in the the top 10%. In Florida, kids are not necessarily being excluded from U of F just because of the 20% rule since it does not legally have to accept anyone under that 20% rule as long as there is space to send them elsewhere.</p>