I am a high school senior applying to UCF for the fall of 2016.
On the UCF website there was a FAQ section with a question that read, “Does UCF admissions require interviews, recommendations, or essays?” The response was, “No but we do recommend that you submit the essay.” Does this mean that they do not want letters of recommendation or does this mean that letters of recommendation are optional? I’ve heard that colleges do not want you to send letters of recommendation unless they specify to do so, otherwise, they believe that you cannot follow instructions…so, I don’t want to send a letter of recommendation if they do not want it. Does anyone know whether or not UCF wants letters of recommendation?
Recommendation* haha ignore that typo.
I think there is an optional form that your counsellor can fill out but looking at the questions I really got the impression it was for applicants whose academic performance and/or test scores were poor. My D2 submitted the essay as recommended but didn’t worry about rec letters or the counsellor form. Often, large state universities will admit primarily off stats (and then maybe some extenuating factors such as leadership or first generation student or something like that).
A few academically strong applicants on the acceptance thread were recently admitted w/o writing an essay. I guess my advice would be: write one if you think it helps your application. And if your stats are below the averages posted on the admissions website, then have your counsellor submit the form.