UF Admissions Raises The Bar

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Florida
1

<p>This was posted earlier in the year, after all of the previous class' decisions were sent out, but I still think the article is extremely relevant. It referenced my school (one of the top performing IB schools in North America), which historically has sent almost a hundred students to UF each year, but suffered a pretty significant blow from the Admission's Office during the previous academic year.</p>

<p>It's easy to think that just because you're in IB, or because you're a great student with a top SAT score, that you'll get in... but UF is becoming more and more selective.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.alligator.org/pt2/060411admissions.php%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.alligator.org/pt2/060411admissions.php&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

2

<p>UF is encroaching on Cornell's level of admissions criteria and within 5 years at current trends will be there with Virginia, Berkeley and Michigan, if not sooner.</p>

3

<p>Ehhh...I like being a part of the Gator Nation too, but I'm not so sure about some of those predictions. (I've seen your comments on the MBA boards -- and no, the Florida MBA is not more valuable than a Harvard MBA :P ) Let's just say that UF is definitely better than all of its Florida counterparts, and certainly one of the best public schools in the southern region.</p>

4

<p>That's not going to happen without better funding. Too many students, not enough professors.</p>

5

<p>We are ranked 39th overall in selectivity, I predict that within the next 12 years we will be close to the top 25. (Just my honest opinon - I base this on the massive influx of people moving to Florida, the headway that UF is making in the PR department, a new emphasis on bio-medical research, etc...)</p>

<p>RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES</p>

<h1>1 Harvard University</h1>

<h1>2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology</h1>

<h1>2 Yale University</h1>

<h1>4 California Institute of Technology</h1>

<h1>4 Princeton University</h1>

<h1>6 Columbia University</h1>

<h1>6 Washington University-St Louis</h1>

<h1>8 University of Pennsylvania</h1>

<h1>8 Stanford University</h1>

<h1>10 Brown University</h1>

<h1>11 Dartmouth College</h1>

<h1>11 Duke University</h1>

<h1>11 Rice University</h1>

<h1>14 University of California-Berkeley</h1>

<h1>15 Georgetown University</h1>

<h1>15 Emory University</h1>

<h1>17 Northwestern University</h1>

<h1>17 Tufts University</h1>

<h1>17 University of California-Los Angeles</h1>

<h1>17 University of Notre Dame</h1>

<h1>17 University of Southern California</h1>

<h1>22 Cornell University</h1>

<h1>22 Johns Hopkins University</h1>

<h1>22 University of Chicago</h1>

<h1>22 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor</h1>

<h1>26 College of William & Mary</h1>

<h1>26 University of Virginia</h1>

<h1>26 Vanderbilt University</h1>

<h1>29 Boston College</h1>

<h1>29 Brandeis University</h1>

<h1>29 University of California-San Diego</h1>

<h1>32 Carnegie Mellon University</h1>

<h1>32 Lehigh University</h1>

<h1>32 Tulane University</h1>

<h1>35 New York University</h1>

<h1>35 University of North Carolina-Chapell Hill</h1>

<h1>35 University of Rochester</h1>

<h1>38 University of California-Irvine</h1>

<h1>39 University of California-Santa Barbara</h1>

<h1>39 University of Florida</h1>

<h1>39 Wake Forest University</h1>

<h1>42 George Washington University</h1>

<h1>42 Georgia Institute of Technology</h1>

<h1>44 Case Western Reserve University</h1>

<h1>44 University of Tulsa</h1>

<h1>44 University of Wisconsin-Madison</h1>

<h1>47 University of California-Davis</h1>

<h1>47 University of Maryland-College Park</h1>

<h1>49 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute</h1>

<h1>49 University of California-Santa Cruz</h1>

<h1>49 University of Miami</h1>

<h1>49 University of Texas-Austin</h1>

6

<p>phuhs<em>ib</em>uf,
what is crazy about what I wrote- you may not agree, but my opinion IS most certinally based on FACT, not just from drinking the Kool Aid. Take a look at the list above- Florida needs to only move up in selectivity 6 spots to be equal to U-Vitginia, 7 spots for Michigan and Cornell. This is deff possible for a school making a huge effort to do so. Be careful before you say someone's statements are bunk without looking to see if it is based on fact. As far as the MBA goes, UF is ranked 41 and climbing- I never said it was more "valuable" than an Ivy league MBA, but some prople won't believe that it is as "valuable" as it is because of pre-conceived notions about Florida.</p>

7

<p>Take a look at the list in the context of what I feel is a more accurate presentation- each Tied school only represents 1 admissions difficulty slot. I think it is unfair present the rankings as they do. It is more fair to view Florida as tied for the 16th most selective "slot" in the rankings:</p>

<p>1 Harvard
2 MIT,Yale
3 Cal Tech, Princeton
4 Columbia, Wash U.-St Louis
5 Penn, Stanford
6 Brown
7 Dartmouth,Duke,Rice
8 California-Berkeley
9 Georgetown, Emory
10 Northwestern, Tufts, UCLA, Notre Dame, USC
11 Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Chicago, Michigan
12 William & Mary,Virginia,Vanderbilt
13 Boston College, Brandeis, UCSD
14 Carnegie Mellon, Lehigh, Tulane
15 NYU, UNC, Rochester
16 Florida, UC-Irvine, UCSB, Wake Forest</p>

<p>Florida has only to move up 4 slots to tie Virginia and 5 slots to tie Cornell and Michigan. Florida's SAT score is (I think) increasing over 5 points per year, which puts UF on the fast pace to leap froging some slots. For a University who has made it a primary goal to do so, I stand by my statements, especially since Michigan and Cornell are so entrenched in their academic reputation and achievements that they have no reason to increase standards. Florida will move up on them quick.</p>

8

<p>In my opinion, you're wrong. </p>

<p>Schools like Cornell and Michigan, like Harvard and Yale, like Northwestern and Tufts, are only getting more competitive, despite being very competitive already. That's why acceptance rates at all top colleges are going down. </p>

<p>Unless there's a lull in applicants (perhaps due to a lower birth rate year 18 years ago), this trend will continue. So while UF may get more competitive, so will the schools above it in selectivity. </p>

<p>I am guessing that the selectivity rankings will change very little in our lifetimes (allowing for a school like WUSTL to jump up the rankings every so often); just like Harvard has been 1 or 2 since it was the first U.S. university founded in the 18th century. </p>

<p>This is not to say that I don't think UF's selectivity will increase -- I just don't think its selectivity hike will overtake the schools that are already more selective than it. That's a little quixotic.</p>

9

<p>Fact: UF was tied for the 27th overall best public university in the Early 90's
by US News.</p>

<p>Fact: Today UF is in a 4-way tie for the 13th overall best public university
by US News.</p>

<hr>

<p>What does tomorrow have in store for UF?: We are going to continue to improve (Thats a forgone conclusion!). But where will we be in 15 years??? </p>

<p>The real question we should be asking ourselves about UF's standing is - </p>

<p>Are we going to be tied with the likes of: Univ. Washington, UIUC, UTexas</p>

<p>Or</p>

<p>Are we going to be tied with the likes of: UVA, Michigan, UNC</p>

<p>--Judging by the headway that we made over the last 15 years, I think it's more than likely going to be the latter.</p>

10

<p>lolabelle,
I would agree with you, except for the fact that you don't factor in that UF is pursuing higher rankings extremely aggressively and is following in the model of Washington University. I think U-Miami has made the decision to go this way, too for what it is worth. Anyway, the ONLY thing keeping UF out of the very top strata is a student-faculty ratio of about 20:1. Once this is reduced by 3 or 4, UF will leapfrog several spots. Decreasing this ratio is foremost on the current president's agenda.</p>

11

<p>Tomslawsky & Ssobick: I can see your points, but I have three more things to say before I most likely retire from this thread, as UF is not my area of expertise.</p>

<p>1) Sure, UF skipped all those spots over other state universities, but now you're talking about it skipping over schools with the likes of Ivy Leagues, and Ivy-equivalents -- I just think it's unlikely that UF will skip over them as quickly and to the extent it did over other state schools.</p>

<p>2) UF is not the only school actively pursuing higher rankings. Schools like Carnegie Mellon, JHU, Tufts, Chicago, and the like are, too, and they're already several spot above UF. </p>

<p>3) Selectivity rankings do not equal academic quality rankings, anyway. And I personally don't think such a ranking can ever be truly accurate. Rankings are a marketing ploy and I'm sorry they exist, and that we spend so much time thinking/talking/worrying about them. I'm even more sorry that universities dedicate time/spend money on trying to scale these lists.</p>

12

<p>Well said, lola.</p>

<p>tom, you mentioned that</p>

<p>"As far as the MBA goes, UF is ranked 41 and climbing- I never said it was more "valuable" than an Ivy league MBA, but some prople won't believe that it is as "valuable" as it is because of pre-conceived notions about Florida."</p>

<p>As a current UF student, I want as much as you for UF to be ranked highly and gain more national prestige. And the university IS making huge strides to do this. But people (including members of my own family!) still believe that UF is some redneck hillbilly football state school (and it is a tiny bit of that, don't deny it, lol). It takes decades of big changes to shift generational pre-conceived notions about a major University, no matter how selective the college has become in a few years. It is true that Bernie Machen is trying to make these changes, but even he admits that UF jumped more quickly in the rankings this past year than any other school, and that it's very possible that we may even take a step backwards next year. </p>

<p>In the end, the short term rankings don't mean that much (and most rankings in general don't mean that much for a school.) What matters is the quality of the education you receive, and the skills you learn, and the people you meet. If you feel you just have to rave online about how great your school is, it's possible that you're at the wrong school.</p>

<p>Having said that, I am a gator and I love being a part of the Gator Nation....even if it's still just some redneck hillbilly football state school! :)</p>

13

<p>Don't let the private universities propaganda (Princeton Review) distort your view on public education. UF doesn't have the highest endowment in the world (it's currently at the billion dollar mark) but we have state funding to compensate for this.</p>

<p>UF is not just simply a hillbilly football state university! We have some of the strongest research expenditures in the world, our undergraduate students are the best and brightest in the South East (not just Florida), our graduate and professional programs are awesome & are gaining more recognition each day, etc...</p>

<p>I have no desire to be on par with Harvard or any other Ivy, in terms of our undergraduate students. But make no mistake UF is the hottest state university in the country right now. We will eventually catch up to the top public universities, it's just a matter of when.</p>