First of all, I feel like a doofus for even thinking this. At the time I was applying to college I was very naive of the whole system. At that point I’ve heard of Harvard, but honestly wasn’t really sure what it was. I didn’t even know what a subject test was. The only time I heard of them was from this girl I went on a date with, but she was kind of weird so I figured she just made it up. What I ended up doing was applying to two schools, UF and FSU, and was accepted into both. Now with my stats I was a little above the average stats for UF, and even with their sometimes unpredictable admissions I would say that it was about a match for me. However, I feel that I at least had a decent shot at the berkelys and Emory’s of the nation. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m THRILLED to be going to a school as good as UF (especially with how cheap it will be for me),but I can’t help to think about what could’ve been if I was more informed.
Look at the acceptance rates of those more selective schools, and look at the profiles of those who are rejected and waitlisted versus accepted. There’s no guarantee it would have turned out any differently.
Well if you really were competitive for those schools and if for some reason Florida doesn’t work out(socially or for wise not bad grades) you could always try to transfer. From my understanding Florida is a great public school though and I’m not sure you get all that much more out of Berkeley especially if you have instate for Florida. If you are interested in Grad school you could still go to an “elite school” and it sounds like Graduate school is where most top schools have a big advantage anyway.
Does your family have $55K/year they can throw at Berkeley? If your happy at either UF or FSU then mission accomplished. If you’re not then consider a gap year and reapply. But as @bodangles stated there is no assurance it would end any differently.
UF and FSU are great options! (If your application was super strong were you invited to the honors college?) Again, if you had strong test scores (a 26 or 29 on the SAT for 2 different levels of merit money) you are eligible for Bright Futures. Don’t look back, look forward to making of the most of one of these fine schools.
Take the info you learned recently about admissions and save it for your kids! You can do a boatload of research then. Good luck!
Yeah I hate how this thread sort of makes me come across as ungrateful, which believe me, I’m not. I mean my best test score was 2000 on the sat, which I know isn’t ultra competitive, but it’s still pretty damn competitive. Given how much cheaper UF is and the connections I have there, it would’ve most likely won anyways. It’s just that since joining this site I’ve learned so much. I honestly feel if freshman year I knew what I know now I could’ve worked my way into a top 10. I guess my experience just goes to show the stress that’s put on attending in state schools from high school advisors. Luckily everything worked out nicely for me, but if it didn’t I fear that I could’ve grown to regret it. Anyways, as I stated earlier I am indeed thrilled with my outcome, but let this be a lesson to those high schoolers who haven’t yet applied to college who are destined to somehow be rejected from their flagship despite being qualified. Do your research just in case, and don’t limit your possible options by being lazy like me with only applying to two schools.
If you know nothing about subject test and not familiar with those elite school names, you are not in the game as you either has an incomplete application or you cannot write the why this school essay.
Lol what?
I know what you mean. Although I’m happy at where I ended up getting accepted (Actually got into both Emory and Berkeley 
) I feel as if I should’ve applied to more places. That regret is there, but the only thing to do now is tell future generations.