<p>I recently was admitted into the University of Florida's new Innovation Academy which requires spring and summer entry. While I was excited over this, I realized some disadvantages over choosing the Innovation academy. I requested a term change to switch me into Summer B instead for the 2012 school year, the email I got back from one of the admissions officers confused me, "As an IA student requesting a term change, you may receive your decision soon as requesting a term change is in effect declining your offer of admission to the Innovation Academy which was the basis of your admission since we werent able to offer you admission as a freshman." Does this mean that if my term change request is denied that my admission into the University of Florida will be revoked as well? I don't want to take chances over something trivial as this, I would rather take the 2013 spring term instead. Thanks for the replies!</p>
<p>When the lady came to my school to give us the presentation she said you were not able to switch terms and the only time you can go is spring summer</p>
<p>If you checked your willingness for Innovation Academy you were only eligible for that program. It constitutes the basis under which you were admitted meaning you can only attend during Spring and Summer. You can take on-line classes and do other thingsin the Fall, just not attend regular classes during the Fall Semester. You cannot term change from Innovation Academy into another term. Anorher words if you indicate you will not attend Innovation Academy and abide by the limits of the program they will withdraw your admission. Make sure of what you want before youi commit to this course of action.</p>
<p>Hey Im a current UF student. Does program get carried up all the way till they graduate cause I feel like once you get to your jr/sr classes they arnt often offered that much during the summer.</p>
<p>I applied for Summer B as I could retain my knowledge from highschool, I dont want to wait 6 months before I start school again as that would surely affect my academic performance, I understand that bright futures will be able to reimburse for summer only for IA students but the housing situation would be a little weird, having to find an apartment to conform to spring and summer would be too much as it would restrict me financially. If they will let me try to appeal this without putting my admission at stake I would gladly go forth but I dont want my appeal to be denied and then I would not be able to go to UF…</p>
<p>Yes. Innovation academy covers all 4 years during which you only attend in Spring and Summer.</p>
<p>Yes, you are restricted only to spring and summer terms. That is why not all of the majors are not available at this time… The thing is that when I applied i put a different major down… now i want to change it to something else and IA doesn’t have that. Another disadvantage would be that if I needed to take extra classes to catch up I wouldn’t be able to since Summer C overlaps with summer B… >_<</p>
<p>If you needed to take classes to catch up then you could study abroad in the fall or take courses at another school then - just be sure not to use your bright futures money then or you won’t have it to cover summer.</p>
<p>If I decide to change majors after 2 yrs. in IA, to a major not offered in IA, will I be able to switch to that major and go to the fall semester? Also, if I graduate from IA will my Diploma say University of Florida Innovation Academy?</p>
<p>The simple answer is no. You cannot change from IA to Fall/Spring student regardless of whether your major changes. There are about 22 majors being offered as part of IA. If none of those are what you are looking for you need to coinsider other options.</p>
<p>I have heard that there will be Fine Arts will soon be a part of IA. Does anyone know anything about this?</p>
<p>What is the point of the Innovation Academy? </p>
<p>Sounds like there are more disadvantages then advantages (if any)! That sucks for anyone going through that since how can you enjoy GATOR FOOTBALL!?</p>
<p>@JKidrauhl</p>
<p>Innovation Academy is basically going to UF during the spring and summer rather than fall and spring, each year.</p>
<p>It’s an amazing program and has a lot more advantages than you’d expect. IA students are still UF students and they CAN enjoy Gator Football and on-campus activities during the fall :)</p>
<p>You should research it some more, it’s an absolutely amazing undergraduate program.</p>
<p>Ok that makes more sense!</p>
<p>What’s so special about it? Is there something in the end?</p>
<p>I’m going to be a sophomore this coming fall so I’m probably not eligible for it anymore. Sounds interesting though. So, if you wanted to watch a football game, would you have to drive up from wherever you are to go see it? </p>
<p>I LOVE going to UF in the fall, so I defiantly couldn’t do this program lol</p>
<p>Lol, IA students can basically, in the fall, get a job, do internships, study abroad, and etc. If they want, they can choose to hang out in Gainseville and enjoy what the town has and/or enjoy the UF on-campus activities. </p>
<p>Don’t take my word for it because I’m not completely sure, but I THINK there can be housing for terms that involve no classes (such as traditional students getting housing in summer or IA getting housing in fall). If anything, there’s always off-campus housing in Gainesville until the next year starts, in which there’s on-campus housing the student can enjoy again :)</p>
<p>What’s unique about Innovation Academy is it’s focus on entrepreneurship, leadership, and well, innovation 
While IA students still have to take the same classes and requirements as every other UF student in their specified major, there’s a theme that all of IA focuses on. There’ll be seminars, colloquia’s, guest lectures, and etc. All to explore the ideas of entrepreneurship, leadership, and innovation :)</p>
<p>Innovation Academy’s inaugural class is the Spring of 2013 class (the one that’s upcoming). It’s an exciting program and extremely unique.</p>
<p>“the mouse that has one hole is easily taken”</p>
<p>Innovation Academy provides less options - UF can put as much spin on it as they like- an inferior admissions tier!</p>
<p>I don’t think it is going to be inferior - just different</p>
<p>There is NOTHING advantageous about the Innovation Academy admission
tier. NOTHING. It is, in fact, a DISADVANTAGEOUS status as a UF undergraduate.</p>
<p>IA’s “advantage” of designating Fall semester for internships and study abroad is not real. This is, actually, a consequence of the bottom line of the program: you get everything the other UF students get except that under no circumstances can you enroll in on-campus courses during the Fall. Regular UF students already can, if they wanted, choose to take the Fall semester off (un-enrolled and not charged tuition that fall) if they enroll in Summer before and Spring afterwards. The policy for staying at UF is that if you are un-enrolled for two consecutive semesters of the SPRING / SUMMER / FALL sequence then you must reapply to the university. Furthermore, studying abroad for credit counts as being enrolled and you can even do internships for credit. Many students, in fact, take a 12 credit (full time) internship (or combined internship credit with online credits) completely away from Gainesville for a whole semester to have those credits count for their degree, stay on track and enrolled, and also be absent from Gainesville. Better yet, unlike the restriction IA has on Fall semester, there is nothing preventing a traditional UF student from taking advantage of the summer semester to retake courses they failed, take extra courses to get ahead, or catch up on classes after switching majors. </p>
<p>IA is very clearly an attempt by UF to enroll more students in <em>pre-existing</em> course sections during the Spring and Summer semesters. Why? Because it means more tuition money from more students. Furthermore, the students admitted to IA are more likely to have less competitive GPA / SAT admission statistics and therefore less likely to have Bright Futures, which means that they will pay a greater fraction of the tuition charged out of pocket. This makes a difference because the State pays their portion of tuition covered by BF at a rate lower than what UF charges. Our state university budgets and tuition subsidy cuts will only get worse and the IA students will </p>
<p>HOW does this work? Very easily. Spring and Summer have the lowest census of enrolled students of the FALL / SPRING / SUMMER terms. The IA students simply fill in the gap that is left by seniors who graduate in 3.5 rather than 4 years (an increasingly common trend) and the huge portion of students who are not in Gainesville during the Summer. At this time, there is not (nor will be) an effort to increase undergraduate resources (advising, course offerings, etc) in response to the IA program. Instead, IA will simply keep the professors and advisors we ALREADY HAVE more busy. For example, the (many) courses over the summer that only fill up to 60-80% capacity will now be closer to filled. There is no net change in university expenditure for these students, just a more efficiently run university. Obviously the demand for the program will exist because UF rejects 65% of those who apply for freshman admission. High school seniors with lifelong dreams of being a Gator but with less than competitive admission stats now have consolation.</p>
<p>Well, how is this NECESSARILY disadvantageous for the <em>student</em>? Most obvious is the extended to delay to starting college. But more importantly, keeping IA students out of the ON-CAMPUS courses offered in the fall means less degree options. This is obvious… just compare the list of IA majors to the complete list of majors offered at UF. Most of the engineering options are not available and architecture is completely off the table. Of course, many students believe the same courses offered in Fall are also offered in Spring, which is WRONG. Especially with upper level 3000 and 4000 major-specific and elective courses, some are taught in the Fall only. Certain Part 1 / Part 2 sequences are designed “in cycle” where Part 1 is taught in the Fall and Part 2 is taught in the Spring. Furthermore, the course schedule offered over summer is remarkably limited and typically only offers foundational 2000-3000 level courses with very scarce 4000 level options outside of popular 4000 level courses. All of these factors contribute to the limited list of majors available to IA students. Even if the major you want is on the IA list, as a consequence of these factors it will be <em>much</em> more difficult to switch majors after 2-3 semesters if you find that major no longer interests you. </p>
<p>Even if, as a UF IA student, you graduate on time with the degree you want, I guarantee that at some point you will have been inconvenienced with the fall semester restriction. Perhaps an elective course you really wanted to take, like Neurochemistry of the Brain, was only offered in Fall and you had to take a boring plant biology course in the Spring to meet your Bio elective requirements. Maybe you couldnt take a course only offered in the SPRING because you had to take its pre-requisite during that semester instead. Your semester by semester schedule for finishing your course load on time would also have to be better planned than the traditional UF student so you . </p>
<p>The academic year at UF follows a certain rhythm and cycle. Socially and culturally, your college experience will likely feel out of the loop by being in class during the summer and at an internship in the Fall. The traditional UF student does the reverse. A good analogy would be if you worked the night shift at Super Wal-Mart. If you worked at night and slept during the day, it is more inconvenient to schedule trips to the bank, the post office, or your friends houses because they are active during the day while you are sleeping.</p>
<p>Ultimately IA provides recent high school graduates an alternative route to get a UF degree stamped on the same diploma paper as everyone elses. Just do not be deluded into thinking you will get the same experience and equivalent options. I really wish UF would take more initiative to explicitly explain the inherent disadvantages of the program and make sure incoming IA students understand them. I think by Innovation Academy they expect these students to have the initiative to innovate a way of turning a restriction into a benefit. But how do you expect that of an 18 year old fresh high school graduate who is only thinking about all the fun they are going to have freshman year? Of course, the UF experience is a tradition and UF themselves would be the last people to recognize a blemish on it. I know UF is forcing the on-campus IA students to all live together in the same dorm so there might be an enhanced sense of camaraderie among the group. And hopefully the advisors will be more aggressive in securing IA students with off campus career options during the fall. But while this program may appeal to you, dont be fooled into thinking it is equivalent to the traditional experience.</p>
<p>Innovation Academy is not inferior. It’s simply a different, unique undergrad experience. IA students still have to meet and take the same requirements as every other UF student for their degrees. Not only that but UF has already stated that picking IA does not make it easier to get into UF, which makes the argument of less competetive students having an easy ticket into the school false.</p>
<p>IA has so little majors right now because, from my assumptions and analytical guess, they have been designed to work around and with the IA schedule. Not only that, but from what I hypothesize, more majors will be added as they are designed around the IA schedule.</p>
<p>@mystifire</p>
<p>If traditional UF students can do what you said with internships/study abroad in the Fall, why can’t IA students do that too? It’s still possible. Plus, pretty much the ONLY thing IA students can’t do, from my understanding, is take classes PHYSICALLY in the fall. They can still do internships, study abroad, online classes, on-campus activities, and etc. It’s just physically taking classes in the fall.</p>
<p>You also state how, in short, IA is meant to simply streamline resources throughout the year while traditional students in the summer, for the most part, aren’t at the campus. That’s the point IA is meant to allow more students to get the UF education while effectively and wisely streamlining the resources.</p>
<p>Also check this out: </p>
<p>Traditional average costs: <a href=“http://www.sfa.ufl.edu/basics/cost-of-attendance/[/url]”>http://www.sfa.ufl.edu/basics/cost-of-attendance/</a>
Innovation average costs: <a href=“http://www.sfa.ufl.edu/innovation-academy/ia-cost/[/url]”>http://www.sfa.ufl.edu/innovation-academy/ia-cost/</a></p>
<p>It’s actually a bit cheaper to go to do IA. Tuition may be a bit more expensive, perhaps (from my assumptions), from the fact that there’s seminars, guest lectures, and etc.</p>
<p>You also mention how it’s an inconvenience for IA student’s in taking classes in the summer and internships in the fall, but…How is it an inconvenience for them and puts them “out of the loop” when they CHOSE and WANTED to have a completely unique and special undergraduate experience? IA students KNOW what Innovation Academy is and what it’s all about, or else they wouldn’t have picked it. Referring to your analogy, what if that person at Wal-Mart CHOSE to work the night shift and sleep through the day simply because they preferred it or didn’t mind it? It may be an inconvenience in your eyes, but you are you. You’re not them. And they, on the other hand, don’t see it as an inconvenience. Actually, perhaps it may be a convenience because they prefer to stay up all night than day. :)</p>
<p>No matter how you may look at it, UF IA students are still UF students. They still get the same education. They still have the same opportunities. They still can do all of the on-campus activities throughout the year. And in fact, they have the advantages of exploring the themes of innovation, education, and entrepeneruship, that traditional UF students don’t. </p>
<p>In the long run, take this example: You have a UF IA industrial engineer and a traditional UF industrial engineer. Neither are inferior to one another nor superior, because both of them had the same requirements to meet and same materials to have to study. This is a very general example disrgarding if any of them done any internships or anything. This example also disragards the benefits the UF IA industrial engineer may get from exploring the themes of entrepeneurship, leadership, and innovation throughout his or her time as a UF student. My point in this example is, in the eyes of an employer, both of these students are equally convenient for the company, equally beneficial, and equally the same. Of course, this is my assumption (it doesn’t make sense for the employer to think less of one of the students when both go the same education from the same top of line university…he/she should want both of them to work since they studied at UF :D)</p>
<hr>
<p>What I want to really emphasize though is that Innovation Academy IS NOT inferior to traditional UF. It’s still UF! Take two students. One got into traditional UF, the other got into IA. But the one that got into traditional had lower stats than the one that got into IA. Regardless of that, BOTH of the students…still got into UF. They still are getting to UF education and both should still be happy. IA does <em>NOT</em> make it any easier to get into UF. If you picked Innovation Academy, it’s because you should want it and because you TRULY WANT a unique undergraduate experience. </p>
<p>mystifire, what you mainly said overall…is that IA is not equivalent to the traditional UF experience because well…it’s not traditional. It’s different. However, that’s the point! 
It’s supposed to be different, it’s supposed to be unique. Hence, what you look at as a disadvantage, is not really a disadvantage for those who want a unique and special experience like IA lol.</p>
<p>Now, do note that much of this post on this thread is by assumption with analytical logic behind it. If there are any errors or mistakes I may have made without noticing in this post, please let me know. Thanks! :)</p>
<p>To those who got into UF’s Innovation Academy, CONGRATULATIONS! Be happy! You’re going to UF! You’re about to get one of the best educations IN THE WORLD by some of the BEST faculty and professors EVER! The education you get in the major of your choice, holds the same requirements as that of every other UF student. Except, you also get to enjoy the pleasures of exploring entrepreneurship, leadership, and innovation! You are now an official UF student, an official Gator!</p>
<p>Since the IA academy hasn’t been put into effect yet, it’s hard to say if it’s truly unique/better than traditional UF</p>
<p>Unless UF executes this IA program really well and make it actually worth it, for now I believe that the IA is just a label to put on other students that were barely accepted so that students feel special or privileged and not disappointed. </p>
<p>That’s not to say the IA can’t be beneficial. Since it’s the first of its kind we just have to wait and see what IA students think about it. I personally feel as though being in IA restricts your control on what classes and profs you want. Being in the traditional UF setting, I definitely feel as though I have more control over my schedule than in IA student.</p>