My daughter was first deferred then accepted. Here are her stats:
18 APs
3.9 UW
5.2 WGPA
Lots of ECs
1450 SAT
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Iâm told they plan on having all of the appeals completed by May 1st.
Hi Melissa, any update on waitlist movement or predictions? Also, I understand this is the first year UF is doing waitlist, correct?
It is the first year of the waitlist, yes. Decisions are anticipated to come out shortly after May 1st unless we are going to fill up before and then weâd let students know sooner.
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Since itâs May 1st has there been any other updates regarding if you know you will be pulling from the waitlist yet?
Wait list updates can come through June.
Just have to get this off my chest, but I find the admissions team at UF to maybe be one of the most heartless and confusing of all the colleges my daughter applied to. With a 3.65/4.03 GPA (half AP or IB classes), 4 national honor societies, and a 1500 SAT (without studying btw), and now finishing her senior year with all Aâs I feel she is within range of their acceptance pool. She neither got waitlisted NOR given the PACE option, which was shocking to me and now Iâm wondering if they even read her appeal! When we appealed (and she had medical reasons that were incredibly valid and unique, esp for why she couldnât participate in sports and fell into a depression bc of it) they turned down her appeal as well. Really?? She was even willing to accept an Exploratory major if she needed to prove her ability to handle college classwork. I feel she could have at list been given the PACE option or put on the waitlist. Do better UF.
First off, it is obvious that your daughter is very bright. Even if she had prepped a great deal, having a 99% SAT score doesnât happen by accident. She is really smart and will do well.
The state of Florida is unique. It is the third most populous state. Also, because of bright futures, it will keep a huge % of its top students in-state. UF is also the only highly ranked university in the state. Whether or not rankings & prestige actually matter is irrelevant, parents and applicants think they matter. So, UF is flooded with may many more excellent students than they could possibly enroll.
So, knowing that a lot of great applicants will be left out, they have to search out reasons to not admit very bright kids. A 3.65 UW GPA is way below the average of admitted UF students. Maybe there are valid reasons why she had this GPA. Maybe her school is crazy hard and doesnât have grade inflation like many schools. I donât know. It sucks, but every year, some really bright kids get left out just because there can only be so many students.
This is common in states with huge populations. Go read the UT Austin thread. Every year, kids with 1500+ SAT scores and 4.0 UW GPAs are denied from Engineering and Computer Science at UT Austin. Like Florida, Texas has a massive population, and there are only so many spots.
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I 100% understand what youâre saying. But getting a 4.0 with no real obstacles is very different and easier, esp with grade inflation being applied. I think UF failed at the holistic review as they purport to apply to admissions. In response to some of your notes, her school is crazy hard (IBâŠa LOT of writing) and she did have major surgery at the beginning of her HS career which impacted her sports participation (she was a cheer flyer and had to give it up) and her mental health. Her doctor went to prison for malpractice, if thatâs any indication. When I say it was a unique case I mean I doubt any other student applying for an appeal had a similar experience. Because we moved at the beginning of her senior yr for my husbandâs job we put her in online school to make the transition easier. They completely recalculated her IB grades and it unfortunately did her a disservice. On a side note, she was also a working actress since she was 8, which shows her professionalism and maturity. I think they just looked at that number and didnât see beyond it. Nor did they consider the impact moving multiple times (we also moved from the West Coast to TN bc of COVID rules) had on her class selection. It was a big mess. My husband is retired Marine and we were stationed in Pensacola 3 times. As God as my witness, had I known back then how difficult it was going to be for my daughter to get into UF I wouldâve insisted we stayed!
This is likely true, but this is not the fault of UF admissions.
Again, this is the 3rd largest state in the country. Unlike Cali and Texas, Florida has only 1 top 50 option. Also, Texas and Cali donât have bright futures. So, Florida is flooded with more great students than they can possibly admit that have high SATs and high GPAs. There isnât enough time to go and vet all of the details of your story (and the stories of tens of thousands of other applicants who also feel they have unique circumstances to justify their low GPA or test score). I am not doubting the veracity of her circumstances, and they sound worse than most that have had difficulties. This is a numbers game at a massive state school that is overloaded with top applicants and has limited resources in admissions. They canât function like the admissions office of a private university.
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Understand it wasnât the original application, it was the appeal that I was angry about. When you gather extensive receipts and have to write a lengthy essay on it, you wonder if they even read it. Plus there arenât nearly as many appeals. From UFâs site: âValid grounds for an appeal include significant grade changes, medical issues, extenuating life circumstances, documented disabilities, or critical information that was omitted from the original application.â I would love to see how well they function with pins in their ankles that cause pain just by walking around campus with a 20lb backpack on their back daily, and what that does to them mentally. They didnât listen. Oh well. Doesnât matter now.
This year was ultra competitive!
Record number of applications. Unfortunately it looks like the weighted GPA may have been the deciding factor 4.5-4.7 middle 50%, However, you will never know for sure .
Did she apply to any other Florida schools?
Finally Love the school that loves you back
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She did not apply to any other Florida schools. She was focused on Geosciences so Floridaâs Museum of Natural History and their curriculum was a big draw. And she didnât have the opportunity to take AP classes freshman year and she was in an IB school sophomore and junior years, and the IB curriculum doesnât allow AP-level classes in sophomore. They have Honors-level classes but thatâs it. But just as an example, NO ONE can even take an English Honors class sophomore year at her school. They are all required to take the same basic English class. So she really only had one year (junior year) to raise her weighted GPA. Kids in her public school had more opportunities to take AP classes since sophomore year but our public HS had 3600 students. Ridiculous.
I have a hard time believing those stats for the âmiddle 50%.â Ultimately, what that claims is that ALL the students (with a 4.8) took at least 1/2 AP classes & 1/2 Honors classes for every core class and they ALL finished with all As. Even that only averages to a 4.75. Which means 25% of their admitted students got even better than that. Grade inflation is real. I am also skeptical that these colleges didnât apply more weight to being 1st-gen and low-income and prioritized that statistic over SAT scores. Thatâs my opinion anyway and a whole other topic of conversation. Being punished bc your parents went to college or worked their butts off to provide for you really sucks. Our family was surviving on Taco Bell and pasta for 4 years while my husband flew for regional airlines, paying his dues, making less than what these kids are making straight out of college. Now we are finally doing well and itâs a strike against our kidsâ college applications. This whole process has been so frustrating. And in response to a previous reply, yes her school graded harshly. The IB curriculum is unforgiving and the amount of testing and writing is ridiculous.
So sorry it was a rough cycle (and four years) for your daughter! Wishing her all the best in her next chapter. I hope she is truly excited about the school to which she committed. 
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wow! no wonder my son was deferred on EA to RD to be rejected. 1520 SAT with UW GPA of 4.0 (his school doesnt assign any weight, Out of state US citizen but studied internationally). physics major. accepted at all universities he applied to but rejected at UF. he was specifically interested in UFâs honors. let alone honors he was rejected altogether. well this data makes me feel bit better that UF is too competitive.
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Being OOS it is even more competitive.
Havenât seen this years numbers but UF has been averaging about 15% OOS students the last couple years per freshman class, per the Common Data Set.
I havenât seen percentage of OOS students accepted this year, but only second hand heard high single digit acceptance rate. Not sure how accurate , but with the number of applicants increasing each year and stats going up every year seems to be more competitive than the last
Looks like total instate and OOS combined admissions just under 20%
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Do you what FTIC includes? 7500 is about 1000 more than in the in-person first year classes for the past couple years, I thought. Maybe it includes PACE?
Also â wow on fully 1/3 of the class being first gen. Interesting!
The number admitted must include PACE and Innovation Academy. For the stats breakdown, it says âall admitted students.â
I understand that you are upset and disappointed, but this isnât a good look. I can only tell you that UF employs a holistic review and denies class valedictorians, National Merit Finalists, and all sorts of qualified students each year.
No one is being âpunishedâ for having college educated parents. The university does consider first generation in college as one part of their admissions strategy, but itâs ONE criteria out of a dozen or so.
UF recalculates the core GPA, so if IB classes were reported on your daughterâs transcript, UF would recalculate the weight and add the IB weight to any courses listed as IB. They add .5 for Honors and +1 for AP/DE/IB/AICE with a max 5.0 scale. So, an A in an IB class would count as a 5 while an A in an Honors class would count as a 4.5. There are students who load up on DE courses and graduate high school with an Associateâs degree, which accounts for the higher end of the calculations. Thatâs often the case for homeschooled students who take DE classes almost exclusively.
I think you are vastly underestimating the rigor a lot of these applicants undertake. UF does review each student within the context of their school and community, however. Each high school submits a school profile explaining their course offerings and grading scale. So, students who do not have access to the same academic and financial resources arenât penalized. Instead, itâs expected that they make the most of the curriculum offered by their high schools.
UF also reads the essays carefully and values extracurriculars and involvement. Those essays can make or break an applicant.
Iâm sorry for everything you and your child endured, but to be frank, sheâs far from the only student who had to manage surgeries or medical conditions while in high school. UF has an entire Disability Resource Center devoted to assisting students with chronic medical conditions and disabilities.
I wish you both the best and hope your child excels wherever she lands.
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