Chances Out of State Legacy

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Florida
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<p>My youngest son is a junior. Mom and Dad are both graduates of UF College of Journalism and Communication. Lifetime Alumni members and small contributors to College of Journalism and Communication.</p>

<p>Son scored 1350 (old scale) on the Sophomore PSAT and should be able to hit low 1400's on the SAT. Took it for the first time on 12/1. He has a 3.98 weighted at a good public school and is in the top 10%.</p>

<p>Took 1 AP sophomore year, is taking 4 AP classes Junior year and will take 5 Senior year.</p>

<p>Attended Duke TIP the last four summers taking Philsophy, Debate, Literature and Abnormal Psychology.</p>

<p>VP Psychology club and Honor Society member.</p>

<p>Plays on the Junior Varsity baseball team. Puts about 600 hours a year into baseball between the school team and select teams.</p>

<p>He took and is taking courses like health and communications applications over the summers so he can fit in the baseball class and still carry a full academic load.</p>

<p>Did band in 9th grade, but you just can't fit band and baseball in a schedule so dropped it for 10th grade. He did volunteer as a marching instructor in 10th grade to be around his friends and help out.</p>

<p>We're assuming he gets the GPA bumped up iinto the 4.02 to 4.05 range by end of Junior year with the AP courses he's taking this year.</p>

<p>We're wigged out because his older brother scored 1390 on SAT, was IB program, had a 3.87 GPA and earned 40 hours through AP and IB and didn't get into The University of Texas last year.</p>

2

<p>Hard to know, really. OOS is harder, although legacy status might help. Weighted GPA's under 4.0 OOS not high on the likely list, and each year the bar is getting higher. What is his passion? Baseball? Is he at a level to play at UF? If not, does he have any thing else he is passionate about? Any other leadership opportunities? Community service? </p>

<p>He takes a baseball class for hs credit? If UF uses only core/academic courses to recalculate his GPA, things like band and baseball etc won't go into the calculation.</p>

3

<p>My guess is that someone who scores a 1350 (old score) on the 10th grade PSAT will probably increase by a LOT more than 50-odd points. How'd your son do on the junior year PSAT? It's typical for students to increase their SATs by 100-200 points between their sophomore and senior years.</p>

<p>10 AP classes is GREAT. UF's average GPA is 4.0 weighted, so you can do some figuring and see where your son might fall. Take out all non-academic classes, add .5 for honors and 1.0 for AP. Do not count plusses or minuses. Also the average SAT at UF is something like 1300+, so already your son is above the 50th percentile- as a sophomore! I think he's in good shape.</p>

<p>The story about your older son is surprising though. Did you ever get any feedback on why/how he did not get into UT?</p>

4

<p>sunnyflorida, if he were good enough to play for UF, he would've likely been recruited by now...</p>

<p>Surprising about your son not getting into UT--that's weird.</p>

<p>Anyway, as doubleplay said, his SATs should increase quite a bit. I'd say if he got the SATs up 100 points, he should be good.</p>

5

<p>He'll have the GPA over 4.0 by UF's weighting at the end of his Junior year. If you want to compete for playing time on the baseball team, you take the baseball class. That's why he takes other courses in the summer so he can still fit in all the AP stuff and still do the baseball class.</p>

<p>He's a good baseball player but he skipped a year in elementary school (we regret that now) and still just 15 and competing with 17 and 18 year olds for innings on the mound in varsity. Will likely be a starting JV pitcher junior year and starting varsity pithcer senior year. He won't be good enough to get recruited to UF. If he continues to develop he might take a stab at walking on.</p>

<p>School has not released the Junior year PSAT scores. His brother picked up 200 points after doing a summer in a SAT study program. If he hasn't put his SAT well into the 1400's on either the 12/1 or spring SAT, we'll enroll him in a summer program and I don't have any real concern that he will get it up there.</p>

<p>This is why we wig out. It would seem a double legacy, who will have a weighted GPA over 4 and and SAT over 1400, who manages all that in spite of pouring 600 hours a year into baseball ought to be a lock to get in. But, he's not. </p>

<p>We have him focused on 1400+ and 4.0+ because that is the minimum standard for UF's honors program. It seems that if you qualify for the honors program, have an extra curricular that is pretty significant and are a double legacy it would be hard for UF to turn you away. But, I'm sure similar kids have picked a thin envelope out of their mailbox in the last couple of years.</p>

<p>He'll also be attending UF's Summer Journalism Institute next year to get a taste of his intended major. </p>

<p>If it takes more than all of that, then he'll wind up a Longhorn. Can't ask him to go rack up volunteer hours. It is already a ridiculous load to do all the baseball and pursue the heavy AP course load.</p>

<p>Older son didn't have much for extra curriculars. Could have done better in school, but didn't work quite hard enought. Texas has a top 10% rule where anyone in the top 10% of the class is automatically accepted. It eats up a huge part of the enrollment. He didn't make top 10%. He got a conditional offer to do a year at a feeder school, maintain a 3.2 for 30 hours and have guaranteed admission as a transfer. He is 4.0 at UT Arlington and will finish his freshman year with 78 hours (passed 6 additional history clep this fall to go with the 40 AP/IB he had coming out of highschool).</p>

<p>It is a shame that students like these get denied admission at schools like UT and UF, but these schools get so many high quality applicants, some good students wind up disappointed. It is hard as a parent to know how hard to nag them when they are working way harder than we had to at their age. You try to balance not being a total nag with making sure they understand what is at stake and how hard it is to get into UF or UT these days.</p>