FSU Rescinded for Fall 2014?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Florida State University
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<p>Daughter got accepted to the Fall 2014 class, she has been a great student with all A's & B's in mostly Honors and AP Classes, except one C in AP English - until her first Semester Senior Year of HS. She took 2 Dual Enrollment Classes (Economics and English Comp), and received a D in each. No excuse other than her Club and HS Cheerleading took over her time, and she didn't understand the self-discipline required for an online college course. </p>

<p>Flash-forward to Second Semester - she retook the exact same English Comp class online (dual enrollment) and made an "A", and took Economics via Florida Virtual School (it wasn't offered 2nd Semester via dual enrollment), and also made an "A." She finished strong in all her other classes, making a "B" in AP Bio and AP Calc B-C, and an "A" in Honors American Government and Peer Mediation. She is also in National Honor Society. Overall Unweighted GPA is 3.6, weighted is higher. No, two D's in ANY course Senior year is not good, but we were hoping that by making up both 2nd Semester and getting "A's" it would alleviate a possible rescinding of her acceptance.</p>

<p>We're set for Fresman Orientation on June 8, but we were very concerned about just letting things show up at FSU with no explanation on her final transcript - so as a concerned parent and based on reading other posts to be proactive, I reached out and contacted the FSU Admissions office. They asked me to send in her final transcript ASAP which I did today, and I was told by someone in Admissions it was being reviewed by her Supervisor and they would let me know the next steps. My wife and I are now on pins and needles, we can barely sleep as 1 day has gone by with no response.</p>

<p>We realize they are quite busy, but should we be concerned? Should I call them tomorrow? Do they consider her revised effort and finish second semester? Has anyone else recently dealt with or heard about a similar situation at FSU, and if so, what was the result? Any input, advice, or results would be much appreciated.</p>

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<p>Don’t know the answer to your question, but my daughter was in a similar situation the first semester with her only dual-enrollment course (college algebra) hovering between C and D. Research on the FSU site indicated anything less than a C average in all college-level (dual enrollment) courses would result in rescinded acceptance. I hope you’ve heard by now and I hope the answer is positive.</p>

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<p>You did the right thing by contacting FSU admissions prior to your daughter’s Orientation. I would hope they look at each situation individually. They do send out an email that states “Grades of D or F in your senior year and/or dual enrollment courses may result in your admission being rescinded”.</p>

<p>I think the key to their statement where it says ‘may result’. It does not say ‘will result’ which is a big difference.</p>

<p>Good luck!!</p>

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<p>Just curious if you’ve heard anything back from them yet. </p>

<p>The weird thing with rescinding acceptances is that it isn’t a straight-forward process (not everyone that gets a D will get rescinded, for example), and FSU doesn’t really seem to have a clear-cut policy. I would think that with it being in dual enrollment, as long as she maintains a 2.0 GPA for all of her DE classes she’d be fine, though I can’t really say that’s 100% accurate (unfortunately). </p>

<p>I believe that the policy is just in place in case your grades all completely tank (you go from A/B in every class to C/D/F grades in every class). One grade usually isn’t going to kill anyone’s chances if the rest of their grades are kept up. </p>

<p>If you haven’t heard anything back yet, I’d contact them again and ask. The last thing you will want is to get to Orientation (or worse, after Orientation) and find out your daughter got rescinded. </p>

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<p>Thanks all - so I ended up speaking with a few people in admissions, and though they were nice, I never got a final answer. I did get to explain things over the phone and they were cool about listening saying they deal with “Senioritis,”, but the last person I spoke with said they were reviewing things the next two days and they would get back to me later that day or the next day at the latest (which would have been Thursday) as they understood we were signed up for Orientation on June 8. Apparently this is done by the higher level admissions officers and I ever only got through to associate or mid-level staff.</p>

<p>So today is Friday past 8:00 pm, and I never did receive a follow up call or e-mail after that conversation on Wed morning. Since they told me they had a record of my calling a couple times, I decided to not call again as there really wasn’t a point…so we are off to Orientation on Sunday. While I am not as crazy about the situation as I was since it’s gone this long, my wife still asks if I heard back 3 times a day - I told her we have to assume the best at this point, and that they said they would let me know prior to Orientation if there was an issue. I sincerely hope they weren’t just saying that and it is indeed the case, as she finished with B’s in AP Bio and AP Calc BC, an A in Honors Government, and an A in Peer Mediation. She also did those two online classes, making an A in Economics and an A in Freshman English…so it’s not as if she totally tanked by any means.</p>

<p>Keep your fingers crossed for us that all is OK, I am taking the positive approach given the lack of follow up…I will post on here again if and when I do hear something back. </p>

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<p>Update - just returned from Orientation which was great, no issues registering for classes, etc. I have not received a call or return e-mail, so at this point, I am going to assume we are OK and she will be a New Nole in August!</p>

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<p>Unfortunately, silence isn’t always a good thing from FSU. Depending on how many transcripts they’ve received and how fast they’re processing them, you may not hear an answer until July. Communication with students really is not one of FSU’s strong points in administration (I’ve got several stories).</p>

<p>I hope that everything goes well and that your daughter doesn’t get rescinded. Until she starts classes in August though there’s always that small chance. I would however go forward thinking that things are fine. There’s no point in worrying now though. Welcome (hopefully) to FSU!</p>

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<p>Please keep us updated</p>

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<p>I attended the same orientation dates as you. My impression of the orientation is it was less than great, given the audio/visual problems. Thought the first night meeting with family members was pointless (though, since the video didn’t work I’m not clear on what that would have conveyed). The “ask the experts” session was not time well spent. Those kids tried hard and meant well, but from a parent’s perspective were far from experts. I loved the skit and the excellent brief from the Dean of Academic Advisors (or whatever his title). Glad I didn’t purchase a meal plan as the food was just terrible. Went to the pre-law break out session and the lady just talked and talked. No structure, just one rabbit-hole after another. She had a good handout though. My wife and daughter both thought the orientation program was good, so maybe I’m a little more critical. I just thought it was somewhat disorganized and they didn’t seem prepared to overcome the audio/video issues. I truly hope all turns out well for your daughter.</p>

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<p>I went to the same orientation and it is interesting how two people going through the same thing can come away thinking two very different things. Although there were technical difficulties at a couple of the seminars the amount of information that FSU tried to convey in such a short period of time to so many people I thought was commendable.</p>

<p>Sure there were times that I thought 'Is this part really necessary?" but after talking to other parents realized items that weren’t pertinent to my families needs or concerns were to others. The orientation counselors had great energy and gave an extremely positive college outlook. In addition, all the questions I had were answered.</p>

<p>The food was not gourmet but I thought generally it was pretty good. I do agree about not purchasing a meal plan, of course depending on my sons on campus housing situation, which is yet to be determined for the fall, but with his low priority number should allow him the freedom of not being required to purchase one.</p>

<p>By being such a large university and the quantity of people they have to accommodate plus not having any other orientation to compare this too, I felt it was a job well done.</p>

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<p>I’m sure there were plenty of people who thought the orientation was top-notch (my family included). I just can’t fathom how you can’t get a video to work. The first time can be attributed to technical issues, but then to follow with two more videos that don’t work indicates you just don’t care (my opinion). I agree the group leaders had great energy and were helpful. We left more informed, so that in itself means it was successful.</p>

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<p>First to close the loop as promised, FSU finally called me today (6-24-14 for those keeping score at home), and let me know all is fine…the person who called (I won’t list the name for privacy reasons) was very nice and thanked me for my patience, thanked me for faxing them her info, and also acknowleged her for re-taking the classes and making an “A” in them her last Semester of HS. Bottom line, after all was said and done, I appreciated that they handled lettting me know - granted it’s a happy ending, so there might be some bias there. And lesson to those in this situation, be proactive, do everything in your power to get your student to re-take the same class and make a good grade, and be patient!</p>

<p>Now as for Orientation…I have to agree with most of the comments on here. The student leaders were the best part of it, positive and great energy throughout, and I thought the time they put in to their skit really showed. Overall the people who presented had their hearts in the right place and I think they did their best with what they had to work with, most of the information you needed was there across the two days…but my son attends an out of state University and they were much more organized and buttoned up. </p>

<p>I’m a marketing professional and admit to looking at presentations, photography and creative elements with a more critical eye. While parts of it were great, it was always about the individual(s) presenting. It lacked overall visual cohesion and what I’ll call a style guide - there didn’t seem to be a holistic person ensuring it all worked together. This was quite apparent with the lack of quality slides, images, backgrounds, fonts, etc. I’m not saying it needs to be some slick, high-end power point, but there are minimum quality brand standards that should be established - too many slides with poor layout, blurry photos, all words, parts cutting off, etc. And yes the A/V issues bothered me, as this was far from their first orientation. An example of setting standards, I always insist on having 2-3 back-ups (jump drive, hard drive, CD/DVD, etc.) for any presentation of consequence because technology can and does crash. Lack of sound or connection issues just don’t cut it, have a back-up! I also felt the meals were rushed and the staff overwhelmed, they need to break people in to smaller groups and have them go in stages, and the resource fair at the end had a few valuable tables interspersed with tons of off-campus apartment complexes, which I quickly wanted to get away from but could not - it’s a bit early to be pushing offsite housing given freshman are required to live on campus. The parent mixers could stand some event planning and theming. I almost felt like providing some free consulting services to redesign their creative and presentations, but I just don’t have the time…nor would they necessarily welcome it. I gave it a C+, mostly for effort.</p>

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<p>Congratulations on the positive outcome. </p>

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<p>StoneMagic, what makes you think that freshmen are required to live on campus? That’s news to me. There aren’t even enough spaces on campus for all freshmen admitted, so that couldn’t be true. </p>

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<p>@Nolette, I stand corrected in that Freshman are not required to live on campus at FSU…makes sense that all of those apartment tables were at Orientation, but they were still a pain to wade through.</p>