Unfortunately, I am starting to agree with CaucasianDad. My daughter has visited a few times and we are out of state so hasn’t been easy. While she was down there, she decided to go to UCF open house which was on friday. UF is her dream school but we have made her visit other FL schools to compare “apples to apples”. Can’t compare any florida school to Syracuse (BRRRRRR). She was very impressed with UCF and that open house was run well and went smoothly. They closed registration and offered another in the spring. That might have helped. UF probably needs to do the same. But once she got to UF, even with the chaos and huge long line (and yes she pre-registred) she just knew this is where she wants to be. But trying to get straight answers via website, email or phone calls has not always been easy. Different answer to her questions every time she goes and depending on who she talks to. She even got different answers from our local rep. UF is probably out of her reach strictly based on SAT and GPA (slightly below the middle range) but the “holistic” admissions they brag about gave her hope. Not sure if thats such a good thing. Once she filled out her application she felt as though there was not enough opportunity to show she who she is, how she is ready for that school and why she even wants to go there. As far as essay which they say holds a lot of weight, she was told to talk about something not in the application so they could get a better sense of who she is. But the topics didn’t really help with that. Ended up being a cute true story to “catch their attention” because they said make it memorable but I wouldn’t say it gave a great sense of they type of person she is especially with the character limit. How can you accomplish all they say? At this point after this open house, she is more discouraged than ever. She said the admissions officers didn’t seem like they wanted to give anyone the time of day. Its very disappointing to me that a 17 year old took her thanksgiving break as an opportunity to go down there, get to know the campus and faculty a little more, and become more excited about the possibility of getting her education there but instead was made to feel like she was “bothering them” or that she was “taking them away from their other job”. I realize they have an large number of applicants but I would think if they really have a holistic admissions, somehow they would find a way to take this opportunity to get to know the people who are applying. Especially since essays can be written by others, EC and CS can be exaggerated or even false. I almost wish they would just be honest and say "you need the numbers, you need to look good on paper and just leave the admissions department alone to do their job. I would be ok with that.