My daughter applied to UCF out of high school last year, but was denied admission due to poor SAT scores. She’s attending a community college and doing well, and will have 30 hours by Fall 2021. She has applied again as a transfer student for the Fall. She had a 4.4 final GPA from HS and a 3.2 so far in college work.
I’m nervous about her chances, in part due to the fact that we are out of state (with Florida Prepaid plan - we used to live there). I was wondering what others in this situation had experienced during the transfer application process. I know there’s nothing to do but wait - we’ve provided all the required material - but thought I’d see what others had to say in the meantime.
My daughter is waiting to hear back on her transfer application as well. We are out of state and she has 50 credits(3 semesters)with a 3.7 College GPA. Good luck to you!
No transfer experience, but I would wait until mid-week and call Undergraduate Admissions. I have found them to be very helpful.
On the HS GPS, be advised that UCF recalculates weighted GPA’s and only counts core courses required for HS graduation by the state of Florida. So her HS GPA will probably drop a little.
However, given the fact that she is establishing a record of success at the college level, I think that will outweigh the low SAT/ACT scores.
I would also ask about Summer 2021 admission. All summer admission means is that you have to take ONE online course during the summer. She will have to complete 9 hours during summer terms anyway prior to graduation, so it’s really just an early start. If she gets the Summer admission, she is IN for the Fall.
Thanks for the information! We’re planning to give them a week or so after the break to process her fall college transcript. Then she will call and follow up with admissions. If nothing else she can try and get a better idea of likely timeframe.
I know she had good experiences last year when following up with the admissions office.
She’s really fallen in love with the visual arts school at UCF. It’s different from what we found at the other Florida public universities. I’m pulling for her to make it this time.
Tell her to be sure and ask about Summer admission.
My daughter’s SAT was also low. She applied for Fall 2020, but only got offered Summer. That turned out to really be a great deal, because she took two easy classes online, got two A’s and was off to a running start.
I don’t know about the numbers, but I do know they stopped even giving the tests because of Covid. So some kids who took the tests early got one, but a lot of kids weren’t able to take it at all.
Because of those factors, a number of colleges went to “test-optional” applications – but UCF isn’t one of them as far as I know.
That said, I think UCF has always been a school that looks at the whole student, not just test scores and grades.
For example, my daughter was a high-level competitive figure skater throughout middle and high school and also had an 8 week, 200+ hour laboratory internship with a PhD helping in a research project funded by the National Institute of Health. I am sure those two things helped her application a lot.
Lol, neither. It’s a self-applied random nickname from my own long-ago college life. It makes a good username these days because it’s almost never taken. The original “Chopper” who I took inspiration from was the kid brother of a friend in elementary school, and I haven’t the vaguest idea why he was called that!
To update, we are still in the same situation, with the status showing “Your application and fee have been received and is being processed.”
She called Admissions early last week to make sure there was nothing they were waiting on, and was told that there was not. The person she spoke to was helpful, but just advised to keep waiting.
Per the advice from Jim to ask about Summer admission, she did and was told that was not an applicable path for a transfer applicant. I don’t know their exact words - that’s a paraphrase of my daughter’s description to me.
Her AP scores which we sent in mid-December with this application have shown up on the list of test scores, but the information about transcripts still shows old status updates related to her old application from last year. Additionally, thought the AP scores are present on the list of test scores, the box above about AP scores says they’re still outstanding.
We’ve received confirmation that her final high school transcript and her college transcript were delivered, so just waiting to see an indication that they’ve been received and processed.
So the short version is, we’re in a holding pattern. This is just such a nerve-wracking process, especially after being declined on the first attempt.
You are OOS, but you purchased Florida Prepaid when you lived here.
I assume in that situation that you will be charged OOS tuition, but that Florida Prepaid will take care of part of that at the Florida Resident rates.
The Florida resident tuition and fees at UCF are currently $212.48, but a little more than half of that is fees. Florida Prepaid pays the tuition, but does not cover all of the fees. In fact, including fees waived, Florida prepaid only covers about $140 per hour and we are still paying $70 per hour. (None of that is anything but course costs, BTW – no books, dorm, food, etc.)
The OOS total for tuition and fees is $748.89, so your net would be about $600 per credit hour.
Also know that if your daughter attends college OOS, Florida Prepaid will still cover up to 120 hours – but at the Florida Resident rate of roughly $105 for tuition alone. Or, I think they will refund what you paid in if you don’t use Florida Prepaid.
Per research and experience when she applied as a freshman last year, based on the purchase of the plan when she was a resident, she qualifies as a resident for tuition purposes. I had to provide some paperwork to that effect, and that’s what her status screen indicates.