3.9UW 4.6W, 1460 SAT, Top 7% from top feeder school, 9Ap, 4AICE, Theatre, Thespian Club, DECA, March for Miriam volunteer, NHS member and current officer (likely NHS president Sr. year) impressive summer internship, 150+ hours. Other than a great essay, what else is there? Prayer?
Realizing that I should have put a question mark at the end of that sentence. Clearly I don’t have any answers. ?
No one has the secret recipe. It helps if you have a hook. Barring that, maybe get that SAT up a smidge. Do your research in depth, so you can best match yourself to colleges looking for the qualities your resume shows you have.
@Groundwork2022 No hook :(. Taking SAT again in March, so maybe a bump up? I guess she can keep taking until November. Because of bright futures and Florida prepaid. We are only applying to UF, FSU and UCF. So lots of prayer, and maybe a little SAT bump may be where it’s at.
Make sure of the demonstrated interest. Open emails. Visit website. Obviously register. Look at videos. Visit campus on a registered tour.
I would (as a parent) make sure my child makes it very, very clear to UF that they want to go there. Have your child get in touch with their AO, express tons of demonstrated interest, attend everything they can related to UF etc… all schools want to protect their yield and like kids that want them.
@privatebanker you really think they track that? We did an official tour already but will most certainly take that advice. Easy enough and will also follow all social media accounts.
I think everything is tracked these days.
It’s also just a response of things you can actually control. Even if not needed.
Hope everything works out!
It happens to the best. Try to keeping them grounded and realistic (they may not listen). Knowing that there are many competing for that spot and that she may not get into her dream school but she is some schools dream student. This is a very hard reality for many even my own. We have applied to 17 colleges. So far she has been accepted to 4 EA all with Presidential Scholarships. These were all her safety schools but when we started applying we discussed the fact that we would not apply to any school that she does not feel she can be happy at so in reality any of these 17 could be the ONE. She has one more EA decision coming in February and the rest are RD and they are the more competitive schools. I’m bracing myself so that I can help her through her moments. Though as her parent I think that every school should be honored to have her 
, I know that the chance of her getting accepted to all of these schools is not realistic. Excited for her but very nervous. I am also factoring in that loans are not on the table so if she does get into one of her “Dream Schools” and the FA package is not realistic for us, she will not be attending that school. Lot of hard lessons this year. She will thank me later, just as my DS did. He’s living and working in NYC now debt free and so are we. Best of luck and prayers for your daughter.
Forgive my sticking nose in where perhaps it does not belong (feel free to swat with a newspaper), but I have seen a few posts suggesting that UF has become fairly unpredictable in its acceptance patterns. Is there a sense that they are practicing yield control? Honestly (get that newspaper out), I have a real problem with that for a state school. Generally the mission is to educate the state’s future workforce. Yield control does not support that mission.
I did a little research. Florida has about twice the population of my state, Ohio. It has about 10k fewer undergrads than OSU, but has a smaller proportion of out of state students. So let’s call it about the same number of state resident undergrads. But adding in CFU, our states are at least on par in terms of slots at strong public universities.
Your D’s stats are roughly the same as my S20’s. We had zero concern that he wouldn’t be admitted to OSU. None. Now kids on the margin (3.5-3.7 UW GPA) are a bit of a crap shoot, but that’s about it. I would be ALL OVER my state reps if high stats students were not being admitted to our state flagship. That is NOT NOT NOT in the best interest of your state. UF is a giant university. Your worrying about acceptance is nuts.
If I am preaching to the choir here, shoo me away. But, really, that is a terrible practice if widespread at UF. I can see certain super capacity controlled majors being a reach for anyone (like nursing), but as a general practice, very high stats kids should not be rejected by their own state flagship.
@cypresspat I have heard of many kids with high gpa and test scores getting rejected and it’s concerning. We have been trying our best to check every box, but it’s scary. I think the fact that many of the best and brightest stay in state because of bright futures and prepay is probably part of the reason it’s become so competitive. Not sure if you have something similar in Ohio. UCF has Top 10 Knights, which is an auto admit for the top 10% of the class if you are in state and have a minimal SAT/ACT score. UF obviously doesn’t have to do that. I know that UF has a stated goal of getting into the top 5 for public universities. Not sure what the qualifications are but I’m guessing their acceptances are in line with that goal.
Hmmmm…lots to unpack there. The stronger Ohio public universities have no auto admit policies. They are quite predictable, however (although the cut-off stats do move every year and one can see a big difference over the past 10 years for tOSU).
But that increase in competitiveness is true for many state flagships, especially those which had a big investment in key programs like OSU did. Layering in a generational preference for large colleges and private college tuition growing past the tipping point for most families…many state universities are now the strongest competitors in their states. tOSU enrolls the most high stats kids from Ohio now, by far.
But that doesn’t impact its ranking nearly as much as real investment in its faculty, facilities, etc. Yield control may make a college seem more selective, hence appealing, to the general applicant pool, but not impact its rankings (the typically cited ones).
So…I still don’t get it. Why would a public university practice yield control? I don’t think it is in the state’s best interest, at all. The idea is for a state to keep its best and brightest. A student who goes away for college is far more likely to move away permanently. Maybe Florida has more smart people than it needs!!!
@cypresspat Maybe Florida has more smart people than it needs!!!
Haha!!! Every time there’s some horribly wild story I pray that it won’t have originated in our state.
But…9/10 it’s FL!!
Ohio has its moments, too.
I honestly think these Universities have it down to a science when it comes to admissions. This is not unique to UF or even FSU and UCF. You are seeing the same concerns in Georgia at UGA and GTECH with so many High Stat kids getting deferred or flat out denied. The fact that these two states basically offer a free education, it makes even more competitive to get in, especially when it comes to their top Flagships.
The State of Florida has many major cities. With so many high stat applicants in many of these cities alone, they can basically have their picks. They can easily compare peers within the same schools along with whatever resumes they might have. Then you have applicants from smaller towns or rural towns that might not even have the same top stats but might have competitive stats for admissions. The final spin is the “Holistic” approach they all claim to have which makes the process even more unpredictable.
We have been fortunate to have bought the Florida Pre Paid plan back when we used to live in Florida and we have a very different experience with UF admissions. When D18 applied as an OOS two years ago (considered in-state for tuition purposes), she was not accepted to UF (only school not admitted to) and was accepted to FSU Honors. It was interesting to see how the University of Florida required a signed form stating that we would be considered Florida residents based on the sole reason we had the Florida Pre Plan. We did not think it was a fair question. What difference does it make whether we have a Florida Pre Paid Plan when it comes to admissions? Profiling? FSU did not require such a form at the time of applications. By the end of the day, the UF rejection did not bite her as much (just the ego) since she had other excellent options. However, it was interesting to see how some of her " real OOS" classmate’s friends got accepted even though they had a lesser profile. Perhaps UF is incredibly Holistic as they claim to be.
One piece of advice I can give you is that you might want to consider applying to other schools outside of Florida. With those stats and the fact that some of these Florida schools are getting more and more competitive when it comes to admissions, you might be surprised how another school would award you an excellent scholarship. My daughter goes to Ohio State @cypresspat (winky! winky!) on a great scholarship and she ABSOLUTELY LOVES it there.
The reality is that nothing can be taken for granted because you do hear these crazy stories of high stats students getting rejected or deferred. You really can’t worry about something you can’t control. The only thing you can do is to make sure that you create more opportunities for yourself (child) and the only way to do that is by targeting other schools. But based on the kind of kid you have, something tells me, everything is going to be ok. Best to you!
@Boomer1964 I have no problem at all with any state school needing to reject or defer high stats kids simply because there is not enough room for all of them. But that is not what I have been reading about UF admissions. (Note this is based on my reading maybe 10 threads on this) I have read about high stats kids regularly getting rejected over lower stats kids. Many seem skeptical of this being a ‘holistic’ approach.
The OP’s daughter’s stats are fully above UF’s 75th percentile for SAT, according to its common data set. With a 3.9 UW GPA, assuming HS is reasonably rigorous, she is way up there in GPA, too. Unless she is seeking a capacity controlled major (like CS), and her LORs have no red flags, she should be a slam dunk for her own state flagship, given its published stats and being a BIG university.
Could be there is a bunch of info I do not have regarding UF’s mission (heavy emphasis on first gen, or whatever) leaving really small numbers for those outside of that target. If not, then if I were a citizen of a state which is not fully accommodating all of it’s high stats students, I would be having a chat with my state reps. State universities have a public good mission. The OP’s daughter should be a beneficiary of that public good, along with the FL employers who will want her in five years or so. Turning away the highest stats kids on a regular basis is not in line with that mission.
@cypresspat First of all, the OP has not applied to any of these schools yet so we really do not know what the outcome will be. Based on the information she provided, it seems like UF would be a match, then again, we do not know how competitive of major she is trying to get into which will be a big factor.
Unfortunately for all of us, we do not why a very capable applicant gets turn down from UF or any similar schools for that matter. UGA, OSU, Illinois, Wisconsin, and on and on do it all the time. Lots of kids and I mean a lot of kids with incredible stats do not get into Georgia Tech either. But as I mentioned before, could an applicant be denied admission based on the fact that other students from the same school or district are stronger? Could it be because of the applicant getting a C somewhere along the line? I am not defending UF by any means. My personal experience was not very good. But again, Florida has some great schools. I bet FSU, UCF, or USF don’t think of themselves as second options. The OP will be able to get into one of these fine Florida schools.
UIUC has the same issues. They did start taking more instate high stat kids 3 years ago due to a revolt by parents that complained and got their representatives involved. But they have had a history of taking internationals on purpose to get the full pay kids. Very few publics have money like Michigan. They have to get cash flowing somehow. Think Illinois as a state has 49 % of their freshman going OOS due to getting merit and less of a tuition.
For the record, I never intended for my post to sound negative. I really was wondering what else we could do differentiate her application to make sure she gets in! Just working towards her goal and was hoping for some insight from people that have been there! Also she is completely undecided for major. Does that hurt? Is it better to pick something? Go Gators!!!
@flprepaidmom Being undecided will not hurt her chances. There is no crystal ball and based on her current achievements, she seems to be on the right track for admissions. The main thing to remember is that rejection can be part of the process, especially when it comes to UF and many of the schools mentioned above. It happens and the only thing you can do is to make sure you target other options. Obsessing over ONE specific school can set you up for a big disappointing experience. This applies to any level of applicant and whatever schools they are dreaming of.