Okay, So I am a looking for a college to get in to in Florida and would like and opinion on my grades for acceptance in to either UF or UCF.
GPA: 3.6, Weighted with and upward trend.
SAT/ACT: 1900/28
Extracurricular: 100 hours+ with invested hours in Civil Air Patrol
AP courses: 9
Honors classes: 4
Sports: Starting goalkeeper on Varsity Soccer
A little worried about acceptance in to either seeing as they are getting harder over the years with acceptance rate going down.
Thanks
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GPA: 3.6, Weighted with and upward trend.
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What is the UW GPA? UF has gotten much more difficult to get in.
95% of UF students have a 3.75+ GPA…the 5% are likely hooked athletes.
UF…not likely.
At UCF, for the 2014 Freshman Class, the average GPA was 3.9 (weighted), average SAT was 1257 (CR and Math) and 1850 (when you include writing). The average ACT score was 27.
You should be able to view UCF as a match, but maybe not a safety. Think about applying to one or two other Florida public universities (like USF, UNF, FAU, etc.) as a backup.
At UF, the middle 50 percent of students admitted to the 2014 fall freshman class had the following criteria:
High School GPA of 4.1-4.5
SAT 1810-2060
ACT 27-31
UF uses holistic admissions. The say 50% will be based on GPA (most important), class rigor, test score and essay. The other 50% is based on ECs, leadership, volunteering, working, etc. Your GPA makes UF a reach. Your test scores are fine, but UF puts much more focus on GPA and class rigor, over test scores.
Some students (other than athletes) due get in with GPA’s that low or lower, but they will have a lot of other factors helping to pull them up. Then again, students with 4.0+ GPA’s are denied, based on whatever holistic criteria UF is using.
I know UF uses holistic admissions, which is why I was hoping that my extracurricular and upward trending grades would help make up for my below average grades. Also, the rigor of my classes are strong. Would an increase in my SAT scores by 100 points be helpful? I’m trying to get accepted in to the summer B program.
I understand that they take AP classes into consideration which accounts for the large amount of them that I am taking.
Raising your SAT would help, but UF puts more weight behind GPA (and class rigor) than test scores. Your EC’s could still get you into UF, even with a lowish GPA score, but you should apply to a few other schools as alternatives or safeties.
UF considers your AP classes as part of “Class Rigor”. They do not consider your AP scores (for admissions).
Good Luck!
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I know UF uses holistic admissions,
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That may be listed somewhere, but their results clearly indicate that GPA is #1 to them.
I doubt that they could come up with a result that has 95% with a GPA 3.75+ if they weighted all those other things (essays, ECs, etc) equally or even strongly. I notice that they list geographic location as a low consideration…I don’t believe that, either.
I think they use those “other things” when deciding to admit someone with a high GPA, but low test scores. Then (I think) they look at courses taken, ECs, etc) when deciding to say “ok” to a lowish score/high GPA student.
They get 28,000 applications. Publics generally don’t have the funding to “human eye” all those applications, so often they let GPA be the first “down-select”…and then after that, human eyes further the down-selections.
FSU has also become very difficult to get into without a stellar GPA. In recent years, we have seen many kids rejected for GPAs that aren’t in that 3.75+ range. 67% have a 3.75+ GPA at FSU.
Thanks for the help! I’ll look in to my other options.
Maybe try FSU
Good Luck! I think you’ll find lots of solid options in Florida (or even outside of the state).
UF’s Holistic admission process is hard to nail down. UF’s AO’s will stress the 50%/50% rule. However, as you said, I’m sure they first sort by GPA (“most important”, and the AO’s do stress this), Class rigor, and test scores. They then start evaluating EC’s and such. Since UF gets a large number of well qualified applicants (helps that your state has close to 20 million residents), it will have more than enough applicants with GPA over 3.75 that they can then use the more holistic measures to make a final determination. It’s when they do make these final choices that I think the 50%/50% rule comes into play. UF’s admissions has a reputation of appearing a bit random. Bottom line, if you get accepted, your ECs played a role. If they were weak, you needed to have very high GPA/Class/Rigor/test scores. If your EC’s are strong, you may have gotten in with stats in the bottom 25% of admitted students.
Another way to look at it, if you’re stats (GPA/test scores) are in the middle 50% of admitted students, but your EC’s are weak, you may not be admitted to UF. If, on the other hand, you applied to FSU (which puts much less weight on “ECs”), you most likely would be admitted.
This spring, all the talk at my kids high school was about how X got into UF, while Y (who’s higher ranked) did not. Or, even more likely it was about how all of these kids that would have gotten into FSU last year (based on class rankings), didn’t get in this year…
Geographic location?
Geographical residence is listed as “Important” in the CDS info. UF’s AO’s usually don’t talk about “geographical residence” but this has to do (I think) with ensuring students from across the state can get admitted and that a few regions of the state do not dominate. I have no clue how UF goes about doing that. They likely break out the applications by “areas/school districts/counties…” before they go through the selection process.