<p>hey, sorry but i'll just get to the point. so i'm a junior in CA, who is curious if applying to UF is worth it or just a waste of time and $$. it's been a rough last 2 years, with my mom having to move away and my granmother being really sick (both in my essay) so in anycase, here's my profile:</p>
<p>[ *] ACT Composite: 33
[ *] SAT IIs: Span: 770 Lit: 710
[ *] AP's: Span: 5 Eng: 4 US Hist: 3
[ *] Weighted: 3.53 (to give you an idea of how hard my courses were, i got a 3 out of a possible 4 rating on difficulty that my school has)
[ *] ECs listed on app: football, track, clubs
[ *] Job/Work Experience: did finances for a family friend's company (receipt stuff) and also had a job at a toy store lol
[ *] Essays (subject and responses): already started so they should be good
[ *] Teacher Recs: better than great
[ *] Counselor Rec: great
[ *] School Type: Private, does not rank
[ *] Ethnicity: Hispanic
[ *] Gender:M
[ *] 2 summer courses at a local comm. college- pysch and creative writing, both got A's.
* also got 4 awards at our honors convocation, but not sure that means much really. </p>
<p>If you were in-state (CA means California, right?) I would say you were probably in. I am unsure about UF's policy towards out of state students, however.</p>
<p>Are you taking AP's this year, as well? If so, how many and what are they?</p>
<p>why dont you go to school in CA? It would be cheaper than out of state at UF. I would kill for the chance to go to school at UCSD, UCLA, or Berkeley. OMG, Berkeley is my dream school. And with how competitive UF has been for out of state applicants....</p>
<p>But anyway, I dont think you have the best of chances; mainly because of your GPA. Its really low for a weighted gpa. And UF wont be so forgiving just because your school is hard. We have extremely competitive schools in florida too, there are in fact more Top 100 National Public High Schools here than in any other state (Source: NEWSWEEK). I mean, MAYBE that consideration would be there if your went to Preuss in San Diego.</p>
<p>Your ACT score is really good, and that helps. But UF does not count standardized test scores as much as it does GPA and EC's. Get a good SAT score to pair up with the ACT you have.</p>
<p>The rest of your profile seems really typical to me, I don't see any EC's that really stick out or anything really special that you have done. Do you think UF might want to recruit you for one of your sports? That will really help, in fact it might guarantee admission.</p>
<p>Sorry if this sounds bad or mean, I don't mean it to, I'm just being honest. Admissions is much more competitive for an out of state applicant and your stats are still borderline for in state applicants IMO.</p>
<p>well i'm just trying to narrow down some schools that i'm thinking of, i've got like 17 and i'm trying to get it down to 11-10. I might just stick with some UC's, but i'm not sure yet.</p>
<p>I think they only admit about 6% OOS students (at this moment, with the current financial crisis, I assume they want the ones that are willing to pay full OOS tuition--roughly $17,000 vs $3,200 in-state). Hispanic won't do it since about 20% of students in Florida are Hispanic ranging in caliber all the way from Presidential Scholar/National Merit Finalist on down. However, if you have something they are looking for specifically (sports, ECs) they might waive OOS tuition. If you don't apply you will never know. Good luck.</p>
<p>I would assume that your gpa is so low is because the UC system calculates them based on semester grades, which typically is harsher. Florida schools tend to calculate based on final grades so I think your gpa would end up being in the right range. Noting this, I think you do have a great shot at UF.</p>
<p>On UF's website I found info on class profiles. Last year the middle 50% range for UF calculated gpas was 4.0-4.4, and the ACT range was 26-31 ( it's good that you're way above this latter range). However, UF tends to over emphasize gpa. In my opinion UF should place a little more weight on standardized test scores but unfortunately they don't. This doesn't mean you shouldn't apply, just make sure you understand that UF typically overvalues something that happens to be your weakest point. As far as wasting time goes, UF's application isn't hard at all to fill out nor is it time consuming and most likely you'll have essays from other schools that you can adapt. Just make sure to emphasize how you can contribute to the UF community in ways that others can't.</p>
<p>If you found your stats there, it'd be similar to saying 95% of in-state students are accepted. Just wanted to clear that up. I think they hold the OOS students to the same standards, just less of them matriculate due to financial issues, being too far from home, etc.</p>
<p>"As far as wasting time goes, UF's application isn't hard at all to fill out nor is it time consuming and most likely you'll have essays from other schools that you can adapt."</p>
<p>I beg to differ. I completely and utterly beg to differ. It took me weeks to finish it.</p>
<p>Well I guess it depends. I had resumes already done for other schools, and an essay (done for another college) that only needed a paragraph changed to meet UF's guidelines. So with all this information already written out, it took me under an hour to fill out UF's application. So I would say, if the content you need for UF is similar to that of other schools you're sending applications to (which it most likely will be), it will probably not take you long at all.</p>
<p>I had to calculate it myself. Its easy. Just take your academic classes in a 4.0 scale, at 0.5 for each honors class and add 1.0 for each AP Class. In case you are confused about what "academic classes" means, do yourself a favor and calculate two GPAs; one where you take it in the strictest sense (as in, no Debate or Band or electives in general, only your core math/science/language/social studies courses) and one where you take a more lenient definition. If you have better grades at one type of classes than another, this will allow you to get a best and worst case scenario (I did it, and I was happy to see both of my GPAs ended up above the 4.0 I needed for an invitation to the Honors college).</p>