Chances at UF?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Florida
1

Hi, I’m currently a high school junior attending college full time at a state college near me, so by the time I graduate high school, I will have an associate’s degree. I think I want to go into either engineering or biology, or even a mix of both with biomedical engineering.

My stats
Middle school: Algebra I, geometry, Spanish I. 4.0 unweighted GPA

Freshman year: Spanish II, leadership, algebra II honors, world history honors, English I honors, biology honors, P.E. 4.0 unweighted GPA.
Summer: College algebra (got an A).
Sophomore year: Chemistry honors, U.S. history honors, English II honors, anatomy & physiology honors, college statistics (1st semester), college trigonometry (2nd semester), AP human geography (got a 3 on exam), Spanish III honors. 3.9 unweighted GPA.

Junior year at state college (semester 1): Freshman English I, general chemistry with lab, precalculus, introduction to microcomputers/Windows, fundamentals of speech. 4.0 unweighted GPA.
semester 2 (in progress): Calculus I, American government, freshman English II, introduction to humanities, economics.
*I didn’t take a science this semester because I wanted to get other graduation requirements out of the way.

Plan for senior year at state college: Biology, physics, Calculus II and III, possibly differential equations, music appreciation, organic chemistry

Extracurriculars:
-STEM club
-Key club (officer for one year)
-IB student council (I was in pre-IB in freshman & sophomore year)
-Math honor society
-Interact club
-Local career readiness organization
-Phi Theta Kappa (college honor society)

Tests:
SAT: 1200 (will be retaking)
ACT: 28 (most likely retaking)
SAT II: not sure if I should take

I’m not a good test taker as you can see, but I have been able to maintain pretty good grades thus far. What would my chances be at UF?

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To make this easier, you should calculate your UF GPA. UF only looks at academic classes and gives a .5 bump for honors and 1.0 bump for AP/DE. UF only counts academic classes (math, science, social studies, English and foreign language and APs). Art, band, newspaper, yearbook or office aide don’t count. All AP classes count! So honors photography doesn’t count but AP Photography does. DE and AICE (I think but don’t know much about this) count. A very general but not always perfect guesstimate is halfway between your high school weighted and unweighted GPAs.

Your test scores are very low for UF. The middle 50% of admits last year scored between 1300 - 1450. If you want to go to UF, you have to bring your scores up. It looks like you did better on the ACT, so you might want to take a prep course to get that to at least 29 or better. UF weighs grades more than test scores but 1200 is probably not going to cut it.

You should also look at your overall extracurriculars and find a way to stand out. Honor societies are nice but you don’t have any long-term leadership, for example. What you have shown on this forum is that you are an advanced student who is focused on their studies but you have to showcase what you have to contribute outside the classroom. UF wants superstars who will make the entire campus a better place. The denial landscape is littered with kids who kept their noses in their books but didn’t do much of anything else while in high school.

The good news is that you still have time for your test scores and ECs. If you already have your AA when you apply, you will be reviewed as a first time in college freshman and if you are denied, they will look at you again as a transfer student. Good luck.

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Thank you so much for your reply! @GatorDad305

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@GatorDad305 I know it’s not looked at in a vacuum but my kids got a 1290 on his SATs. Thoughts? Thanks

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@mypricelineemail A 1290 is in the bottom 25% of admits last year – but just barely. Here’s what I think that means. Obviously, a higher score is better but UF also doesn’t weigh standardized test scores as much as it does other factors like GPA, rigor, ECs and the essay. UF holistic process looks at many factors and test score is just one them.