<p>Thanks. Yes, my daughter goes to an extremely rigorous high school (one of the top schools in the state). However, when she e-mailed to ask, they knew her name and, presumably, what school she went to and were very dismissive, so I guess it’s not possible. I was only confused because all the other Florida State schools to which she has applied and been accepted (UCF, FIU, FGCU – she did not apply to FSU) HAVE had a more holistic admissions process for their honors college (essays, looking at activities, etc.) and, as I said, they sent her the invite. I have to say that USF is at the top of my daughter’s list at this point, but the communication left sort of a bad taste in my mouth for the school, like maybe she’d just be a number there. All the other schools to which she’s been accepted have been really, really encouraging. USF accepted her in about a week, so it’s not like she just squeaked in, and her GPA is fairly close. We’re going to visit in February (the week AFTER this event), and we’ll see how she feels about it then. </p>
<p>Lizard, good to know you had a good experience. USF is, as I said, at the top of my daughter’s list at least as far as public schools go (She’s gotten scholarships to Eckerd and FIT but needs to decide if she wants to go to a tiny private school or a big public school). She had thought she wanted to go to UCF, but when we visited there, she just didn’t like it at all (I suspect we had the worst tour guide, though). She’s still waiting on UF, like the whole rest of the state, because they have the major she really wants, which USF does not. But, USF is a strong contender. I’m mostly worried about class size. Did you find that you had decent-sized classes in your core subjects? The huge class size was definitely what turned us off to UCF. I understand having a big lecture class for something like history (We had that even at U Miami, where I went), but I would hope a science class, for example, would be smaller.</p>