Okay so theoretically let’s say my GPA (UF recalculated) ends up being a 4.3-4.4. That’s on the lower side for UF, I know, and probably will be really low when i’m applying for the class of 2025. However, I’m hoping to have 1450 at least on the SAT (hopefully closer to 1500) and will have been president of DECA for junior and senior year & will have taken at least 13 AP’s by the time I graduate high school as well as 100+ community service hours and running cross country and track all 4 years. Is there anything else I can do over the next year or so to improve my chances? What do you think my chances would be based off of this limited information?
I am guessing that you are in state. The biggest thing you can do is bring up that GPA and if your school ranks, your class ranking. As I just replied to another post here, UF values grades and course rigor more than SAT/ACT (and those vary across all high schools, so you can’t just look at the recalculated GPA against the entire admission base. Some high schools don’t offer APs or only a few, so they have no ability to get a 4.4 and UF does not hold that against them). If you go to a Florida high school, try to figure out whether the kids in the last couple of classes that had similar GPA/class rank got into UF or not. That is the biggest indicator for me. In my opinion you are really competing against the kids in your high school, not from other schools. The admissions people at UF know every Florida high school very well and take roughly the same amount of students each year from them. If you check out the UF Common Data Set you will see that GPA is listed as “Very Important” and Standardized Test Scores are “Important”. So, that is where I would focus.
@hsstudent986 At this stage, you need to follow the fundamentals. Take the most rigorous schedule that you can handle. (Take APs that you can do well in. A “c” in an AP doesnt help you, in my opinion.) Start on your SAT/ACT prep. Strive for leadership in your activities and be involved – but don’t be involved just for your college applications. Pick something meaningful to you and get involved. Show UF that you are well-rounded and will contribute to the school beyond being smart. Good luck.
@fl1234 I understand your position on this but one thing that sticks out is that in the common data set, it says class rank is only “considered.” Aren’t you making a case for class rank as a major factor or am I misunderstanding your position? (By the way, this is at the top of my list for questions for UF admissions when I take my son on his tour.)
@GatorDad305 yes, I am making that case. If you are able to ask that question I would like to know the answer. It might be that they say that because many high schools do not rank students so they cannot use it as a major component and they don’t have that official datapoint for each student. But, I believe that for almost every high school in the state that they have a pretty good idea where their applicants rank in their class based on their GPAs. Assuming that 30+% of the students from the high school apply to UF and they have years worth of history, they can pretty well figure out if a student is in the top 10 or 20% of their class. They can also sort the current applicants by GPA to see relative ranking within that high school. That is why I say that applicants are competing more against their high school classmates than students from other schools.
But look, I am just a guy on the outside too, giving my opinion based on observations.
@fl1234 I have heard so many horror stories of students from my kids’ school (large public, well regarded high school in south florida) who had high class ranks but didn’t get into to UF. One got into the honors program at FSU but not UF (alumni donor parents were devastated). Last year, the class president who was a top 10% kid got into Westpoint but not UF. UF has the luxury of only accepting kids who have good grades, a rigorous schedule, good scores, a good essay and meaningful ECs. If you don’t have all of it, you are on the bubble for UF due to the sheer volume of applicants who hit all the markers.
Put another way, I don’t think being in the top 10% guarantees you UF, but not not being in the top 10% has a very good chance of precluding you.
But back to my earlier point, i don’t know the answers either but i want to get this question addressed by admissions. Go Gators!
@GatorDad305 I agree, there are always exceptions to the trends. Some kids in the top 10% don’t get in and others not in the top 25% do get in. I content that those are mostly anomalies and when people are asking for their chance on these boards, the larger trend is what you can go by.
I like to think that admissions is thoughtful and makes the best decisions that they can with the information that they are provided, but I am sure that with 40K+ applications there are some that slip through the cracks. We also don’t have the luxury of reading the essays and seeing the details of applicants that appear to be anomalies. There could be something very obvious that eliminates an applicant in the top 10% of their high school class.
@fl1234 I respect your position. I agree about the anomalies and the Westpoint kid is a good example. I know he was a top 10% kid and that he had excellent ECs. At the senior award ceremony he was widely recognized and even had a Westpoint rep there feting him. I also met the kid and his father. Nice kid and he clearly had the grades and test scores to get into the academy. So why not UF? My guess is there was something in his essay that tripped him up. Made a glaring error of some kind or wrote something totally unoriginal or just struck the reviewers wrong. I think UF looks very hard at the essay and doesn’t merely use it as a tiebreaker – as we think is the case with other state schools.
i guess my overall point (which hopefully helps @hsstudent986 whose thread I hijacked) is that for UF, you really need to have a complete application that is strong in all facets, otherwise you are risk of the holistic ax.
@GatorDad305 I agree, can’t just mail in the essay because of high stats.