I got a few bad grades... Chance me for UF?

Currently I’m a Senior in the IB program.

My stats:

  • My GPA (weighted) is 4.2 and (unweighted) 3.7
  • Top 25% of class (118/581)
  • ACT is 30, and (new) SAT is 1310 (superscore 1330)
  • Female, Asian American, Florida resident
  • I've been an honor student (mostly A's, few B's) my entire life until second semester Junior year when I got a D in AP Calculus (Today I got deferred from FSU for most likely this reason and I am now freaking out over my chances at UF)
  • This year, first semester of senior year I also got 3 C's (IB Spanish 5, IB Chemistry 3, IB Calculus/Descriptive Statistics) But does a D to a C math grade look a little better, as I'm on the track to improving again?...Does UF not admit people with a slight downwards trend? I plan on working very hard for my last semester to have all A's and a couple B's.
  • I have over 200 hours of volunteer work and I am an active member of NHS (2 years) Mu Alpha Theta (4 years) Key Club (4 years) Habitat for Humanity (2 years, senior year Treasurer) National Art Honor Society (2 years, senior year Secretary)
  • College essay is about living between two different households and how art helped me cope, I think it's a strong essay.

I’ve already been accepted to USF but UF is my first choice school. Because I was deferred from FSU, do you think UF won’t accept me too?

Brutally honest feedback is welcomed. Also if you are in a similar situation as me I would love to know that I’m not alone. Thank you for any comments.

With what you’ve said here I think it’s strange you were deferred from FSU, you have awesome extracurriculars and everything. From what I know about my / my friends’ applications you stand a really good chance! Don’t stress about it too much because you’ll enjoy college regardless!

That’s a pretty strong “resume” if you ask me but for the trend. My D just got accepted to FSU with a far weaker GPA but same ACT scores. She probably was very strong with extracurriculars and essay. Got deferred at USF (which we cannot believe) and waiting on UF (not feeling confident)…

As I’ve said before, it seems all the Florida schools are out-of-whack with admissions. Demand is so ridiculous. D gets deferred at USF but gets accepted OOS to a couple of elite business schools. I cannot figure it out.

@Nomad4 Sometimes they defer students they don’t think will attend their school in favor of students who they think they have a shot at getting. My son was accepted to FSU and USF. Waiting on UF for final decisions. I don’t think USF is one we are really considering, though. I wasn’t sure that the climate was what we were looking for. FSU is a strong favorite right now, but he was also accepted to some strong schools in other states.

I’m just don’t see how a school would know if an applicant is interested or not. For us, USF (and FSU) is out of state like other out-of-state schools she applied to. It does seem pretty clear that many of these schools are doing their best to raise the bar with either test scores and/or GPA.

@Nomad4 I think if a student is over-qualified, they may not let them in because they assume they might not go. Not sure, it’s just a theory I’ve seen. Honestly, everyone has a theory and no one seems to know anything.

I think it’s the D. I don’t know if it’s policy, but everything else would’ve pointed to acceptance at FSU. The “D” may be concerning at UF as well, but you never know.

So much depends on what weight a school puts on different factors. For example, FSU does not take extra curricular into consideration while UF does a more wholistic review. Some schools admit by major and others group everyone together and select the best applicants. In other words, impossible to predict. My son got in some schools he was not expecting (and I see others on the boards with much higher stats who did not get in) and he got summer acceptance to a school he thought was pretty much a sure thing. Admissions is an art and science and an admissions rep can see something on your application that resonates with them. If computers were doing all the picking, the results would be very different. This part of the process will soon pass and most will find happiness at one of the great schools they have been accepted to. I keep trying to remind my son (and myself) that there is not one perfect place for your or one right decision. This is just the beginning. Best of luck to everyone that they find some happiness at the end of this very difficult process.

@Nomad4 I don’t know for sure either, but they do track if you have an official visit or are in touch with an admissions rep. I suppose that is one way you can tell if someone is interested. We are OOS and when we visited UF and they checked us in, we saw they had my son’s name, GPA, state of residency and some other information on a spreadsheet.

Update for anyone that reads this discussion: I got into UF! Thank you all for your comments too.