<p>DEADLINE FOR ALL ADMISSIONS WOULD BE IN NOVEMBER</p>
<p>UF President Bernie Machen wants to get rid of the university's early decision admissions program, and a committee of UF's highest governing body agreed at a meeting on March 9. </p>
<p>The Board of Trustees' Committee on Educational Policy and Strategy recommended a new system with only one deadline for future applicants to the university. </p>
<p>The current system has three different application deadlines - early decision, regular decision I and regular decision II. </p>
<p>The early decision deadline is typically in early October, and the regular decision deadlines are in November and January, respectively. </p>
<p>Applicants applying early have to enter into a binding contract with the university that requires them to attend if they are accepted. They also must withdraw their applications to other colleges if they are accepted. </p>
<p>Of the 15,935 freshman applicants for the fall 2006 semester, 4,462 applied with the early decision option, according to university statistics. Of those, 2,273 were admitted. </p>
<p>UF admits 6,600 students total to each freshman class, said Zina Evans, UF's director of admissions. </p>
<p>The proposed deadline for applications would be in early November, and applicants would receive the university's decision by February, Evans said. </p>
<p>Evans designed the recommended policy with Provost Janie Fouke and said the current policy is hampered by limitations. </p>
<p>"Students are only allowed to apply in the context of one of those deadlines, so they're only competing against that pool - others who have applied to the same deadline," Evans said. </p>
<p>Evans said there isn't an opportunity for the Office of Admissions to review the entire pool of applicants and "make some sound decisions about admissions based on the quality of the entire pool." </p>
<p>Evans described the current system as "anxiety-producing" for applicants because the perceptions about the different deadlines' acceptance rates can influence which deadline they choose. </p>
<p>The recommended plan would not only allow applicants more time to put together their applications, but also allow them to use their December SAT and ACT test scores, Evans said. </p>
<p>If the plan is adopted, it won't be unique to UF. Evans said November application deadlines are in place at the universities of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Virginia and California at Berkeley.</p>