Can my son appeal to the Honors College at UF for reconsideration
He was accepted to UF but not to the Honors College
Any thoughts or suggestions on what to do
Call the school and ask them why he was denied, they might have looked at the wrong information.
@Mlacktwins, I am also curious if my son can do anything at this time.
My DS got the Gator Nation Scholarship, OOS from AZ.
3.98UW 4.8W
National Merit Finalist
1520 SAT
Good ECs
Applied to the UF Honors Program but not accepted. If accepted, UF would have been his top school. I also thought that he had a good Honors app essay but I guess not good enough.
If you don’t mind, what are your son’s stats. Thanks.
UF has two honor’s programs, Freshman honors program and the University honor’s program. If you’re denied to the Freshman program, you can re-apply at the end of your freshman year to the University honor’s program.
http://www.honors.ufl.edu/prospective/admissions/university-honors-program-uhp/
IMHO, I wouldn’t put too much weight on being accepted or denied from UF’s Freshman or University honor programs. As a rule, the better the university, the less important it’s honor program. To the point that many of the best universities and colleges don’t even have them.
Conversely, the weaker (academically) the school, the more important it’s honor program (to the point that the honor “programs” turn into honor “colleges”). The honor “college” makes a difference at UCF, not so much the honor’s “program” at UF.
If either of my kids (engineering students) had been accepted to the program, they likely would have dropped out (stop participating) by the end the first year. They both had other demands on their time. Design teams, leadership roles, an engineering course load (lots of quality time in the library!), internships, etc.
Both could have applied after their freshman year (4.0 and a 3.87 GPA), but neither was interested.
To be honest, some kids can really take advantage of the program to “engage” with campus, others end up dropping out after a year, as they too many other demands on their time.
It’s always nice to be “accepted”, but being denied the honor’s program, isn’t going to have much, if any, impact on your time at UF. You will still be able to join all of the same clubs, be taking almost all of the same classes, doing the same undergraduate research, applying to the same internships, etc.
@Mlacktwins You cannot appeal a freshman honors decision but there is lateral transfer as a second shot if he chooses to attend UF.
I never applied to the honors college out of highschool (it was back when you applied) but after my freshman year I applied and got in through lateral admission. TBH this worked best bc now i get advanced registration but i didn;t have to complete the random freshman requirements to move into the university program. Overall, other than living in hume (which isnt a big deal), your student really won’t miss out on much.
@Gator88NE Thank you for the sage advice.
Full disclosure, S attends a different university but was admitted into the UF Honors Program 2 yrs ago. We went to an Honors Admitted Day type event and concluded the program, as others have said, was really no big deal. More of a program to help honors kids get acclimated and engaged in campus resources (which is nice because they want to make sure those students aren’t missing opportunities at UF - which is easy to do at a big school as it can be overwhelming). Have heard from several who did attend that they dropped out as the benefits became less meaningful after freshman year.
@rickle1 Ditto that, have heard the same feedback from students this year. UF probably needs to step up its game in regards to the Honors Program, it doesn’t seem to have much benefit. It might be more prestigious and meaningful at other universities, but not yet at UF.
For those who had sons/daughters not accepted into the program, I am sure that it stings, but it should not weight much in their decision.
I feel like a lot of people don’t really understand that the honors program does not have that many perks at all. As a senior in the program, I’ve really just used it for the advanced registration. To complete the program, there’s a point system that isn’t too hard to finish if you’re already working on your undergrad resume. The points motivate you to apply for things like TA positions, leadership conferences, and take volunteering trips, but you can always do these things on your own anyway. If you finish the points, you get a medal at graduation and distinction on your diploma but that’s about it. I don’t invest ANY time to the program at all and found that the time I invest in my other extracurriculars end up counting back towards the grad requirements anyways. No one is going to reach out to you and make sure you’re making headway with these points or that you graduate the program. There’s also no “dropping out” once you make it through the first year of the FHP. Of course, you can always choose to get more involved than I did, but getting in or not shouldn’t really be why you decide to go to UF or not. In hindsight, I LOVED the UCF honors college when I toured and think it might be worth considering especially if they’re giving you additional scholarships.
A college official disclosed to me directly that 9000 students applied to the honors program this year, vying for only 700 spots. Having the application integrated into the Coalition App exponentially increased the number of applicants. So just like admission, it’s highly competitive and many deserving students just don’t get in. But like Gator88NE said, they have another chance to apply again during the summer after their freshman year.
UF offered the honor’s program to 1,514 students and expect about 700 to accept.
We did the UF Honors Program tour in February and were truly disappointed with the benefits given the demands for acceptance. Yes, high GPA, rigorous coursework and 99.5 percentile test scores are important, but the staggering amount of focus placed on the writing essay was just bizarre. And to have a group of students in the program evaluate those essays was an additional surprise. I got the feeling that the UF Honors program was more of a creative writing and group think club than it was a program to foster academic excellence. If you are in the program, you must retain a high GPA in your classes and their is no allowances made for a students majoring in Recreation vs those studying Chemical Engineering. I’m not sure if this program is delivering as intended, but it is certainly not making my STEM focused son excited about staying in state. It could be so much better, but alas…
Those studying Chemical Engineering should not bother with honors. Seriously, honors will serve only to distract and decelerate an engineering student’s efforts. Employers looking to hire engineers DO NOT CARE about honors.
I agree, however, access to the classes you want, when you want them, is a huge advantage. Plus many of them will be much smaller in size. Beyond those perks, however, I think it’s absurd for the college to demand the same GPA for a student in a challenging STEM curriculum vs. a student majoring in PhysEd, Recreation, Art History, etc. JMHO, of course.
@Anisqoyo I don’t think a 3.5 would be that hard for anyone that makes it into the UF honor’s program. Especially as a freshman. There is a reason for the GPA requirement, they want to ensure you’re on track to graduate with honors in your major.
For the University Honors Program (which freshman move into in their 2nd year)
Now, the GPA required to graduate with honors, does vary by college.
For the School of accounting it’s 3.2/3.6/3.8 (Cum Laude/Magna Cum Laude/Summa Cum Laude)
For the College of Engineering it’s 3.3/3.5/3.8
For the College of Education it’s 3.75 for Cum and Cum Laude, with Summa not being offered.
https://catalog.ufl.edu/UGRD/academic-advising/academic-honors/#graduatingwithhonorstext
So, you’re college does impact the GPA required to graduate with honors. You have to graduate with honors (in your major) to receive a “Honors Program” notation on your official UF transcript and for the “honor” medallion to wear at commencement.
Then again, a lot of kids never apply or drop out of the University Honors Program, as the notation and medallion (and other perks) doesn’t really interest them.
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