My daughter is a junior and I’m getting a little confused on all of the different options for GPA requirements. There’s weighted/unweighted, core GPA, 4.0 scale, 5.0 scale, etc. When i search GPA requirements, I’m not sure which they’re referring to. Daughter is a junior. On the 5.0 scale her gpa is 4.88 weighted. Of the 4 core classes she has 2 AP and 1 Honors (as well as sophomore year 1 AP and 2 honors). She is a volunteer lead in a teen program at a local food bank as well as a member of student council, and other groups at school and a prior member of the varsity cheer team. She’s really interested in UF and FSU. Can anyone help me with the GPA I should use when looking and maybe provide an estimate on chances to get in either of these schools? Also, FYI, we are located in the midwest and not in FL. Thanks.
Forgot to mention…she has 1330 on SAT with plans to take it 2 more times as well.
In general, unless otherwise stated, when a college talks GPA, they are talking unweighted, since there is not common rubric for weighting courses. For the applications, the GPA reported should be whatever scale is on the transcript unless again, the college states otherwise. With a 4.88 weighted, I would assume that she’s met the GPA benchmark for any university in the country. Which is not to say that she’s a shoo-in,just that any rejection would not be because of GPA.
First, I recommend you take a look at UF and FSU’s common data set, section “C”. It will list the relative importance of different academic and nonacademic factors in freshman admission decisions. UF is “very” holistic, and puts more weight on GPA than test scores (50% is based on academics, 50% is based on nonacademic factors). FSU is a bit less holistic, and puts about the same weight on test scores as GPA. Each college forum, here on CC, will give you more background info.
FSU: Common Data Set:
https://ir.fsu.edu/commondataset.aspx
UF Common Data Set:
https://ir.aa.ufl.edu/reports/common-data-set/
UF and FSU both look at a “weighted” GPA. However, before I give the specifics, keep in mind that the state of Florida financially supports AP classes, IB and AICE programs, Duel Enrollment programs, etc. It’s very common for Florida students to take lots of AP classes, duel enrollment classes at a local CC, or be in an IB or AICE program.
UF and FSU takes this into account when they consider OUT OF STATE students. They will consider if the OOS student took the most rigorous classes available (at their school), class ranking, etc. In other words, not having access to these programs will not hurt your chances, as long as you’re one of the top students at your school.
For example, at UF, 77% were in the top 10% of their class, while at FSU it was 39%.
For this year’s admitted class at UF:
How does UF (and FSU) come up with weight GPA?
UF and FSU use a 4.0 scale, but give an extra +1.0 for AP, IB, AICE and Duel Enrollment Classes. They give a +0.5 for “honor” (or Pre-IB/AICE) classes They do not consider “+” or “-”, only whole letter grades. An B+ would be a B, a C- is a C.
A=4.0, B=3.0, C=2.0, D=1.0
For example:
A (AP) = 5.0
A (honor) = 4.5
C+ (AP) = 3.0
B (honor) = 3.5
A (standard) = 4.0
For both schools I recommend your daughter takes a rigorous class schedule (without over doing it!), and keeps her grades up, For UF, it’s especially important to keep up on her EC’s. While test scores matter at both schools, it’s likely more important at FSU, and a high enough score can get you an OOS tuition waiver at FSU (Florida in-state tuition is about $6,300 a year).
Hope this helps!
Good Luck!
FYI, you may find this info of use. The State University System of Florida Admissions Matrix includes data like GPA, Test scores, acceptance rates, etc, for all state universities.
@Gator88NE, May I ask about USF VS UCF for engineering and more specifically EE/RF? Any info would be really helpful. How do these graduates do in the job market. D wants to live some where green and not too cold. If Fl still has the OOS NMF program, good chance she will be Florida bound.
UCF/USF engineers do great in the marketplace (as do most engineers). Both schools graduate a large number of engineers and are well recruited. More end up working local (Florida), than say UF engineers (who are better recruited nationally), but that’s partly due to the large number of employers in the area. Salaries are in line with most other engineering programs with any variation due to local cost of living (It’s a LOT cheaper living in Orlando/Tampa than San Francisco!)
I would recommend looking up both schools in LinkedIn. Select Alumni, and then select Electrical Engineering. That will give you a sense of the who EE’s work for, and where they live.
For example at UCF for EE’s:
Where they Live:
4,738 United States
2,013 Orlando, Florida Area
476 Melbourne, Florida Area
189 San Francisco Bay Area
142 Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida Area
129 Dallas/Fort Worth Area
125 Washington D.C. Metro Area
112 Miami/Fort Lauderdale Area
106 Greater Atlanta Area
87 Daytona Beach, Florida Area
70 Greater Los Angeles Area
At USF:
3,973 United States
1,738 Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida Area
184 San Francisco Bay Area
144 Orlando, Florida Area
137 Greater Atlanta Area
128 Washington D.C. Metro Area
107 Melbourne, Florida Area
100 Dallas/Fort Worth Area
86 Sarasota, Florida Area
85 Miami/Fort Lauderdale Area
As you can see, 40%+ stay in the Orlando or Tampa/St. Pete areas (major metro areas).
Where they work (UCF)
280 Lockheed Martin
196 University of Central Florida
83 Harris Corporation
77 Northrop Grumman
57 NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
55 Siemens
52 Texas Instruments
33 United States Air Force
32 Raytheon
30 Leidos
29 AT&T
27 Boeing
Where they work (USF)
161 University of South Florida
65 Honeywell
63 Lockheed Martin
59 Raytheon
51 Duke Energy Corporation
45 Intel Corporation
32 Harris Corporation
30 Tampa Electric
30 Qorvo, Inc.
26 Northrop Grumman
23 Verizon
20 Jabil
17 Microsoft
Keep in mind that these top employers only make up 10% to 15% of the EE’s that graduate for each school. It’s just a snap shot, but does give you a sense of the companies that recruit both schools.
Many of the same companies recruit at USF and UCF. Here’s a link to last fall employer’s that attended UCF’s fall job fair.
UCF Fall 2018 Career Expo Attendees:
https://app.joinhandshake.com/career_fairs/7713/employers_list
@DLP824 You can use LinkedIn to look up UF and FSU and do a similar comparison.
^ great info!
@Gator88NE Thank you, you always give so great info!
Thank you all for the information it is all very helpful!