I was recently denied admission to the University of Florida and was pretty disappointed. I want to major in biology and go into the health field (like most of the students at UF lol), so my plan was always to go to Santa Fe and transfer to UF, if I was denied. I appealed my admissions decision, but my appeal was not approved.
Now I cannot decide if I should just accept my denial from UF, move on, and attend FSU (I know many people who go there who originally wanted to go to UF but didn’t get in and now love FSU, and say that being rejected from UF was the best thing that ever happened to them), or go to Santa Fe (I only have two semesters left of my aa, so I could do one over summer and one over fall - so I could hopefully transfer successfully for spring) and transfer. My parents keep telling me that if I attend Santa Fe, I’m going to miss out on the “freshman college experience”, but I know that I could participate in UF clubs, go to football games, and actually be a student (hopefully) for spring.
I know that FSU is a good school, but they are most widely known for their business, music, musical theater, and law programs; I don’t know if it would be a bad choice to go there for a program that they aren’t known for. I do know someone who goes there now for biology, but idk.
I kind of want to rush, and I know that technically I could do that in the spring at UF, but I just don’t know.
I feel like the two rejections from UF should be a sign, but I also want to go to the school with the best program for me. Everyone says that whenever something you want doesn’t work out, you usually get something better. I don’t want to miss out on the ‘something better’ because I was so dead set on UF.
I know that I will probably have more opportunities to get involved at FSU (since I was actually admitted), but I feel like grad schools prefer students from the ‘better’ schools over the ones who have more involvement.
FSU roommate requests are due tomorrow, and an old friend randomly texted me to ask if I was going to FSU, and if she could put me down if I am. Is that a sign? lol
So here are my questions - if anyone attended santa fe and transferred to UF, do you feel like you missed out on the ‘freshman college experience’, or no? how is the Honors program/your overall expereince? if anyone was rejected from their dream school and ended up attending a different one, are you now happy that you moved on, or do you still feel some disappointment? and should I take the multiple rejections as a sign that it’s not meant to be, or just as roadblocks on my way to achieving my dreams? is spring rush a bad idea? and could attending a school with a lower ranking hurt my chances at grad school later? lol. please help! Thank you for reading 
Grad schools don’t care much at all about where you studied. They care about what you did with your opportunities there. If you major in biology at FSU and if you work hard and do well in all of your classes and if you work your way into a research group and/or find good summer research opportunities you will be able to do anything you could have done as a UF graduate.
I would suggest FSU for you. Full college experience. And the Greek life you are looking for along with having great school spirit/sports for fun.
Most importantly, you need to focus on the job at hand, right out if the gate. GPA is soooo important for med school applications. Don’t spend time on applications and unnecessary admissions stress.
Pre med track is a lot of work. And quite frankly you are competing for grades with other students. It’s not a bad idea to be potentially one of the better students in your class. Although I think you will find your classes full of top students like you.
FSU specific. It has one the nation’s finest medical schools. Really hard to get info. Why does this matter? Because this level of excellence flows to the UG population. The med school offers one on one advising to all FSU undergrad pre med students.
Last year 474 FSU students applied to Med school including DO programs from FSU.
“The FSU Medical School provides supplemental pre-health profession advising for all FSU students. In addition to providing one-on-one advising, tget have developed excellent premed and pre-health manuals that you may download from their website, Premed/Pre-health.”
I think it could be a home run for you. And many students go there instead of UF too.
You have worked hard to get this chance. And you should be proud to have this opportunity to attend such a fine school.
I personally think it’s nicer campus than UF.
FWIW. I did not attend FSU or UF. No one in my family did either. However my daughter was accepted to both last year and is on the pre med track as well. So we spent a lot of time analyzing both schools.
Good luck and congratulations once again.
thank you for the info!
thank you so much for all of that information and encouragement! I really appreciate it