My son wants to go to UF and although he’s quite smart, he’s not very motivated and has fairly average grades (3.5 GPA) and test scores. He’s only a sophomore in High School now but his sister is a gator. He’s very involved in robotics and competes with FRC and has been a life long tinkerer. I’m wondering if he should look at Santa Fe? Is it difficult to get into for engineering? If he matures and applies himself, can he transfer over to UF?
UF and Santa Fe have a very strong connection, and SF says that it sends more kids to UF than any other state (previously known as “community”) colleges. There’s a UF Center at Santa Fe and the counselors are very familiar with how to move kids from Santa Fe to UF. Most get an AA at Santa Fe and then transfer.
Freshman who want to study engineering at Santa Fe will take the same type of engineering critical tracking courses as are taught at UF. For the most part, this means Calculus 1,2,3 and differential equations, chemistry, physics 1 & 2. If your son progresses through those courses well at Santa Fe, then he should have a great chance at transferring into the UF college of engineering. A student majoring in engineering at UF may take a few other major-specific classes during the first two years at UF, but the critical tracking classes are, as one might imagine, “critical.”
There are some special programs that UF/Santa Fe have created for engineering (Gator Engineering at Santa Fe) and design and construction (Gator Design and Construction at Santa Fe), but students don’t specifically apply to those. UF offers these programs to kids who go through the main admissions process.
Make sure the track you want at UF is available if starting out at Santa Fe. (mech engineering, elect engineering- not saying they’re not, just make sure). @Gator88NE is quite knowledgeable in all things Gator so he might be a good resource as well as @GatorDad305.
Lets talking Gator Engineering and transferring…
First, you can attending any Florida state college (community college or CC), earn your AA and then attempt to transfer into UF engineering. However, a few of the programs are limited access and can be difficult to get into. Aerospace and Mechanical are two such programs. I think it may also be harder to get into Biomedical and Industrial. Some programs that I know are NOT limited access are electrical, civil, environmental, computer sciences, Materials and Nuclear.
Here’s a listing of BS programs offered in the College of Engineering(COE):
Aerospace Engineering
Biological Engineering
Biomedical Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Civil Engineering
Computer Engineering
Computer Science (inside the COE, UF also have a BS program in CLAS)
Digital Arts and Sciences
Electrical Engineering
Engineering | Exploring Engineering Studies
Environmental Engineering
Industrial and Systems Engineering
Materials Science and Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Nuclear and Radiological Sciences
Nuclear Engineering
Looking at last year’s numbers, UF COE received 1,153 transfer applications and admitted 409 (about a 36% acceptance rate). I’m sure the acceptance rate varies a lot by major.
Another way to look at it, about 20% of engineering juniors are transfer students.
Santa Fe does have an unique Engineering program partnership with UF.
https://www.eng.ufl.edu/students/students/state-college-partnerships/gator-engineering-santa-fe/
It’s only offered to students that apply to UF as freshman. UF looks at freshman that didn’t get accepted, that showed an interest in engineering. They then offer the “best” candidates slots in the Gator Engineering at Santa Fe program. Recently, they have also offered these students UF dorm housing. They can attend classes at Santa Fe, but live on UF’s campus with other gators.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to be in the Gator Engineering at Santa Fe program, to attend Santa Fe, earn your AA and transfer to UF. Santa Fe does have excellent academic advising, and they do a great job of placing students into UF.
UF also has a program with the State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota (SCF).
https://www.eng.ufl.edu/students/students/state-college-partnerships/gescf/
^ a wealth of knowledge for sure!