<p>"Ocean Cohen wanted to attend the University of Florida from the time she was an eighth-grader at Pine View School for gifted students in Osprey.</p>
<p>She thought she was a shoo-in. Her grade-point average exceeded an A. She belonged to the honors math club. She volunteered at her temple and an animal hospital. She was an all-state distance runner. She played saxophone in the school band....</p>
<p>The University of Florida rejected her - even after she appealed the decision with seven letters of support from her high school teachers and principal....</p>
<p>Three years after university officials capped the size of its freshman class at about 6,600, competition at UF is at an all-time high...</p>
<p>Of those who applied to be part of this fall's incoming freshman class, an estimated 42 percent were accepted - the lowest acceptance rate in the history of the state's public schools....</p>
<p>The driving force is Florida's fast population growth: The campus of 50,000 students, the fourth-largest in the nation, is at maximum capacity, said UF President Bernie Machen...."</p>
<p>I suppose it begs the question which is a better use of taxpayer's money in this instance, educating more people or educating fewer people but providing a higher quality education. I don't think Florida has any lack of available public colleges so they might be headed down the right road.</p>
<p>What I mean to say is, while I don't really like the ranking system or colleges doing things just to try to move up in them, if these moves are to actually improve the quality of education (which I think they will) then they are probably the right thing to do.</p>
<p>The state of Florida churns out so many Bachelor degrees that it is ridiculous. Now is the time to focus on making the State University System more quality.</p>
<p>"don't make it selective for the sake of ranking at the expense of taxpayers"</p>
<p>This is a weak argument. Keep in mind that there are only 6,600 total spots available. It's not UF's fault that they get almost 26k applications.</p>
<p>Dang, that sucks for people who want to go there. I'm glad I don't, but getting into my state school is very tough and it'll probably never be a safety again.</p>
<p>This article is quite old.. ive read ti before.</p>
<p>Here is what I feel: This is an exageration!</p>
<p>At many schools that accept 40% of the applicants and have 20K + applicants (Umiami, UF, GWU, BC, Michigan, North Carolina etc..) you will see kids with high stats getting waitlisted or rejected.. it happens!
there are many reasons. I wont list all of them but here is one I am aware of.
Sometimes schools reject highly talented applicants (or waitlist) when they feel they will most liekly not attend. espeically when space is tight they willl rather not take chances and give the spot to someone who will probably attend (thus increasing the yield percentage).</p>
<p>Just as u mentioned this case... I can name a boatload of students with good stats but lower than this applicant's that got in... Im nto talking about geniouses with 5.5 gpa's im simply talking about normal kids with 3.5 gpas and a 1200 on the SATs. </p>
<p>Like I said there are always odd cases such as these but there is no need to exagerate these cases and put up worry amongst future applicants. </p>
<p>I mean if u want to get technical, the increasingly selective private school they mention (UMiami) rejects 60% of the applicants (22,000 apps) as opposed to UF which rejects 56% of the applicants (24,000 apps).
I know kids with pretty good stats at UMiami that got waitlisted.in the end got accepted for spring term but why that happens. That is hard to predict same way predicting chances is extremely hard to do...
Look UMiami recieves just as many applications as the "IN-Demand U" and rejects more of the applicants than the "In-demand U." Also it boasts identical stats.
I can list other similar schools or even tougher to get into such as Boston College and again, you dont see their local newspaper flaunting their admissions... I just dont get it why the Gainesville newspaper wrote this.. all it does is create unnesecary stress and worries when most of it isnt true.. its an exageration!</p>
<p>My point: this article is:
1. BullS***
2. A total Exageration
3. Unecessary</p>
<p>The article only mentions of 1 girl that got rejected and she was also considering Harvard..
thats all they mention...
Some ppl might get scared off for nothing!
as I said many ppl with extremely lower stats get in...</p>
<p>Why dosnt Anna Scott (prolly a UF alum) mention the average stats of the school or just give a few examples of ppl that still got in with lower stats?</p>
<p>Like I said earlier, a ton of schools even UMiami which is private, recieves just as many applications and is just as selective and u dont see a Coral Gables gazzette Alum writing about how admissions at UM is rediculously hard even for a harvard prospect.. This is clearly a case of showing off when u have nothing much to show off.</p>
<p>what a lousy article and I clearly get her point... She wants to make the school feel like its Harvard admissions When it is clearly not!</p>
<p>So she had the PSAT that was necessary to get that viewbook+app - WOW, not.</p>
<p>She averaged better than A's due to a weighting, and her test scores are unmentioned, she could have a 600 for all we know. Boo-fricking-hoo.</p>
<p>Smart kids get rejected from every good university. If there was an article for every kid who could blow this chick out of the water who gets rejected from Harvard or Stanford then we would need a forklift to deliver the paper. Too bad. She may have gotten screwed, that sucks, seriously it does, but a smart kid getting rejected from a university - NOT NEWS!</p>
<p>Did they mention her ranking? There must have been several other kids from her Florida HS ranked higher than her.. Clearly they must have chosen those over her.
If she did well on her PSAT im sure she must have done well on the actual test.. That must have not been the issue.</p>
<p>The same thing has happened at other flagship state schools such as Illinois.</p>
<p>Some state universities are trying to deal w/ the pop. boom by expanding significantly.</p>
<p>
[quote]
With 64,000 students, and plans to grow to more than 90,000 by 2020, Arizona State is trying to become the nations largest university, as it scrambles to keep up with the regions surging population. And like other public universities in fast-growing Sun Belt states, it faces more than just logistical challenges. </p>
<p>The rate of growth is dizzying. Arizona State has already expanded by 14,000 students in seven years. California and Florida have also seen enrollment explode. In just the last two years, the 23 universities in the California State University system grew to 450,000 students from 410,000.
<p>According to the Gainesville Sun, UF's yield is impressive for publics in Fla.</p>
<p>"In 2006, UF turned down more than half of freshman applicants for the first time. It showed in the incoming student body: The average grade-point averages exceeded an A for the first time - a first for any school in Florida, including New College, the state's honor college in Sarasota.</p>
<p>And, a record 57 percent of freshman students who were accepted actually enrolled, placing the school firmly in the realm of top picks rather than safety schools. By comparison, 37 percent of students accepted at Florida State University enrolled."</p>