My dad just told me that his boss had 2 sons who had extremely similar grades but one got in and the other didn’t, and his boss blames this on the fact that one of them didn’t apply for financial aid and the other did.
The story itself seems fishy since I don’t know why only one would apply for financial aid if they were from the same household, but nevertheless, it did get me worried. Has anyone heard any stories similar to this?
Could I technically say no for financial aid and then apply for it later?
Financial aid offices at the universities have a tough job of finding monies for students. They have to budget and plan, for each student’s needs, for four years.
If you need financial aid to be able to afford a college, then you have to apply for it as an incoming freshman. The financial aid offices use their monies to try to attract the best students during freshman year. They also have to continue to support those students who first applied in their freshman year and were lured by offers of support for the 4 years.
You won’t be able to apply for significant monies later; the money does dry up each year. If your financial situation changes, then you might be able to ask for help (for loans).
UF doesn’t consider “Need” in admissions (sometimes called “Need Aware or Need Sensitive”). UF is “need blind”.
Either you can afford it or not (UF doesn’t commit to meeting 100% of “need”). If you’re in-state, it’s hard NOT to afford UF (via Pell Grants, Student Loans, Work study, grants, etc.). You do need to complete the financial aid applications (FASFA) if you do want to be considered for any aid.
For UF, your course rigor, the major you apply to, and your recalculated GPA will have way more importance than whether you apply to financial aid or not since uf doesn’t meet need and doesn’t care whether you can afford the school.
For some universities, like UMiami or Rollins, which are need-aware, needing a lot of financial aid is detrimental.
For other universities, which are need blind / meet need (like Harvard or Amherst or Pomona or MIT), being lower income is actually a boost to your admission.
@MYOS1634 I thought they didn’t consider the major during admissions.
UF doesn’t consider your major, but a lot of other schools do and it’s an important part of admissions.
^ I thought they did (IE, engineering doesn’t have the same expectations for the ssar content as, say, arts or journalism.) ?
@MYOS1634 No - for regular on campus summer/fall major isn’t considered. It is only when you get admitted to a special program - PaCE, Santa Fe Engineering that major comes into play.
It seems counter-intuitive since the background you need, say, to major in mechanical Engineering and French studies aren’t the same.
@MYOS1634 A (old) joke is that every freshman at UF “starts off” as is either Pre-med or Engineering. 
It’s part of UF’s strategy/process, and why they stress the fact to new students, during new student orientation, that a significant % of students switch majors at least once, and that students should explore different majors. It’s a sorting process.
Transfer students then fill out the “under” enrolled majors, and have to compete for the more in-demand majors.
It has its positives and negatives. It makes managing enrolment by major a challenge, but it also removes a lot of stress off freshman (and high school seniors) and lets them explore other majors.
Interesting, thanks. I’d never realized it was 100%. It means there’s no direct admission to any major, no art portfolio, no pre-requisite classes depending on college choice… the ‘sorting hat’ will be first year courses which thus become weed out. Correct?
In any case… The story told to the OP is false, probably a lie to make the parent or child who denied ‘feel better’. But OP shouldn’t L ND credence to it.
@MYOS1634 That’s the way it works for almost all majors (with some exceptions). My DS17 will be a first year Aerospace Engineering major (because that’s what he selected on his application). He will have to take the required critical tracking/perquisites courses and meet a minimum GPA requirement (2.5 in critical-tracking courses and 2.0 overall GPA), to continue in the major.
Those critical tracking courses would be “weed out” classes.
UF does have a few majors (BS/BA) that have competitive admissions, where you start in a “pre” major, and then have to apply after your sophomore year. UF’s nursing program is that way, where you apply after you’ve earned 60 semester hours.
http://admissions.nursing.ufl.edu/degrees/undergraduate/generic-bsn/admission-criteria/
@Gator88NE What exactly are “weed out” classes?
@Monkey288195 I don’t know for sure but I have a lot of friends at UF studying engineering and they say things like Calc 2 are weed out classes because they “weed out” the prospective engineering students from the ones who will probably fail the curriculum.
@Monkey288195 Good Question.
Really, a “weed out” class can be thought of as a (early) rigorous class, that has to be passed to move on in the major. It’s most often used to describe critical track classes in engineering, pre-med, accounting, finance, etc., that students often struggle in.
These classes tend to determine if a student wants to go into engineering, accounting, etc, or if they can be a competitive pre-med/pre-vet/etc candidate.
At UF, Calc 2 is thought of as being more rigorous than Calc 1 or Calc 3. If you can’t pass Calc 2, you shouldn’t go into engineering or most STEM majors. It’s just not for you, as they are far more rigorous classes than Calc 2 in your major.
UF will insist they don’t make any classes, harder than they need to be, just to “weed out” students.
@sushipanda @Gator88NE Thanks for the response.
So if I get accepted next year with enough math college credits from AP scores should I use them on Calc 1,2,3 etc?
Or would will it be a bad idea as it will prevent me from knowing what to expect?
It’s really based on your major. With Calc, the engineering advisors will recommend you don’t skill all of the classes (via AP credit). My daughter, on the other hand would say skip Calc 2, it’s a PITA.
It’s up to you.
With a 5in ap calculus BC young start in calculus 3 and six credits ignoring understand right. You’d skip the notorious Calculus 2 weeder.
If you get 5’s on your AP exams for Calc AB and Calc BC and are confident with your math skills you should be fine taking Calc 3.