<p>SFCC</a> adopting new name | Gainesville.com | The Gainesville Sun | Gainesville, FL</p>
<p>Now the admin. can focus on reducing class-sizes.</p>
<p>This doesn't really stop people from transferring into UF though..</p>
<p>there goes my chance...lol...and i just did orientation online for santa fe. me cago en la mierda (sorry if you dont speak spanish, i had to get that out of my system). this is ridiculous. im still gonna transfer into UF, it just wont work for the many who get in with sub 3.0 gpa's like i saw this spring. o well, i guess if you work hard enough, youll get in regardless of what obstacles they put in your way.</p>
<p>Make no mistake UF is reducing the incoming classes substantially in the years to come. I believe 1,000 students will be cut from next years FTIC applicants (thus only 4,500 seats). Also transfer students were already reduced by over 20% for the last class. Hopefully next year will be reduced by another 20% and so on.</p>
<p>Santa Fe College is smart to join with Broward College, Miami Dade College, Daytona Beach College, and St. Petersburg College in joining the new Florida College System. The SFCC graduates that were given special privilege will have to compete with the best & brightest transfers to get into UF and FSU.</p>
<p>Sorry SSobick... since you love to be the bearer of bad news, I must burst your bubble. Please read <a href="http://flsenate.gov/publications/2008/senate/reports/summaries/pdf/HighEd.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://flsenate.gov/publications/2008/senate/reports/summaries/pdf/HighEd.pdf</a></p>
<p>Here you will see that these "new" colleges must follow the articulation agreement that was set forth in the 70's. </p>
<p>It is a shame that you feel that community college students do not deserve to go to "your" sacred University of Florida. My son has several friends who did not get into UF and want to try and transfer after they get their AA. Some of them have siblings who attend UF and, for economic reasons, want to live with them in Gainesville. He has one friend who had a 1420 on the SAT and a very high GPA but did not get in (we think because of weaker ECs) and he only wants to be in Gainesville. Interestingly, we know 2 girls who are attending UF but did not get into Florida State (they had awesome ECs, but apparently FSU only cares about SATs and GPAs).</p>
<p>My husband attended Miami Dade Community College because he had a single mom who could not afford to send him away.(this was before florida prepaid and bright futures). He transferred to FSU with his AA and studied International business. Today, he runs a multi-national, multi-million dollar company; he started the business 20+ years ago. He has been written up in FSU's school of business paper! </p>
<p>How shallow of you to think that only sub par students attend community colleges! Shame on you!!!</p>
<p>What was happening when it was called SFCC? Was it an easy school and people were transferring in after their AA or something? Sorry, I'm just curious.</p>
<p>Shame on YOU, Helpful Mom, for commenting without understanding the situation or SSobick's view.</p>
<p>SFCC had been getting "special" privileges for a long, long time. What this means is that almost everybody with an AA from there would get in to UF as a transfer, qualified or **not<a href="extreme%20emphasis%20on%20NOT">/B</a>. This was not the case with any other Florida community college. If you think that anybody is alleging that no community college transfers deserve to get in, you couldn't be more wrong. Please check yourself in the future.</p>
<p>(none of this post is based on info that can't be gathered from this thread alone. Please re-read SSobick's 2nd post in this topic, especially the end of it)</p>
<p>ABCB7099, have you read SSobick's posts in the past on this issue? They are all very negative and he seems to believe that there are no "qualified" community college students, from Santa Fe or any other school! If you check on UF's website they have minimum standards of letting in transfers; yes, they are low standards but so are their minimum SAT's, etc. for freshman admits. They must put these low requirements to protect themselves because they will allow some students in who are not quite up to UF par (athletes, minorities, etc.) For many years, they have only been admitting transfer students with very high GPA's from Santa Fe. My friends daughter did not get in with a 3.8, 5 or 6 years ago because her major was a limited access one. Because of Florida's articulation agreement they MUST take community college students and state universities ALWAYS take more transfers from their own neighborhood. (recently on FSU's website there was a note that ONLY TCC student's applications were being looked at for transfer admission. </p>
<p>According to SSobick, UF doesn't want these students. Interestingly, UF sends guidance counselors and school reps over to Santa Fe on a regular basis to recruit; there is even a calendar on their website during the school year telling students what UF schools will be there.</p>
<p>I am merely trying to encourage students to attend community colleges (like my husband did). SSobick only wants to kick them in the stomach by posting the first thing he read about the name change. He is the one who did not check himself, not me!!!</p>
<p>I'll let him speak for himself from now on, I'll just say that you couldn't be more wrong.</p>
<p>What SSobick and ABCB7099 really means is , SFCC has been given special privileges that other colleges or other community colleges didn't have.<br>
For example, if you go to Santa Fe CC with an average GPA, you're more likely to get accepted than someone who has probably higher GPA and more qualified from Florida Community College at Jacksonville or maybe even University of West FL or something like that. </p>
<p>By making Santa Fe CC become a regular college, the Santa Fe students will not have the special privileges anymore but it doesn't mean that they won't get in UF. What it means is, they would have to compete with more people who WANT to go to UF but do not attend Santa Fe CC that might be more qualified.</p>
<p>ill be honest, and this is completely unbiased even though i am going to be attending santa fe starting fall. i believe TCC should get SOME preference to FSU, santa fe should get SOME preference to UF, miami dade should get SOME preference to FIU and UM, and so on. this is only logical. stop trying to make everything so goddamn equal. im not trying to put down other schools but it is not insane to think that a student from a local school is going to have an easier time getting into that communities "big school".</p>
<p>i understand the frustration with students being admitted to UF with very sub-par applications from SFC and i think this should be eliminated. but it is not a 100% level playing field, stop trying to make it one, and stop picking on UF. i could be wrong, because this is after all, the UF section, but tcc does the same thing, miami dade does the same thign and so on. and im sure other states do the same exact thing.</p>
<p>Yes, you are correct. The original intent of the community college was to educate the community. Typically, students who attended community college did so because they had to live at home for economic reasons, they were older students or were just not ready to go to a state school. Things have changed to some degree and community colleges are getting many students from out of their immediate area due to the current state of the SUS.</p>
<p>All of the state schools pull from their immediate feeder school. ie, UCF from Valencia, FSU from TCC, FIU from Miami Dade, FGCU from Edison, UF from Santa Fe, etc. etc. etc. It has always been done like this with these state schools taking the bulk of their students from their neighborhood school. I believe there is some stipulation in the articulation agreement that allows for a certain percentage per school. This is why you always see the tables set up on CC campuses with advisors from "their" state school. I was at Santa Fe in Feb. and they were having a UF day with several of the UF schools set up on their patio. </p>
<p>The community colleges have agreements with these schools that they will not compete with them. That is why Santa Fe is only offering a few bachelor degree majors. (ones that are not offered at UF). I have read many articles recently where the president has said that they would never compete with their "partner" school, UF. </p>
<p>No one is saying that UF should take Santa Fe students who have a 2.5 GPA (although they list that as a minimum for many of their majors). They have been turning away students hovering at 4.0 for quite a while now (depending on their major). Limited access majors are always difficult for transfers. When I was in college, anyone could get into UF! They were thrilled to get students from the community colleges. Any decent student went out of state.</p>
<p>Helpful Mom, here is the bottom line. Like what was already stated earlier in this thread, UF is going to drastically cut back on transfer students. Period. They are cutting back 1,000 students now and will continue to drastically cut back transfer students more and more every year until it is practically impossible to get in from another school. That's the reality. UF admissions administrators are already informing parents and highschools to let them know that if you want your kid to get into UF, they must do so right out of highschool otherwise they aren't going to be ale to get in.</p>
<p>Those are the facts. If parents have a problem with the way the SUS is shaping up with their new policies then they should be complaining to the state legislatures. It is not the fault of the universities that their budgets are being slashed.</p>
<p>^^^you have a very good point about the budgets. and im sad to say that the budget cuts are one of the worst things thats happened to our state university system in years. i understand cutting back transfers, but only to the point wherre those who previously did not really qualify no longer have a chance. quallified students should still have a good chance. i dont understand why CC transfers are so frowned upon, i would be willing to say that some CC transfers do better in college than those who started off at a big university as a freshman. but its all money, so we know where that goes. also, where are students going to end up??? imagine is FSU and UCF start doing the same thing...it will be a disaster.</p>
<p>FSU and UCF are doing the same thing. FSU took 1000+ students less than last year and capped their enrollment. They are only looking at Florida community college AA transfers for the next school year! They actually rescinded many student's acceptances for this Fall and are still reviewing them. UCF has a very grim letter on their website that was posted yesterday. They also took less fall admits than last year.</p>
<p>Their not just cutting back transfer students. They are cutting back the number of admits from all groups of applicants. In the spring, the reason they only cut the number of transfer students was because they had already admitted their fall freshmen class. But from now on they are all going to get hit, even graduate admissions. They aren't cutting back the number of transfers for Spring 2009 either since they cut enough from fall. I spoke to UF admissions about this several times. </p>
<p>Look, this isn't about UF wanting to cut back the number of transfer students because they look down on them. It's about UF wanting a smaller student to faculty ratio and to cut costs. It's going to affect all applicant groups and rightly so.</p>
<p>"ill be honest, and this is completely unbiased even though i am going to be attending santa fe starting fall. i believe TCC should get SOME preference to FSU, santa fe should get SOME preference to UF, miami dade should get SOME preference to FIU and UM, and so on. this is only logical. stop trying to make everything so goddamn equal. im not trying to put down other schools but it is not insane to think that a student from a local school is going to have an easier time getting into that communities "big school"."</p>
<p>I couldn't disagree more. This is the type of thinking that has created a cronyism relationship between UF and Santa Fe. This disgusting disparity must be stopped and the best & brightest CC-Transfers must be admitted in a fair and equitable manner. The special relationship is good for Town and Gown relations, however it's disgustingly unfair to the other Community College transfers who can not afford to leave home to attend school in Alachua County.</p>
<p>To Helpful Mom, stop being hype sensitive and start thinking about the budgetary constraints of the State Universities in Florida. Basically UF is completely overbloated with students, and a tipping point has been reached where sacrifices need to be made. I would rather less Community College transfers be admitted that reduce the size of the "First time in college (FTIC)" admits. YES, I do believe the FTIC admits are more important and they deserve the limited slots over the transfers.</p>
<p>SSobick, 50% of Santa Fe students come from outside of Alachua county while the other 50% are local. The stats are posted on their website. Students come from all over the state, country and internationally. Their zoology program is quite prestigious worldwide which brings many Europeans. </p>
<p>Thank you for admitting that you are more concerned with FTIC admits than CC transfers. I stand corrected by my original post! My point being that someone like my husband wouldn't stand a chance in your perfect world!</p>
<p>Why are you not arguing this point based on all of the state universities who practice this "town" relationship. Most of these schools WANT transfers from their local communities and advertise this on their websites. UCF automatically takes AA transfers from the 3 local CC's with a 2.5 gpa, I believe.</p>
<p>Look at the transfer stats on UF website and you will see that CC students are taken from all over the state with, naturally, a larger percentage coming from Santa Fe. It is their feeder school. The admissions office told me that they like students from Santa Fe because they know that their standards are high and have a "working" relationship with them. Many current and retired professors also teach at Santa Fe. My son and his friend (UF and Santa Fe) took the same statistics class. Same professor and same textbook. Both studied their butts off and both made A's.</p>
<p>And yes, admit rates for FTIC and graduate students are all going to be affected by the budget in every school, not only UF.</p>
<p>I am all about setting priorities in these troubling financial times for the State University System. I will not apologize for advocating on behalf of the FTIC over the transfer students (their simply isn't enough slots or state funding to satisfy both missions). I do find the Santa Fe's entitlement to be perturbing, and I am overjoyed that they are now increasing their mission to offering Bachelor degrees (this should satisfy the Alachua County residents).</p>
<p>In time the Legislature is planning on turning all Community Colleges into 4-year state colleges. Their is no stopping this transition now...</p>
<p>Do they know how many FTIC are enrolling this year? Around 10k were accepted and 6.7k were expected (based on previous stats I suppose) to enroll. I've been curious for the last few months about what would happen if in this very strange year 8k of the 10k decided to enroll?</p>