<p>We just went on a student tour at UF last week - awesome experience - the staff and tour guides were wonderful and helped keep the energy up though we were all getting drenched in the rain and slugging through the oppressive humidity - it was hot hot hot.</p>
<p>Anyway, yes, as others have said, the application opens up on September 3. All decisions are revealed on Valentine’s Day 2014 so buy lots of chocolate - either to celebrate or commiserate.</p>
<p>I thought the self-reporting of grades was an ingenious way to make the whole process much more efficient and cost-effective. Why should the staff hand-calculate over 30,000 applications? Only 11K students get accepted. Those students who really want to get in to UF will take the utmost care in reporting their grades - enter an A, mark it as Honors or AP/IB, and let the application do the number crunching. I hope it also reveals to the student what their UF recalculated grade point average actually is so that they can deal with the reality of whether they even have a chance of making it into that 11K group or need to move on to their next best choices.</p>
<p>My biggest concern, actually, was the housing situation. But that’s for another thread I guess, and not a concern for us as my son will probably choose another college even if he were to get accepted to UF. Many top tier out of state schools, given the scholarships, will turn out to be less expensive for us than UF, even with Bright Futures. Still astounds me.</p>
<p>Anyway, best of luck to those who have their hearts set on being a Gator. Hope you get in!</p>
<p>^^^ Good luck with the scholarships! 
It’s hard to find one that pays the full cost of OOS, based on Merit. There are a few schools though…</p>
<p>Thanks. And I should clarify my words “top tier” lest anyone think I have discovered other OOS merit scholarships at what are typically called “top tier” schools - I have not. I should be more careful. What I meant is that, for us, if my son is awarded the merit scholarships at any of the mix of public and private universities (from a mix of tiers) to which he is applying, we will end up paying less for those out-of-state schools than if he were to get into UF. He is going to apply to UF anyway, just to see what happens (kind of like what my high school buddies did back in the late 80s when everybody applied to UC Berkeley just to see who could get in.)</p>
<p>A Top Tier university for us is the one that gives my son a chance to go to college and earn a debt-free degree :)</p>
<p>But back to UF - a really beautiful campus and community. Go Gators!</p>
<p>@chesterton </p>
<p>What schools are you looking at that will come out cheaper than UF? I’m a Florida student with dreams of going out of state but I always assumed I’d end up at UF because it’s cheaper. I’d like to know why you think other OOS schools are going to be better for your pocketbook. :)</p>
<p>Im so friggin close to these scholarhips, it’s crazy. I have a 1350 and a 30… and i’ve taken the sat twice and the act three times. If only i’d hired a tutor…</p>
<p>Thanks Gator88NE, those were really helpful threads!</p>
<p>We have six of the Florida universities on our list, because, of course, with Bright Futures ($3000), it would be fool-hardy not to apply to our in-state choices (UCF, UF, UNF, FSU, FAU, USF.) With Bright Futures included, the price before other potential scholarships and not including books, and personal expenses is between $10-15K a year. It’s possible my oldest would qualify for scholarships due to his ACT/SAT and GPA at the Florida publics, as he does at the other out-of-state schools, but only USF is very transparent about how much they award (my son would get $3750/year if he were entering college this year) which would bring the cost at USF to $6910/yr - so, yes that would be less than some other schools, but he doesn’t want to go to USF - it’s just a backup. He would probably be awarded some scholarships from some of the others if he were accepted (applying to UF is like playing the lottery, in our view, so the odds at the rest of his Florida list are better), and maybe for around the same amount. So, yes, the overall cost could be lower, but we don’t know yet. We don’t qualify for any other financial aid than access to $5500 in unsubsidized federal loans (which we would prefer not to use, and will do everything not to, including cutting schools from the list.)</p>
<p>In the meantime, we have seven out-of-state schools that are already less to attend than going to an in-state school without additional scholarships. Three or four are some of the well-known public universities mentioned all the time in the forum, a few others are less well-known public and private (my son has no interest in status, only the quality of the engineering and physics programs themselves.)</p>
<p>Of course, with any of the schools, no scholarship money is worth a thing without that letter of acceptance. It could be that he will end up going to a school here in Florida, if they give him some additional scholarship money. But if he gets an acceptance from a Florida school and then an acceptance at one of the other schools where we already know his out of pocket cost is already at least half the cost of any of the Florida publics, then I have a very good feeling he will be heading out of town unless one of those Florida schools offers a significant merit award.</p>
<p>^^^ We’re in a similar situation with our DD, as she’s also looking at engineering schools. However, we also have Florida Pre-paid (Tuition) so that’s giving us a bit more leeway. We’re also looking at several OOS schools (Florida Prepaid can be used for OOS schools, it would pay tuition up to what an in-state school would charge). </p>
<p>UF would be our first choice (and likely most expensive choice, due to lack of merit $$), but we’ve focused on UCF as one of our “safety” schools. We know several kids that chose UCF over UF, simply due to the scholarship/Honor’s college offer. </p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>@ Chesterton- </p>
<p>You say, “In the meantime, we have seven out-of-state schools that are already less to attend than going to an in-state school without additional scholarships. Three or four are some of the well-known public universities mentioned all the time in the forum, a few others are less well-known public and private”</p>
<p>Can you reveal which these are? Because I’m having a hard time narrowing down my list for OOS schools because there are just SO MANY choices… I’m interested in engineering as well. </p>
<p>@Gator88NE- </p>
<p>Is it correct in saying that the automatic scholarships are considered automatically when you apply and that the competitive ones require a separate application? Or are they just called competitive because they are chosen out of the top applicants each year so the stats vary? </p>
<p>And, yeah my safeties are FSU and USF in light of UF’s lack of merit $$</p>
<p>Yes, automatic is based on test scores only, if you have them, then they award you the scholarships. Competitive means they award it to the best students, that meet the minimum requirements (GPA and Test scores). </p>
<p>Speaking for Chesterton, the “well-known” schools would likely be the ones under those two links (they keep both links fairly well updated on CC).</p>
<p>Just to give some stats on automatic scholarships at the state schools. My son with a 4.15 UF gpa, 1920/32 was offered Pegasis Gold Scholarship from UCF 12,000 total, 3000 per year, admission to Burnett Honors and 9600 freshman scholarship and Honors at FSU. These were automatic with his admissions letter.</p>
<p>He is currently a Sophomore at UF which offered nothing :(</p>
<p>, $2400 per year freshman scholarship from FSU. These were automatic and required no additional paperwork.</p>
<p>That’s great news about UCF and FSU. Thanks for sharing those numbers. Financially, it would be great for my son to commute to UCF (it would be 45 minutes each way) and live at home. My husband did that out in California but my son would love to move away to school if he (and we) can make it work. </p>
<p>Anyway, back to schools, let me quickly share two schools that are out of the box for my son: University of Texas Dallas and Louisiana Tech. Both have reputable physics and engineering programs and both offer significant merit aid. I know nothing about living in Louisiana (a California native and though I have now lived in Florida for 8 years, Florida is not “the South.” Ruston Louisiana is very rural and from my virtual trips around the campus via Google Earth, it is, well, very very rural. But if accepted, my son would have a net cost of 0 - a full ride with only books and travel to get there. He likely missed the NMF cutoff by a few points so while he could qualify for full tuition at schools, he couldn’t get a full ride with room & board. At Louisiana Tech he could. Now obviously Louisiana Tech is not UF in status or ranking or maybe even resources but free is free. UT Dallas could be as low as $7k. Alabama at Huntsville could be around $8k. Texas A&M is super competitive but, if accepted, he is interested in the Corps of Cadets and would only need to be awarded a $1k scholarship to get in-state tuition and there are additional merit opps. Thanks to the CC forum, he was motivated to look at Ole Miss - what is another state in the South if FL, AL and TX are already on the list? They have a new program that combines an engineering degree with a law degree ( another interest of his) and though their merit aid is competitive rather than automatic, it is still a compelling choice. </p>
<p>If he got into UF he would have to really consider it obviously. If he went to UCF, I admit I would have a harder time paying $9k for just room and board just to live 45 minutes away :). I would likely try to convince him to stay at home for two years, go to the community college honors program and then transfer with his AA. </p>
<p>Anyway, definitely go through every school listed in those links and run the numbers. I created a spreadsheet and keep updating numbers. We get stuff in the mail and I always go to every school’s website because you just don’t know until you look at the numbers. Personally, Drexel would be my dream school for him because of the co-op job program but I keep running numbers and even with merit aid it is out if reach at least for undergraduate. We will not be taking out Plus loans ever. </p>
<p>Floridians are fortunate to have a lot of options. Bright Futures is great. I wish we had moved here sooner to sign up for Prepaid when it made sense to do so. We’ve had tens of thousands in medical bills and helped pay off many doctors’ college loans :). So we have to make do and at least some schools do offer merit so we will see what happens. </p>
<p>But UF would be awesome and my son, like 30,000 others, will be throwing his hat into the ring on September 3. Best of luck to everybody :)</p>
<p>Wow, both of your posts were really helpful. I never considered applying to the schools listed on those threads but now I think I might, even if the reputation isn’t as good free is free like you said. </p>
<p>I think my #1 choice is FSU to go into the Honors program because I wouldn’t get into the UF honors (30 ACT) and because it’s in-state so I can use bright futures. While UCF is beautiful, it doesn’t have chemE 
</p>
<p>Honestly, Gator88NE, I’m just going to mention this because you are a Cali native, I think if I was particularly gutsy I’d go to CC in Cali then transfer into UCSB (absolute dream school) but hey, I’m not THAT gutsy haha… </p>
<p>We shall see how it all turns out, and we won’t know until the acceptance letters roll in…</p>
<p>Haha…I’m 100% Floridian (since 1976…)…You could go the CC route in Cali…and I think after 2 years you would qualify as in-state…but that would still be expensive (room and board, plus any CC cost) and it’s never a sure thing getting into UCSB. </p>
<p>Since these engineering programs all have ABET accreditation, reputation of the school may not matter as much as it does in other majors. </p>
<p>chesterton, TAMU is a great, quirky, school, I’m sure he would enjoy it and the engineering is top notch. If he’s interested in the cadets, he may want to take a look at Virginia Tech’s program. In many ways VT can be viewed as a peer of TAMU. About 30% of the students at VT are OOS.</p>
<p>[Now</a>. . . More Than Ever | Virginia Tech](<a href=“Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets | Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets | Virginia Tech”>Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets | Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets | Virginia Tech)</p>
<p>Ilaughinghouse - you can still apply to uf honors without a 30 act. You have to write an extra small essay or haiku?, but many students that do this are then put in the same pool as the students who scored a 30 or above. Decisions are made from there and many students with less than a 30 are accepted to the honors program. However, it should be noted that uf’s honors program is not as advantageous as other honors colleges such as ucf’s.</p>
<p>@scudrunner- I have a 30 so I guess I’m in the middle, but I didn’t know that you could apply for the UF honors program…hmmm I will probably do that. </p>
<p>The guides on the FSU tour said that the honors program students get special scholarships, good housing, 1st pick for classes, and special opportunities for studying abroad so if I got into both FSU honors and UF honors I’d probably go with FSU’s. </p>
<p>@Gator88NE- oh, I might be confused with another thread that had a gator-esque name that was from Cali, my bad haha… but I probably won’t do that, i read somewhere that engineering students start their specialized classes too early for it to be worth going to CC, one would end up at CC for 2 years then at a university for 3 or 4 so one might as well just go straight to a university.</p>
<p>I think you’re find the “perks” from each honors program(FSU, UF, UCF, USF, FIU, etc…) are about the same. However, it’s a lot more competitive at UF’s, which makes getting scholarships/merit aid much harder. If you can get into UF’s honors program, with no Merit awards, you would also be able to get into any of the other honors programs and expect to be award Merit. </p>
<p>So why select UF’s honors? Because you want to go to UF! Same reason(s) others select UF over FSU/UCF/… If you’ve selected UF, it’s rarely has to do with a merit award.</p>
<p>True, my friend Michael could have gotten a full ride from UWF but went to UF with no aid just because he wanted to be a gator… </p>
<p>At least my family has Seminole AND Gator fans so it’s fitting that I’ll have to chose a side, haha. Unless I go to USF, plot twist indeed. :)</p>
<p>UF has just put up a detailed Self-Reported Academic Record (SAR) FAQ up on it’s website. The SAR is UF’s new self-reported transcript system.</p>
<p>Request a hard copy of your transcript from your guidance counselor and make sure it matches what’s inputted into SAR. If not, UF may rescind your offer. Accuracy is extremely important.</p>
<p>[University</a> of Florida - Admissions](<a href=“http://www.admissions.ufl.edu/ugrad/sar.html#one]University”>http://www.admissions.ufl.edu/ugrad/sar.html#one)</p>
<p>Good Luck to all those applying in Sept/Oct (don’t miss that Nov 1 deadline!).</p>