Chance me please!!!

Date Applied: Oct 20th (first school I applied to)

Unweighted GPA: 3.333
Weighted GPA: 4.381 / 5.0
UF GPA (If you calculated it): 4.0 (calculated awhile ago, can’t remember exact gpa)
SAT: 1300 (620-M, 680-R)
ACT: 30
State Of Residence: FL
Male / Female: Hispanic (Puerto Rican) Male
Summer or Fall: Summer
Class rank: top 24% (out of nearly 550)

AP’s:
9th: WHAP, APES
10th: Bio
11th: English Lang, Chem, Spanish Lit, Calc AB, APUSH and Physics 1

Extra Curriculars:
-100 volunteer hours
-Volunteer at a Rehabilitation Office with PT and OT and occasionally the pharmacists
-Spanish club all 4 years, Treasurer 11th and 12th
-Spanish Honor Society, inducted in 10th, Vice President in 12th
-FBLA 9th and 10th, Vice President 10th
-March of Dimes 10th, helped with march of dimes walk
-American Cancer Society, helped with Relay for Life Event
-High school varsity swim team all 4 years
-Club swimmer all-year round (afternoon AND morning practices (too much swimming!!))
**Not an EC but I worked at a rehab medicine doctor’s office the summer going into 12th

Senior Schedule: All APs (again). English Lit, Physics 2, Studio Art: 2-D (aka AP Photo), Psychology, Statistics, U.S. Gov and Microeconomics

Is UF your first choice? YES!!!
Other schools you applied for: FSU, UCF, UMiami, Auburn, Alabama, UT-Austin, UNC-Chapel Hill, and currently considering Vandy
Major/Field of Study: Biochemistry w/ Pre-med

Comments:

Essay: I wrote about the memory of Monica Puig winning Puerto Rico’s first gold medal in the Olympics while listening to my grandma, (she was in PR I was in the US) who believed she wouldn’t live long enough to see such an event and how I am motivated to succeed based on the constant calls from mi abuelita urging me to do my best and make her proud. I promise the essay sounds 3000x better than this awful summary.
**This essay was written before Irma and Maria hit P.R., and I fear that UF admissions will see my essay as trying to earn pity points and/or wooing them with my minority status.

Mother has college education in PR
Dad has college education from Iowa State and is unemployed.
We are upper middle class
I qualify for Bright Futures FAS

I know my test scores and gpa definitely aren’t the best, and I definitely don’t have a lot of volunteer hours and extra curriculars, but I’m hoping they’ll see that I at least challenged myself and got involved with EC. Also being a competitive swimmer and taking all AP classes is a lot of effort, so I hope UF takes it into consideration, but I doubt it.

Thank you!!

Congrats on the good stats and the strong extracurriculars. You have a great record of achievement. For UF though it puts you in the middle of the pack, if a bit on the low side. I think you have a fairly decent shot at being accepted by UF. Something to think about, though, is if you are accepted, you will be competing against a HIGHLY competitive cohort of students to earn top grades. Many of them will have stronger stats than you do.

It might make sense to consider one of the other Florida State schools. Medical schools don’t care where you graduated from. They care about your GPA, your MCAT score, and your healthcare-related experiences.

Good luck!

I think your essay sounds awesome. I hope you get accepted.

Thank you for the feedback!

I was denied

I’m sorry to hear that and I’m sure you were close. There are some great schools in Florida, UF isn’t the only one. I wish you luck in them. My wife is a UCF graduate and wouldn’t have had it any other way. I’m confident you will do well in one of the other great state schools.