A general comment here. It is important to note that PaCE students ARE UF Online students. The courses are the same and what you can/cannot do while a PaCE student is identical for PaCE/UF Online students. An exception is that PaCE students have the guarantee to transition to campus. As we clarify what a PaCE student has access to, these options are also available to UF Online students.
Another very important fact to keep in mind is that UF Online courses are identical to the courses that PaCE students will take. In addition, 90%+ of UF Online courses are taken by residential UF students who want to take online courses. 90%+ of UF Online courses have both UF Online students AND residential online students in the same course. For those of you who know UF undergrads who have taken an online course at UF, note that it may NOT have been a UF Online course. There are a large number of online courses at UF that are not in UF Online. UF Online course were, in general, developed specifically for UF Online and have gone through a vetting process.
My daughter was accepted to the PACE program. She has a math learning disability and was wondering if she would be eligible for any Student Services on campus such as tutoring, etc?
Hi All. Please see this information posted on the FAQ for PacE:
Q: Can PaCE students use the on-campus Rec Centers?
A: Since PaCE students in UF Online do not pay the Activity and Services fees, they do not have automatic access to the Rec Centers. However currently enrolled PaCE students can purchase a non-fee paying student membership each semester in order to use the on-campus Rec Centers. More information is available here: http://www.recsports.ufl.edu/about/membership-services/students/.
I’m sure plenty of students move to Gainesville, enroll in SFCC with plans to transfer to UF. Based on last year’s results, SFCC was the largest feeder CC to UF, with over 700 students transferring to UF.
Tuition and Fee’s at SFCC is about $105 per credit hour, or about $3105 a year (for 30 credits). UF Online tuition cost would be $3,876 (+ plus any additional optional fee’s, like REC services, that you may want to pay). About $800 a year difference.
You’ll have to decide the value of in-person teachers vs online.
One significant difference is Transfer VS Transition. Transferring from a CC will be much more competitive (based on your major) than the automatic transition.
One example is Sports Management (since another student has recently posted a thread about transferring into the degree or choosing Econ, since it’s less competitve). It’s very competitive (“Talked with an advisor for the college and she said a 3.4 GPA is competitive for the major and she only takes 10 out of 80 students that apply for the semester”}, and even if you have the right tracking courses and grades, there is a good chance of not making it into the program. On the other hand, Sports Management is a PaCE program, so as long as you meet the tracking requirements, you will be transitioned into the major.
Based on your major, “transitioning” should be something you consider when doing a CC vs PaCE comparison.
One addition to @Gator88NE excellent post. The 3.4 GPA that is noted is your College GPA. This is not a weighted high school GPA. A 3.4 GPA is usually all B+ grades, with a few higher grades, which is not “easy”. For example, if you had all B+ grades and a few B’s you would likely not make the GPA cut-off noted in the post.
@teremuniz I think this was discussed a bit earlier in this thread. You must transition to campus in a PaCE major. Once you are on campus you are a resident student and like all resident students, you have the option of switching your major (with approval from Advising). However, I would not plan on switching your major once on campus. It is difficult to switch majors after reaching 60 credits and you will also run into something called “excess hours” which could result in a significant increase in the amount of money you pay for each credit (its a FL law, not something the University has any control over).
If you are considering picking a PaCE major for the sole reason of getting to campus and then switching to a non-PaCE major, the program may not be a good choice.
@floridamom61 Congrats on your daughter being accepted to UF PaCE!
UF Online students, which PaCE students are, have free unlimited 24/7 access to live tutoring in math as well as other subjects (although live 24/7 tutoring is not available in all topic areas.) Interested students can check out the subject areas at www.smarthinking.com
@UFOnline Hi again! I just want to clarify the switching of the majors thing that was mentioned here earlier… I just received an email back from Leigh Smadbeck from the Heavener School of Business, responding to a similar question that I had regarding the switching of the majors.
This is what it said on the email. “However, I want you make sure you’re aware that you will not be allowed to change your major to Marketing once you transition to campus. By accepting admission to the PaCE program, you are accepting admission to one of the PaCE-offered majors.”
This contradicts everything we’ve been told
If I would like to double minor and one of the minors I would like to pursue is not offered on PaCE is that something that could be taken up once moving to campus?
@rorochi Thanks for your note. Each major/school makes it own decisions. As I said earlier, it is difficult to change your major once you get up there in credit hours. In some majors, in some Colleges it may just not even be possible to switch to the major you want (which is consistent with the info you were provided).
If you were a Biz major and decided once you were on campus you wanted to change, you could change (very difficult and may result in the dreaded “excess hours” rule) but not impossible. Of course, you will be greatly limited in what that major could be based on what you have taken and what your grades are. As you have found out, one of the ones you could not do is Marketing (Biz school decision).
You should not plan on transiting to campus and changing to a non-PaCE major (or really changing at all).
@Teremuniz Minors are fine for PaCE students. You will likely take some of the courses needed for the minor(s) you are interested in once on campus (some you will likely take in UF Online, depending on the minor).
Please talk to your UF Advisor to determine the correct course to take for the minor you may want. Important to note that all minors may not be possible due to UF Online not having as wide a section of courses as campus does.
Currently, there is one minor, Business Administration, that you can take all the courses in UF Online.
To be a bit clearer on the whole “Major changing issue” since there are a lot of questions regarding this issue. Identical to the situation on campus, as you obtain more and more credits towards your degree it becomes harder to change your major. The reason is that each major has very specific requirements for obtaining a given major. The reality is that the majority of undergraduates will change their major at least once during the beginning of their education. If you accept the PaCE offer you can also change your major, but while in PaCE you are limited to changing to one of the PaCE majors. The only exception to this is that you CAN change your major to a UF Online major that is NOT in PaCE (these would be Biology, Criminology and Law, Psychology and the BS in Business Administration - the BA in Business Administration is in PaCE). If you choose a UF Online major that is not in PaCE you will not be able to transition to campus. However, you will receive the 25% tuition discount (and ~40% overall discount since not paying a number of fees that residential students do) for your entire degree.
You must transition to campus in a PaCE major. What that means is that you will have at least 60 credits towards that major. Once you have 60 credits it is difficult to track correctly in different majors so if you decided to change your major at this late stage, you will be limited in what major you can choose.
UFOnline keeps making the point there is a 25% tuition discount afforded PaCE students. If a PaCE student is availing themselves of the Florida Prepaid program how exactly do they realize any savings?
Its my understanding fees are separate from tuition that’s how you arrive at a ~40% overall discount. If the price of tuition credit hours is reduced 25% for PaCE students but they are enrolled in Florida Pre-paid, I don’t think you realize a 25% savings. Perhaps the Florida Pre-paid program does but its not money a student could apply elsewhere to defray expenses. The 15% saving on fees is because you are ineligible for the services those fees subsidize.
@Gatordad2015 That’s a good question. Contact the University Bursar at (352) 392-9545 or by email at askbursar@admin.ufl.edu. Ask if Florida Pre-Paid will refund you the difference between the plan and the PaCE tuition cost.
It may be similar to wining a scholarship that pays 25% of your tuition. Florida Pre-Paid would refund the difference.