<p>Article in tuesday's Alligator: <a href="http://www.alligator.org/pt2/060411admissions.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.alligator.org/pt2/060411admissions.php</a></p>
<p>2004: 11,928 Admitted (57% accepted) = 6,799
2005: 12,100 Admitted (60.3% accepted) = 7296 (too much, wasnt expected)
2006: 10,400 Admitted (expect ~60%) =6,240</p>
<p>At Palm Harbor University High School, students of the International Baccalaureate program once applied to UF with smug assurance.</p>
<p>"It used to be that if you were in IB, you pretty much got in," said senior Ryan Mills, who was accepted to UF. But this year, "at least 30 kids in IB didn't get in, and they're all going to FSU."</p>
<p>Mike Burkett, Mills' IB guidance counselor, said fewer than 30 were rejected, but he and his colleagues throughout the state were surprised at the number of "strong candidates" who were denied admission to UF.</p>
<p>Nancy Carter, Burkett's counterpart at Deerfield Beach High School, made the same observation: UF grows more selective of its applicants each year.</p>
<p>In order to slim its bloated undergraduate class for the 2006-2007 academic period, the university admitted fewer students than it has since 1991.</p>
<p>For Burkett, a higher bar for UF admissions would have been easy to understand. But he thinks the bar is uneven.</p>
<p>"We were hearing about students who - we were questioning, how on earth did UF let them in?" he said.</p>
<p>Interim Admissions Director Pat Herring said the UF admission process has morphed over the last decade. In the late 1980s, students were simply ranked by grade point averages and SAT scores. It was easy to compare one to another.</p>
<p>Now, students' numbers indicate who are candidates for admission, but the ultimate decision requires human scrutiny.</p>
<p>Herring said the application readers - admissions staff, UF faculty and high school guidance counselors from throughout the state - must consider whether each applicant would fulfill a need of the university. Such needs include geographic, socioeconomic and ethnic diversity; artistic talent; and the potential for public service.</p>
<p>"This year, because of our limitations, because of the nature of our program, you practically have to have it all," he said.</p>
<p>Herring said some UF undergraduates have younger siblings who are better students than they are, but who were rejected this Spring.</p>
<p>Left behind</p>
<p>High selectivity bodes well for UF's incoming student body, but it has left some petulant parents behind.</p>
<p>On parents, Herring said: "The level of involvement is much more intense than it historically has been."</p>
<p>Rejected applicants may appeal their admission, but those who apply for an appeal receive a letter that states: "Only applicants with truly compelling personal circumstances are encouraged to appeal."</p>
<p>Political science professor Albert Matheny serves on the committee that judges these appeals. He said there were twice as many this year as there were in 2005.</p>
<p>Last week, Matheny's committee reviewed 200 appeals in about six hours, he said.</p>
<p>Matheny said a strong appeal letter may project a niche for the student in a UF program. Or it may detail an extraordinary circumstance that the applicant had to overcome, such as severe poverty or disease.</p>
<p>Matheny receives many e-mails from parents, and not all are as cordial as the rest.</p>
<p>"Occasionally you'll get some that'll say, 'I went there in the '70s and I've always told my kids that they were going to get in, and I don't see why you won't let them in,'" he said.</p>
<p>Though the official statistics have not been produced yet, Matheny said the average student admitted to UF this semester has a 4.0 GPA and a 1300 SAT score.</p>
<p>The X factor</p>
<p>When admissions officers accept a body of applicants, they assume that about half of them will not enroll. They call the percentage that enrolls the "yield rate."</p>
<p>Last year, when parts of Florida were decimated by four consecutive hurricanes, the university offered too many slots, expecting that many accepted students would not come. As a result, dormitories were crowded, and lecture halls were stuffed.</p>
<p>Officials use the previous year's yield rate to gauge the next year's, but they can only guess.</p>
<p>"What you're trying to do is predict what 10,400 17-year-olds are going to do," Herring said.</p>
<p>And there is often an "X factor," like last year's hurricanes. This year, that factor is the NCAA basketball championship win.</p>
<p>Herring estimates that about 540 more students than predicted will be drawn to UF by a desire to be where the Gators are.</p>