Freshmen Engineering Rumor - Having to take a majority of classes online

I’ve heard from a couple sources that a lot of freshmen that have been accepted into UF are having to take 3-4 or their classes for Fall 2018 online. The students didn’t apply for online admissions, admissions through PaCE or Santa Fe. The students have reportedly registered for housing and will be living on campus, and the parents are understandably unhappy about this. Has anyone else heard of this situation and can anyone confirm how many students are affected?

D18 is planning on applying, but we’re not interested in being pushed into an online program. I suspect that the students were accepted through PaCE, and that the parents either didn’t understand the conditions or simply didn’t relay the information, but I’d like to confirm.

That’s not even remotely true for Engineering Freshmen.

DS17 is starting his (Aerospace Engineering) freshman year this fall, and we’ve been adding/dropping classes. Currently none of his classes are online. Same goes for his Electrical Engineering roommate.

None of engineering critical tracking courses (Chemistry, Physics, Calculus, Differential Equations, etc.) are online.

Some of his electives could be online. For example, he may take Theater Appreciation, since that earns him a “Diversity” credit. ENC 3246 (Professional Communications for Engineers) is a required engineering class, and it’s 100% online.

I know EGM 2511 (Engineering Mechanics-Statics), which you take sometime between semester 3 to 5, is recorded. You can choose to attend the class, or watch it online.

Really, that’s about it. My daughter is starting her senior year, and the only online classes she took was ENC 3246 (and maybe an elective?).

Now, I can’t speak to other majors, but Engineering classes that are 100% online are rare.

EDIT: For some reason, I think the EEL3303 class (Elements of electrical engineering…“Baby Circuits”) may be an online class…really, not that many are…

Our son is starting his 2nd year in CS - engineering . . . same critical tracking classes basically.

In south Florida (where we lived for 16 years) I heard grumbling from a friend about too many online classes with her UF student, so we were prepared when DS went to Preview. The only class he has had so far, online, was the Good Life hybrid course (which still met on campus once a week).

That being said, our son did some dual enrollment in high school with UF from south Florida - which of course WAS online. He actually preferred Calc 1 online (did 2 and 3 at UF on campus).

The online classes are not bad at all (and in some ways better depending on the student), and it’s great if you are on campus where you can still go to office hours.

my son is an entering freshman civil engineering major this fall and none of his classes are online this semester.

If the people you were referring to were accepted into PACE, they can’t be engineering majors since engineering is not one of the majors offered through PACE.

My D17 (not an Engineering major) has two online classes for Fall, but she sought out the online version of those classes due to their flexibility. There are a lot of options for on-line classes but very few that have to be taken online.

My daughter is an incoming freshman in Mechanical Engineering and none of the classes she registered for are online. She is in Honors College and it’s my understanding that they get some kind of registration preference so maybe that is why? Not sure.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

I have heard rumors of regularly admitted students (not PACE students) taking online classes. I never believed it until I spoke with two people whose children have 2-3 online classes this semester. They are not Engineering majors.

Some folks where also complaining on the class of 2021 Facebook page.

Many large and popular freshman classes have standard and online classes. Back in my day, this was classes recorded on video, and you had to go to a class room to watch it on TV, now you can watch it online. When they picked classes in Preview, they didn’t realize that some of the sections are online, they picked what fit best in their schedule. Those that really didn’t want to take the class online, dropped that section and added the standard section (when possible).

However, only a few of the engineering related courses are setup with online sections. In fact several of the classes require the use of a HITT clicker, as a way to take pop quizzes and motivate students to attend classes.