Student Looking for Parent Insight About UF

Parents Forum
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<p>I plan to apply to UF as my first choice, and as I was looking over the UF Comon Data Set (<a href="http://www.ir.ufl.edu/data/cds2005-06.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ir.ufl.edu/data/cds2005-06.pdf&lt;/a&gt;), I noticed a quote that said "Note: Florida public high school students graduating in the top 5% and completing the college preparatory curriculum are guaranteed admission to UF."</p>

<p>Something like that is major news; I'd love to be guarateed admission. Does anyone know if they mean top 5% in a cummulative list of everyone who applied in the entire state, or if it goes by each individual graduating class?</p>

<p>Is there anyone here who knows one way or another? Anyone whose child was or knows someone that was top 5% of their graduating class and was rejected by UF?</p>

<p>Thanks for any attention to this matter.</p>

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<p>I responded to your identical post in the College Search and Selection area. Then I went to the UF website to see if I could find any evidence of the 5% rule. Sure enough, I found a mention of it here:
<a href="http://news.ufl.edu/2002/02/13/allianceexpands/?email=1%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://news.ufl.edu/2002/02/13/allianceexpands/?email=1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Apparently it has been in effect since 2002. Interesting that it only applies to public high schools. I must be really out of touch because I've never heard about it, but my kids went to a parochial school.</p>

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<p>I didn't know that either, but I do know that UF admissions is very objective. They give number ratings to SAT scores, GPAs, class rank, and even essays, add them all up and admit above a certain threshold.</p>

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<p>I think that Jeb Bush started this program because he thought there was brain drain happenning in Florida. The bright kids were going out of state and this is considered an incentive to stay instate.</p>

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<p>Thanks so much for the article; it answered my question perfectly!</p>

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<p>California has had a similar program (called ELC - Eligibility in the local context) for years where the top 4% of students in each California public high school are guaranteed admission to a UC. The caveat is that they can't pick the UC so it won't guarantee admission to some of the more competetive UCs like UCLA/UCB/UCSD but they will definitely be accepted to a UC (for example, UCSB, UCR, etc. accepted all ELC applicants). The purpose of the program is to allow students who might be going to a public HS that doesn't have all the AP classes or is in a disadvantaged area to still attend the top tier of public universities.</p>

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<p>Why just public schools and not private?????</p>

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<p>I need to make a correction to my previous post - this ELC in California is open to more than just public high schools. Here's a link that explains eligibility:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.ucop.edu/sas/elc/highschoolinfo.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ucop.edu/sas/elc/highschoolinfo.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Florida has something similar to California's program -- it's called the Talented Twenty and it guarantees admission to one of Florida's 11 public universities, but not to the campus of their choice. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.firn.edu/doe/osfa/ttfactsh.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.firn.edu/doe/osfa/ttfactsh.htm&lt;/a> </p>

<p>But it's different from what the OP is talking about. Under that program, the top 5% are guaranteed admission to UF.</p>

<p>I guess the reason iboth of these programs apply only to public high school students is because they are part of Jeb Bush's "One Florida Initiative". It's supposed to make the public schools better because it provides an incentive for the students to excel.</p>