Getting into UF

<p>I have a 3.63 unweighted gpa and a 4.63 weighted. In High School I have gotten 5 C's (3 freshman year, 2 sophmore), 17 B's, and 12 A's. I scored an 1890 on my first SAT (I'm takin a few more though and expect to do better) and have not taken the ACT (planning on February.) I am the president of 3 clubs:</p>

<p>a. Save What's Left: A club that promotes environmental awareness, responsibility, and activism. We do a lot of work at the local nature center, we have held awareness rallies and workshops to promote environmental awareness. In coordination with the school, we've brought an expanded recycling program to our school. President for 1 year, been in it for 3. </p>

<p>b. Student Law Association: This club I started myself. It is a club that allows kids to explore their interests in legal/law enforcement related fields. We have sat in on actual cases, toured law schools, shadowed a lawyer and a police officer today, while hosting a lot of other events that really give people an idea of what life in that field will be like. Started the club 2 years ago, president for both. </p>

<p>c. Teen Society of Orthodox Youth Organizations (SOYO): Chruch based group that does a lot of charity work. We have been involved with the Broward Outreach Center, local soup kitchens, Hope 4 Kids, and Faith Farm Ministries. Been in the club for 4 years, president for 1. </p>

<p>I have talked to counselors, friends, family, and anyone who will listen, but I'd like the opinion of people who have gotten into UF and are familiar with admission trends. I've seen the stuff on their site, but again I'd like to hear from a real person. </p>

<p>Do I have what it takes to get into UF? Am I missing anything? Thank you for the advice.</p>

<p>Your SAT puts you between the 25th and 50th percentile so it’s in the ballpark, but you need to recalculate your weighted UF GPA because the 4.63 weighted cannot be right if your unweighted is 3.63. UF uses 1 point extra weight for APs and other college level classes and .5 for honors classes. However, from your grades your GPA seems low for UF. Have you taken any APs or college level classes? Are you taking the most rigorous classes at your school? UF really values rigorous schedules and high class ranks (Within top 10%). Do you know your class rank? Your ECs/leadership are valued and if your essay is stellar you have a decent chance. I’m in high school, but have done a lot of research on UF, so take my advice with a grain of salt. GO GATORS!</p>

<p>I am in the top 10%, ranking 40 out of 547. I took one AP freshmen year, two sophmore, three junior, and planning on taking 5 my senior year. I have gotten 3 A’s and 3 B’s in these AP’s passing all of the AP exams. I’m sorry I meant to type in a 3.45 GPA and a 4.45 according to Virtual Counselor. I’ve looked at the stuff on their site and they say their median unweighted GPA is a 3.71 and their weighted GPA is a 4.3. What exactly did you mean when you said my GPA was a bit low? How high do you think it should be?</p>

<p>Using only your academic courses and college level courses. Add all your A’s, B’s,C’s… And then multiply each by 4,3,2…respectively. Then add 1 for the total number of college level courses (AP IB DE). Then add .5 for all honors courses (Make sure that they are academic ones). Do not count college level courses the additional .5 (already calculated).</p>

<p>Add all numbers.</p>

<p>Finally, divide by the total number of classes (academic). This is your UF GPA.</p>

<p>Once you do that, post it, and we will give advice.</p>

<p>Aside from that, your ECs are good, SAT is below average by 100 pts about. Not so bad. If you do take 5 APs in senor year, it’d be plently.</p>

<p>Your chances are average, but the real game changer is the UF GPA.</p>

<p>Agree with some of these posts- personal info should never be posted here- it’s for your own safety.</p>

<p>You know it hadn’t even occurred to me, but yeah you guys are right. I’ll keep that in mind next time. Not sure I understand your instructions regarding the UF gpa. Do you mind doing an example? Thank you all, by the way, for the advice.</p>

<p>On Virtual Counselor it should have something called your Academic Core GPA. It’s right between cumulative (Unweighted) and weighted cumulative (Weighted) on the Grad. Information page.
That is an accurate representation of your UF GPA as you can get without calculating it yourself because it is all your academic courses together on a 5.0 scale. The only difference is I don’t know if it counts foreign language as academic and all college courses, so depending on the classes you have taken, your actual UF GPA could be a little off from that. Mine isn’t by more than 0.05 points though…</p>

<p>Hey BigStan123-
Just graduated last month from UFL last month and since I spent many a day across the street from your school @ either Sir Pizza or at Merrick Park burning my parent’s credit card, allow me to provide you with some guidance.
As previously stated, your weighed UFL GPA isn’t what you claimed it to be but based on the information you provided, your true weighed UFL GPA is probably in the 4.0 -4.1 range which falls somewhat below average. Additionally, your SAT score of 1890 won’t cut it. Three suggestions……

  1. Hopefully your current term is filled with as many AP courses you can take in order to increase your overall GPA and it is imperative that you achieve all A’s for the remainder of this term and for the at least the first term of your senior year just in case admissions wants to view your first term senior grades.
  2. Study as much as humanly possible and take the SAT as many times as you can during the next 9 months as you need to bring your overall SAT above the 2010 range to become more competitive.
  3. Although UFL may be your dream school (as it should be), it is strongly advised that you still apply to all the other major schools such as UCF/FSU/USF/MIAMI as all have great programs and I am certain that you will excel at any school you attend. </p>

<p>Many people will tell you that UFL uses a holistic approach to admissions and that they are looking for well-rounded students. Don’t believe it… In reality, UFL is looking for the brightest students based upon tangible academic statistics and they usually pick a small number from each high school throughout Florida thus class ranking is very important.
Good Luck!</p>

<p>BigStan123-I’m attending UFL right now, second semester. Some people will tell you that UFL doesn’t use a holistic approach to admissions. Don’t believe them. Because they (as in, ilovethe47) have zero evidence that UFL doesn’t use a holistic approach. Absolutely zero evidence. As a matter of fact, such a claim they make is called speculation. Speculation is not factual information. It’s just fabricated material. What IS a fact is that UFL DOES use a holistic approach. Absolutely they do, and what evidence is there? Call up the university itself and ask them. Talk directly to an admissions officer and they will tell you that they use holistics approach. UFL has nothing to hide really, it’s a state public institution. But there are individuals like ilovethe47 who just want to say “no” to the straight facts, for some reason, and instead give out speculation, calling that factual evidence without any proof.</p>

<p>Now if you want my opinion, an 1890 can do you well. Should you do better? Sure, 1900+ won’t hurt at all. But for years and years, I’ve seen people with 1500s-1600s (all three sections combined) get into UFL; even for the Fall. Which by the way, speaking of terms, your term selection has no weight on your admissions. There are zero advantages and zero disadvantages to picking one term or another (whether it be summer, fall, or IA). It doesn’t matter, your term selection has no weight on whether you will be admitted or not. </p>

<p>If you do end up getting 2000+ on SATs, look into applying for Honors programs or a couple other competitive schools like UNC-Chapel Hill, UC Berkeley, etc. It’s not all in the numbers. One thing ilovethe47 got right was to apply to backup schools like UCF/FSU/USF/FIU. But don’t expect Miami as a backup, they are just as competitive (arguably more competitive) than UF.</p>