My daughter has a strong GPA, plenty of honors classes, and a couple of AP corsés. She has a lot of volunteer work, clubs, and NHS. Her SAT is very low though. Would she improve her chances of acceptance if she applied for summer term directly versus fall? She would be perfectly happy starting in the summer term. I know some fall applications get offered summer, which she would be thrilled to accept, but I’m just wondering if applying for summer directly helps her chances of admission. She will apply this fall.
I doubt if any of us here can give you accurate info on that. I would call Undergraduate Admissions and ask them. They have been very helpful in the past.
It would also help if you posted her GPA and SAT scores. We might have a better idea then.
Also, I assume you know this, but Summer admission simply means she would have to take ONE class online during Summer B. She will have to take 9 hours of classes in the summer for graduation anyway, so summer admission is just sort of an easy head-start.
My daughter was a summer admission, also because of SAT difficulties, and she thought summer admission was a nice advantage.
Yes, typically applying directly fir sulmer is less competitive than apolying for Fall.
If her SAT is low but her results decent, as her applying to UCF would suggest, look at universities outside of Florida that honor BF and are test optional (Agnes Scott in Atlanta used to, check if they still do.)
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If by BF you mean Bright Futures, I don’t believe Florida pays Bright Futures out of state. The whole idea of Bright Futures is to keep promising students home for college.
Also, if OP’s daughter has a low SAT, she’s probably not eligible for Bright Futures anyway.
If a student has Florida Prepaid, those funds can be used out of state but there may be limitations/restrictions involved.
The edit feature is not working. Here’s what I was trying to add:
Also, if OP’s daughter has a low SAT, she’s probably not eligible for Bright Futures anyway.
Yes, indeed- I just checked and didnt find anything about using BF at Agnes Scott, so either I misremembered or they stopped meeting BF amounts. They’re still generous with scholarships and test optional (stueebts without a score must send a paper and/or participate in an interview).
Students dont need a SAT score to get BF as long as they have the full diploma/requirements for Cambridge (AICE) or IB. A strong student who is a poor test taker could easily get the 24 for IB or the AICE requirements.
I don’t think anything you are discussing applies to MEC143’s situation at all.
They’re not talking about scholarships or Agnes Scott College in Georgia.
They are trying to get information related to getting accepted to the University of Central Florida in Orlando.
Posted above: This information is wildly incorrect and misleading for Florida resident students and their families. The CORRECT information is posted below.
“Students dont need a SAT score to get BF as long as they have the full diploma/requirements for Cambridge (AICE) or IB. A strong student who is a poor test taker could easily get the 24 for IB or the AICE requirements.”
Below is the CORRECT information. A high SAT or ACT score IS REQUIRED, Cambridge and IB have absolutely NOTHING to do with Florida Bright Futures, and there are several other requirements that are totally different from the incorrect information posted by the previous poster.
True wrt Agnes Scott – I went on a tangent trying to think of alternatives if OP’s child doesn’t qualify for summer at UCF. There WERE (ARE) Southern private colleges that matched BF for FL residents. Agnes Scott was but one example but it’s stopped. However, OP might want to look into this.
OP has other threads, I’m using all the background information (including the fact they’re looking for other colleges) on this thread, it wouldn’t really make sense to pretend I’ve not read their questions. You should be able to click on their name and see the different threads they’ve opened for their daughter.
We DO NOT know whether OP’s child is preparing the IB diploma or the AICE diploma. Many FL students take AICE as “honors” (not all schools, but many schools have regular, AICE, AP, as the “rigor” scale.) The AICE requirements aren’t that onerous and MANY FL residents take AICE courses, so it’s all a matter of taking the right ones. OP may be interested in this. It’s a way that’s been taken by parents whose child is both high achieving and a bad test-taker. BF may not matter for a family with FL Prepaid but…
@MEC143: just in case, the requirements are: AICE Global Perspectives, and a MINIMUM of 2 from AICE Languages, AICE Math/Science, AICE Arts&Humanities, then a combination of 4 courses from Interdisciplinary skills and/or from the three categories above. The AICE exam must be taken and the course must be passed in order for it to count. (Strictly speaking you are allowed not to take the exam but you only get half the credits and must offset that by taking more classes, so…) So, if your school classified AICE/Honors and you’re interested, it can be done.
Check out page 5 here:
Some of it is kind of moot (NMFs obviously have the requisite score) but it’s still good to know since it’s not that well-known. Not all bright kids are good test takers.
I’m so sorry it seemed like I went MIA. I’ve been reading all your responses, but since I’m new it limited how much I could post and I was locked out until today. Thank you very much for all your responses.
Our school, sadly, doesn’t offer IB or AICE. I’ve been petition the school because it puts the kids at our school at a disadvantage versus other reputable schools in the area. In any case, she does honors, AP, and is in the Early Childhood Certification program. By the time she graduates she will have her teaching license and all the required certifications. I’m hoping all the time working with the kids in the preschool will be a plus for her. Unless she can significantly improve her SAT we won’t get FB. I was shocked at how much the SAT requirement has gone up in the last ten years or so. Her GPA is way above the requirement so it’s frustrating.
We would prefer to stay in state where we could use Florida prepaid, but I’m definitely looking at schools that are TO that could offer us merit scholarships. In the end finances sadly will have to play a factor, but we will of course do what we can for her.
A couple of comments:
Honors/AP often doesn’t help GPA’s as much as we expect. One problem is that different schools recalculate weighted GPA differently. UCF uses only the core courses required for graduation in Florida, and awards 1/2 point for Honors and 1 point for AP, provided the grade is B or higher. So the effect of that is that many elective honors/AP courses don’t help the GPA UCF uses at all.
My D attended an all-magnet HS and all of her courses were either Honors or AP, but when UCF recalculated her weighted GPA it was somewhat lower than we thought.
Florida Prepaid CAN be used out of state; Bright Futures cannot. You have to check the fine print, but I believe Florida Prepaid will pay OOS at the lowest in-state Florida tuition rate. It’s less than they would pay at UCF, but a good bit more than you paid in.
Your daughter’s interest in early education, and the hard work she has already done, should help. We are two years ahead of you, so things may have changed, but if UCF is still using essays, be sure she puts a lot of emphasis on that training and work ethic in her essay. Our D was a high-level competitive figure skater (25-40 hours a week training…for years) and she really emphasized that dedication, and the lessons she learned from it, in her essay.
And finally, if your D wants to be a teacher, Florida has many state schools with excellent education programs. LOTS of options for an education degree.
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@JimDadinmia Great advice! This summer we are going to work on a strong essay. Thank you. I know UCF only does core GPA. Her core UWGPA is 4.0 according to her most recent transcript. I told her to keep it up this last quarter so that we apply early on with that gpa. Next year she has a couple of tough classes on her schedule so I want to submit the best gpa we can.
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D wants to study pediatric speech pathology. She figured the Early Childhood education background could help her work with children, perhaps get her a decent job while in college. It’s a masters program so she may end up going the education route for under grad anyway.