My son and I went to the information session and overall walked away with a good impression and went ahead and made our decision to commit to this program.
Positives:
Students FINALLY felt wanted and congratulated by UF. The way they handled the 2/8th decision and the wording of the rejecto/offer was just atrocious, Today, I saw students actually smiling and feeling healthy pride.
My son met a bunch of great prospective students, all very smart and accomplished -- he felt like he "belonged" in the program now after seeing the rest of potential Cohort 7.
SF really is a nice campus with free parking, wonderful walking paths, a great vibe, and nice set of counselors.
The program will honor most all AP/AICE/IB transfer credits. Catch is you need 4 or 5 on AP, not a 3, you must have the AICE scores in hand and this takes time, and they frown on skipping Chem, Calc, or Physics. You CAN skip, they just push not doing so. Wonder what current students would say on this topic?
We like the idea of living at Lakeside.
There are students taking courses at UF in the 2nd semester. So the caliber of students they are getting appear be on a steady rise, and I truly believe my son will be full UF after Summer 2020.
Negatives:
Found out about the “Intro to Chem” summer course that we were told 98% end up taking
Found out about the Math Placement Exam, and the push NOT to skip Calc 1
Found out there are only 48 spaces available at Lakeside for what may be 120 students,
Somewhat confused about SF GPA vs UF GPA calculations.
@WarEagleGatorDad Glad to hear it went well. Very interesting that they are doubling this cohort.
Housing at Lakeside may or may not be an issue. We were very concerned about it last year as my wife was dead against my daughter living off campus as a freshman. The wait for housing was stressful. However, I think that it ended up that they had extra beds. I think a lot of kids do choose to live off cAmpus on the bus route.
The math placement test is tough. A lot of kids don’t score high enough for Calc 1. My daughter didn’t but she got a 4 in AP Calc in high school. She started with Calc 1 and did fine. Chem 1 is really hard. Taking the intro in the summer helps.
The grading scale is a hidden downside for sure. UF gives pluses and minuses. Santa Fe just gives pluses but weighs them like UF. So let’s say you are taking chem 1 as your only critical tracking class as a freshman. You need a 2.5 critical tracking gpa to get your admit. You are holding a high c / low b in the class. Your grade drops at the end a bit. At Uf, you could get a B- worth 2.67. But at SF you would get a C+ which is only worth 2.33 (based on the UF point scale.).
In my opinion, you want your kid to be in a position to do really well in the critical tracking class. My daughter thought about skipping Calc 1 but realized that would have been a mistake. The critical tracking classes are hard.
Calc 2 is said to be the hardest of the Calcs. My daughter is in it now. No picnic.
Lastly, I don’t agree with the word atrocious. It is absolutely disappointing and confusing but the school is offering an option with a lot of catches. To give a confetti flying email to a kid who then learns he has to take classes at Santa Fe would be inappropriate too. The kids in the program are, in fact, lucky that they want to study engineering. Other kids whose were on the bubble who ticked “business” or “PR” or “Econ” are still crying and would kill for this option.
Just wanted to say hello from a wareagle gator mom! My daughter is a freshman at uf. We live in Alabama but Auburn doesn’t offer a BS in statistics or Arabic, which my daughter wants to study. We are headed down there next fall for the Auburn/UF game!
So small update, there are ALREADY 24 or so students that have accepted this invite. That being said I heard it direct from the leadership that even IF every single child accepts the invite, they will hire the needed support to run the program. The odds on thought is that anywhere from 90 to 125 students will be in the class of 2023. A huge jump from previous years indeed. Guess that says something for the job they are doing either in communicating, marketing, teaching, or overall UF rep.
I think it will be easy for them to scale this program. Adding advisors and staff at UF and SF shouldn’t be difficult. And adding a few classes to accommodate more kids at SF is likely doable.
The lure of UF is significant. The idea of getting an admit after one semester is strong.
If your dream school offers this type of option, you take it.
There are thousands of kids who were rejected earlier this month who would love this option.
One thing I also noticed is that the size of the innovation academy class has been dropping. Those kids are on UF campus from the beginning, which has an impact on class size and student ratios. By increasing the number of kids in a program like GE@SF, UF can “admit” more kids who will later fill slots on UF campus in upper division engineering classes that have capacity.
UF is also realizing that this program is gaining name recognition and credibility. Kids like my daughter turned down FSU and UCF (and merit money at a couple other schools) for GE@SF.
Another update. Even though my daughter has been in this program for a year, we are still figuring it out. Many kids/parents are excited about switching over to UF campus to take classes and want to do it as soon as possible. Here’s the catch: The students have to complete the classes in their AA degree audit first at Santa Fe or another state college or online (over the summer, for example) . Even if you test out of a couple critical tracking courses, you still have to complete the bulk of your classes at Santa Fe. Yes, you can start taking some classes on UF campus after two semesters, but the kids will likely have most of their classes at Santa Fe for the first two years.
To give an example, my daughter has to take one biology class as part of her AA requirements. Even thought she was admitted to UF after the first semester, she still has to take the biology class at Santa Fe. She can’t take it at UF – not allowed.
I bring this up because I have seen on here that several folks are envisioning only taking classes at Santa Fe for two semesters. It’s kind of impossible for that to happen. If the student has enough AP credits and/or takes classes over the summer(s), then they can to be finished with Santa Fe after their second Fall (three semesters).
The way the critical tracking and AA requirements shake out, most kids in the program will be taking classes at Santa Fe for at least three semesters…