Our daughter is a senior this year, and has qualified as a Florida Academic Scholar. This is our first experience with college applications, and she is handling most of it herself. Her top two choices are UF and FSU, yet she’s extremely worried she won’t get into either one. I know North Carolina Schools have a cap that seems a little excessive, but at the same time fair. I’m trying to understand how it is that an above average student with competitive credentials, is concerned whether or not they will be accepted into a 4 year public university in the state where they reside. Where does this leave the average student? Perhaps since Florida’s schools are becoming more and more difficult to get into, they should taper down on the out-of-state and out-of-country recruiting.
You raise a couple of issues…first the cap.
Yes, there is a cap, but it’s at the “University System” level, which includes all 12 public Universities. There isn’t a cap for each individual school. We are no way near that “system wide” cap, so it’s never been an issue. Also, all of the Florida schools have relatively low OOS (out of state) percentages. For example, for Fall 2017, for undergraduates, UF had 83% in-state students, 11% OOS students, 5% International, and 1% “unknown”. For FSU, it’s 85% in-state, at UCF it’s 89%. While UF has the “highest” level of OOS enrollment, it also offers the least aid, most OOS are paying full OOS tuition (about $28K a year in tuition/fees).
OOS enrollment isn’t what’s driving down acceptance rates, it’s competition from other in-state students. When I went to school in the 80’s, Florida’s population was about 10 1/2 million. Today, it’s doubled to 21 million. In addition, the state has been financially supporting AP classes/programs, IB programs, AICE programs, and duel enrollment. The state has a large, well prepared group of students graduating from it’s high schools.
On the positive side, many of Florida’s schools have gotten far more competitive. USF and UCF are on the rise, as well as our other schools. The state has done a great job of financially supporting all of the schools, and not just UF/FSU.
One last note…
Florida has a strong CC transfer system =>> State University system. A large % of our state university undergraduate students are made up of transfer students. There is nothing wrong with attending a CC and transferring to UF (in fact, most of my friends at UF in the 80’s where transfer students, simply because it made a lot more economically sense).
@Gator88NE Do you know what is the system wide cap? 15%? 20%?
The Florida Board of Governors website (FLGOG.edu) is down this weekend for maintenance, but I’ll try to dig up the %, later this week. I’m thinking the system wide limit is 10%, but I’ll need to confirm that…
The statistics tell the tale. I know several out of state parents who believe that UF doesn’t take many out of state students, but the acceptance rate from some states is very high. In 2017, for example, about 62% of kids from Georgia who applied were admitted. Most other states it is around 35% – which is comparable to Florida kids applying to UF.
Most high achieving kids in Florida will apply to UF and FSU, even if their first choice is out of state or an Ivy or whatever – this drives up the “admitted” statistics. “Enrolled” stats are lower.
UF/FSU are aspirational for many but also safeties for every high-flying student in the state.
Ultimately, the universities need to fill their slots, so if your kid really wants to go to UF or FSU, make sure they make that clear on the application because I think that helps – although no one knows for sure how much.
No doubt the process is stressful. I would encourage kids in Florida to apply as early as possible to the schools with rolling admissions because you can have acceptances “in your pocket” early in the fall and even before senior year starts. This can take some of the sting out of not getting into FSU or UF when decisions hit in Jan/Feb.
My daughter and several of her friends were accepted to UCF by last Christmas and then they all waited it out on UF. Those who didn’t get into UF were disappointed but pivoted pretty quickly to becoming happy UCF Knights.
@Gator88NE . That is very helpful - thank you!
@GatorDad305 Naviance shows about 2/3 of students who applied from our PA public were accepted to UF the past 3 years. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for my D - her application has been submitted and I think she showed appropriate interest, but who knows?
I’m trying to get to my Zen place of “things will work out as they should”
@houndmom the 2018 admissions annual report has been published on the UF website. Last year, 603 kids from Pennsylvania applied, 293 accepted (48.5%) and 84 enrolled (4th highest after NY, NJ and GA). The out of state yield is below the average yield. UF admitted 15,057 and enrolled 6,925 – for a yield of 46%. PA yield was 29%. (I don’t have Naviance, so I can’t comment on it.) Get your housing application fee in, and then ride it out until February.
UF enrolled 6,929 freshman
835 were out of state.
My UF journalism school math says that 12% of enrolled kids are from out of state. Looks like about 2% international. So in 2018, appears to be about 85% instate – transitive property of journalism school math.
@mfd0513 Out of state kids definitely have a good shot at UF, but I don’t think the school is giving major preference to them as fewer of those admitted end up enrolled.
Some states do better than others. I wonder if that has anything to do with the states with public universities we want to conquest. Who knows? Maybe @Gator88NE has a theory? We are definitely not pulling many kids from Calif. public universities.
@houndmom @GatorDad305 Ohhhhh…the 2018 UF Admissions report is out…I love this stuff…
I ALWAYS have a theory! In this case, it’s really a state by state issue…
Georgia has two TOP colleges (GT/UGA). GA students tend to pick UF if they don’t get into either of these two schools (especially engineering majors that don’t get into GT), or they happen to be from a “Gator” family (over 12K alumni live and work in Atlanta). Being close (and having a decent size population in the state) also matters. That’s the reason the state of Florida sends a lot of students to Georgia universities/colleges.
NJ/NY have always sent some students to UF. These states have a tendency to down play their in-state public universities, and have a tradition of going “out of state”. A lot of NY/NJ residents have family in Florida, and the appeal of Florida sun and beaches can be a powerful incentive ( 
just don’t tell them that the closes beach to Gainesville is an hour+ away…). The NY City area also has more UF alumni than Atlanta (about 12.3K).
With PA, it’s all about the $$$. Penn State is an expensive “public” option, so residents are much more willing to look out of state. Same issue with Illinois.
CA students tend to stay in-state, since they have a lot of wonderful, low cost options (as do FL students). When they go OOS, it’s due to reputation (IVY league) or generous OOS scholarships (which UF doesn’t offer). They also have other options much closer to home, like schools in Washington/Oregon/Arizona. Still, CA is so large, so they send almost as many students to UF as Texas, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
I am bet surprised with Maryland, which sends almost as many kids as Georgia and more than Pennsylvania. :-??
One other statistic of note that will be disheartening to kids on the bubble and parents of kids on the bubble at UF: The instate yield rate for UF is about 60%. This means that 60% of kids from Fla. who get accepted into UF become enrolled students. By comparison, the rate at UCF (Fall 2017) is more like 37%. Big difference.
Just based on yield, UF must be more selective. Of course, all of this is inter-related and you can get caught in the whirlwind of statistics.