<p>My son has applied to UF for fall 2012 and I think he is in the middle as far as GPA and test scores (4.2 weighted and 29 ACT) and could probably get in if things were based only on those factors. His drawbacks are:</p>
<p>Limited ECs: He spends most of his time volunteering at our local soccer park as my husband runs it and soccer is a passion for both of them. He has tons of volunteer time as a referee, doing park maintenance, assistant coaching where needed, etc. He has played recreationally since age 5 and has two years of high school soccer (JV before dual enrollment) and 3 years of travel soccer. Also he helped start up a defunct program in a neighboring city and both coached and trained coaches for a season. Other than that he doesn't really have much, and as he dual enrolls at a university about 45 minutes away local school involvement is a bit more difficult.</p>
<p>Class rank: This is the one that really worries me as I know 74% of admissions are in the top 10% of their class and my son is ranked in the 87th percentile for his. </p>
<p>I think his essay was well written and he did add some extra info such as raising money for hurricane relief, playing the trumpet, voted president of robotics in 8th grade, 5 years scouting (Cub Scouts) etc.</p>
<p>What do you think for chances? Hold out decent hope, or start figuring out his housing, etc. for UCF? (Already accepted.) :)</p>
<p>He’s definitely in the UF ranges, and as far as EC’s … D’s major EC involvement was our church. She went on mission trips, taught 2 year old sunday school classes for a few years, taught at Vacation Bible School, and was on the leadership team for the high school ministry. All her “service” activities were thru the church. She was in NHS, Beta Club, English Honoray, and Mu Theta for high school, but she held no leadership positions in any of those. She participated in them, but her main EC’s were church related. I don’t think that worked against her. It showed she had a passion for service and ministry, and I think that worked better than a shot-gunned thousand different clubs, etc, and activities approach. Your S is definitely in the running, depends on all those “intangibles” that UF is famous for when figuring out who’s in or not. Also, don’t worry about housing yet for UCF. You can still apply for UCF housing in Feb (if UF is your S’s first choice but your don’t get in), and have plenty of housing opportunities with UCF. That $200 fee makes a lot of people wait until then. Also, if your S is involved in UCF’s honors college (not sure if he’s interested in that or not) and wants honors housing, then he will automatically be placed in that after he’s accepted into honors and expresses an interest in honors housing. I would highly suggest looking at UCF’s honors college if your S goes to UCF. It’s exceptional. </p>
<p>If he included all the soccer stuff and service he has done, then I think he has a good chance. I have one question though, did his school not have APs cause those are lot cheaper and often they are better than duel enrollment. Sorry if this is personal, Im just curious why people do duel.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. Sounds like he might have a chance, I guess time will tell.</p>
<p>tzais01, that is the GPA on his Florida high school transcripts, not sure if they figure it differently than the state universities. If I use the page I found to calculate Florida college GPA I get a 4.1.</p>
<p>zebes, your daughter sounds like she had some excellent ECs/community service and is a great kid in general. My son is applying to the UCF honors college, but not sure if he has the stats for it, we’ll see. You think it’s OK to wait on the housing deposit? That would be nice. I have a friend with two kids at UCF, one honors, one not, and she suggested I put down the deposit ASAP if we want decent housing. It’s gone up to $250 so I’d love to wait and see if we need to fork it over as I’m pretty sure he’ll choose UF if he gets in. Their family does love UCF, her youngest is the same age as my son and he got a 35 on his ACT, is a National Merit Scholar and is getting offers from Ivy League left and right (and they have money) but is choosing UCF anyway. </p>
<p>Got Big Dreams, the reason he chose dual enrollment over AP is that he was one of 5 kids in his year cleared to go the University of West Florida as a junior and senior instead of the local community college. Our high school is fairly limited with no money for extra programs, so that opened up a huge variety of offerings that he could not have accessed otherwise. The state pays for all his tuition and books, so we were lucky there, and some of the courses will apply toward his future degree. I know that AP can be more difficult some places, but he has had some very challenging classes in a university setting, which I think will help him with the college transition, so for us it has been a real blessing. :)</p>
<p>Okay that makes sense. Alot of kids from my school just ended up take these super basic classes at a local community college. That’s actually really cool that your son got to take classes at a real university during high school.</p>
<p>DUAL ENROLLMENT was the best choice he could have made. I had similar ECs (Not much because of DE). My GPA was slightly lower but similar ACT score.
What’s his potential major?
Also, did he complete classes at USF that are toward his major?</p>
<p>ufgator18, his is still unsure of his major. I have been wondering if this affects things or not as far as enrollment. He always thought he would go toward engineering (still a possibility) but has become interested in political science and possibly sports journalism since he started dual enrollment. Definitely some variety there! He has been doing mainly gen ed and has completed English I and II, physics, chemistry, calculus (currently enrolled in calc 2) and a few other things that should transfer if I’m not mistaken. </p>
<p>Thanks for the encouragement about his stats, hopefully they are good enough. Do you think DE helps with stats, or just with college preparedness in general?</p>
<p>floridadad55, I think he’s probably on the cusp as well from what research I’ve done. I would love it if geography played a part; we’ll take any edge we can get. Good luck to your son!</p>
<p>Don’t do POLYSCI! (I mean if its’ truly his passion go for it.) I’m an Engineering major and UF is just top-notch. Honestly, DE prepared me only in the sense that I know how a college class operates. That’s about it. Classes here at UF are on another level then anything I’ve ever experienced. And everything transfers as long as it is done in Florida. :D</p>
Sounds like he might have a chance, I guess time will tell.</p>
He has been doing mainly gen ed and has completed English I and II, physics, chemistry, calculus (currently enrolled in calc 2) and a few other things that should transfer if I’m not mistaken. </p>