Re-applying to UF

Hello everybody,

I hope to be in the good forum to post this thread, sorry if I am not. I am new to this website and I would like to have some advices/help from you guys about what I am going to tell you. I am an 18 year old male, US and Moroccan citizen. I speak french, I have a good level of speaking in english and spanish. I grew up in Morocco and I studied all my life in the french school from where I graduated last June. I am currently doing a gap year and I applied to UF for pre-med, the result came back yesterday and I was rejected. Even though I selected pre-med I was hoping to take credits of english classes and then start my pre-med program. Since I am rejected, I heard about the “English Language Institute” of the University of Florida and I am wondering if I should get in to take intensive classes of english and then resend my application to UF with hopefully better SAT scores, more EC activities etc… Last summer I was spending my holidays in Florida and I took a day to visit UF and it’s campus, since then, I was hoping so bad to get accepted because I really liked the university. Even though I don’t think that was the right thing to do, I applied without even speaking fluently english. I wrote my essay, sent my SAT scores which I took 3 times with 1600 for super score. My father who speaks english helped me during the process but I guess that was not enough.

So basically what I am hoping for is to take a year of intensive english classes at the ELI in Gainesville, retake my SAT to improve it far more and in general to have a better application file. I am aware that UF is one of the best colleges, that it is selective etc… I would like to know what is your opinion about my plan, do you know this english institute and finally if UF would accept my application after one year ?

I fee a little bit lost, confused and sad at the moment so your help would be very appreciated.

Thank you very much and I hope that you have understood me.

UF and colleges in general allow you to reapply after a year, i.e., if you applied for entry into Fall 2016 semester and were rejected, you can reapply for Fall 2017 or after.

You have a misconception of pre-med. Pre-med is not a major. It is an advisory program at a college that provides assitance and advice to college students who hope to apply for medical school to begin after college. Any freshman who enters UF can join the pre-med advisory program and marking pre-med on your application for admission has absolutely no effect on whether you will be admitted or rejected to whatever actual college major you pick. As to getting into medical school after college, you can actually major in virtually anything in college but you need to meet certain college science, math, and writing course prerequisites to be able to apply to medical school, and many do major in a science.

I do not know enough about the ELI to provide any advice on that. I am assuming that you applied as a US citizen rather than as an international. As to whether significant improvement in English and a higher test score will later help in being admitted to UF, the answer is only a maybe. Understand that UF is a public university which admits mostly in-state residents and those from elswhere generally need better stats than Florida residents to have a chance of being admitted, and, particularly for non-residents, even very high stats provide no guarantee of admission… Also, your having been rejected once by UF is actually a factor that may be considered against you if you reapply later.

What advice did the people at AMIDEAST in Morocco give you about UF? Do they have any suggestions about intensive English programs? http://amideast.org/morocco What is your TOEFL/IELTS score, and what is the breakdown for the different parts of that exam?

Usually, if the only thing wrong with a student is their English skills, the university will give a letter offering provisional admission. That means that after the student has studied at the English language program on campus for a certain period of time and/or has received a certain TOEFL score, the student will be able to start regular classes. Did the admissions office at UF specifically tell you that you need to study at ELI? If they did, and you really want to attend UF, then you should study at ELI.

However, if you didn’t get that kind of letter, then UF probably doesn’t like something else about you (your grades, your ACT/SAT scores, etc.) and studying English at the UF ELI probably will not improve your admissions chances at all. But you could ask the UF ELI program for their own experience with this.

There are a lot of colleges and universities that offer provisional admission to students who need to perfect their English before beginning to study. If you believe that you would benefit from an intensive English program, here are some places that you could start looking:
http://www.uciep.org/
http://www.englishusa.org/study-english

Well, thanks to both of you for your answers.

@drusba Just to let you know, when I was at the campus, I talked with an academic advisor from UF and she told me to apply as an international. I did it but I think that was not the right thing to do.

@happymomof1 I did not ask AMIDEAST for any advices about UF neither for intensive English programs. I prepared my first SAT exam with them but I was not very satisfied with this program for many reasons. I prepared my other 2 SATs alone and I’ve had better scores. About the TOEFL/IELTS I didn’t take them because I applied only for UF and they did not ask for it. Finally, I received a rejection letter where they are not talking at all about the ELI.
Thank you again for these two links, I checked them and they seem very useful to choose an intensive English program.

Just to resume quickly my current situation, I really think that I shouldn’t have applied at all for UF and if you are wondering why I applied only for this school, I just thought “go for it”, let’s see if they accept you because you will make one year of intensive English courses anyway.

Well, for the moment I am just thinking if I should get into the ELI or not and if not, in which state I should go to for my first year of learning because there are so many possibilities that I am a bit “lost”. I am sincerely thinking that one year of English can affect my application in the good way. Why ? Essays for application, SAT, ACT, SAT II, my application resume… All of this depends on my level of English and my determination to get accepted to a good school. Don’t you think the same ?

Even if I think I have done things backwards, I am just hoping to have a better application file after one year, to apply for many colleges as I can like UF or even better and to hope for the best !

The counselors at AMIDEAST should be able to help you choose a good college list. They should be able to tell you where students who have been educated at schools like yours have been accepted in the US in recent years. They also might be able to give you an idea as to whether or not an intensive English program is a good idea for you. It might not be. You might need a remedial writing class instead, and that is easier to find, and probably cheaper.

You also should take the TOEFL and/or the IELTS. Most places you would apply to will require this. Your results on the exam will also give you a better notion of your areas of weakness in English.

If your grades are decent, there are many colleges and universities in the US that would accept you right now, and that would assign you to an ESL or remedial writing class while you start your regular classes. That might be more cost-effective in the long run, than spending a semester or a year in a full-time intensive English program.

Do you have any family or friends in the US who can help you with a college search?

How much money do you have available to pay for your education?

I agree completely with you, when I say I want to do one year of intensive English program, I just want to speak English fluently and correctly within a year so I am completely OK with writing classes. Like I said if I didn’t take the TOEFL/IELTS it is because UF did not ask them but of course I will take them for schools which require them and like you said to have a better notion of my areas of weakness in English.

I agree also with you on the fact that taking an ESL or writing class directly in my future college might be more cost-effective but there is a problem to this. I don’t want to sound too sure of myself but I really would like to attend colleges on the same range as UF or even better but I have to be realistic, for the moment my score on the SAT and my high school grades are not so good. That is why if I apply like you said directly to universities which I am thinking about, I wouldn’t even get accepted.

Indeed, I have a few friends in the US and family but they just gave me some names of universities like Penn state, UCLA or ASU to send my application but many of them told me to start with a community college to learn English and then attend university.

For the money part, I have to say that I will not have that much for my education, I am really counting on financial aid.

My point of view on this whole thing is why should I apply to a university with greater risk of being rejected than if I can get a better application file within a year.

Anyway, thank you again for your advices, I did not know about those writing classes and that colleges can give me a provisional admission.

In your opinion, what would be the right thing to do ?

Again, I cannot speak to ELI or or other English programs, but two things you mention raise something to be aware for the future. You say you are a US citizen but were told by a counselor to apply to UF as an international. You also say that you would require need-based financial aid.

Many colleges, including public universities like UF, require that you be a US citizen or permament US resident to qualify for any need-based financial aid. For that reason, applying as an international is incorrect in your situation unless the college specifically requires you to apply as an internationan, even if you are a US citizen, when living outside the US (colleges I am aware do not have any such requirement). In fact at many colleges you can be rejected for admission as an international applicant simply because you may require need-based finanical aid.