My son applied to USF St. Pete campus and was deferred until they received his new ACT scores, which came in this morning.
After taking them 4 times, has a superscore of 22
English 21
Math 18
Reading 28
Science 22
Combined English/writing 19
meeting all the USF admission guidelines except in math where he needed to be >/= 19. When they deferred him, his science was 19 along with his math being 18.
GPA: 2.8605 unweighted and 3.0233 weighted.
So many of you have such high scores that I hesitated to post here, but my son has worked so very hard to improve his grades and his scores. He has ADD and it lived just under our radar until the middle of 10th grade when he finally admitted he was so distracted. Since then, he has received help for this and works hard to do his best regardless. He had some volunteer work in the 9th grade, but he then turned his attention towards his grades, so he doesn’t have a lot of the extra curricular activities that many of you have.
He spent a year going to 2-3/week off campus tutoring, along with FLVS class grade forgiveness, 3 D.E. classes, 4 honor classes, tennis team one year, track one year, and a part time job.
The USF guidelines state that they have a minimum requirement to be offered “regular” admission. What do you think they mean by “regular”? In other words, my question is do you believe they mean Fall admission when they state “regular” and perhaps the criteria for summer or spring may be more relaxed?
He’s one point away in one subject (math)…a Mom can hope.
I think ‘regular admission’ means ‘without exceptions’. Sometimes a student who do not meet the minimum requirement is offered admission with exceptions. Exception might mean a conditional admission where they see how the student perform at the end of the first semester. Or it could mean the student is required to take a remedial course. Although summer session maybe easier to gain admission, I still think it would be a regular admission.
USFSP is one of the schools my son is considering. The admission people are very helpful. Have your son call or email them to clarify this.
Thanks for replying. He has a phone call in to the admission counselor assigned to our county. He plans to ask her if she can suggest anything else that would improve his chances of being admitted to any of the terms at USFSP.
So is it correct to say that if you don’t meet every single one of the minimum admission requirements you will more than likely be denied? I wonder how that works with USF and USFSP since their admission process is so intermingled.
Oh I really don’t think that’s true at all. I think you would be most likely wait listed, and if accepted, asked to take a remedial class of some sort. My son was admitted with a 19 ACT math. There is not a lot of difference between 18 and 19. They asked my son to retake the ACT because he took the one without writing. They sent the nicest email, telling him to be vigilant with his first semester senior grades as they hoped to offer him admission. His first ACT was a composite score of 23: English 27, Reading 24, Science 21, and Math 19. His cumulative GPA was 2.88 and his weighted GPA was only 3.33. All of that is on the low side for USFSP. He didn’t have that many extracurricular so I think it was his essay on what he could bring to USFSP that won them over. That, plus he showed a lot of interest in attending.
I certainly hope it’s not true, however at the bottom left of their eligibility guidelines where it states the minimum USF admission requirement, he would need to have a score greater than or equal to a 19 on his ACT math. Your son met that criteria. My son is one point under it, although he meets all the other requirements. http://www.usf.edu/admissions/documents/counselor-grid.pdf
He didn’t submit an essay with his application either. He has reached out to the counselor several times though, and he is asking his teachers if they will quickly send in a letter of recommendation for him. He will ask the USFSP counselor if there is anything else she suggests.
Even after they sent my son that encouraging email, I too worried he wouldn’t be accepted. So I understand your worries completely. I think I worried more than my son. He tells me he doesn’t stress out because I got us covered on that front. I hope your son gets in. It would be a shame if he was denied admission based on that one point. I’m still thinking it would be more of a wait list situation than a denial.
We went to USFSP’s open house and were so impressed by the admission staff. We learned a lot. It seems like a great school. We’ll be revisiting next month for their accepted student thing. Fingers crossed for you guys.
Thank you for your encouraging words. Will check in once he hears back.