Hi all
Just wanted to share for those who are in the same boat:
Got denied acceptance for fall 2019 start. Successfully appealed! Submitted appeal March 1st, received admission today. Here are the stats:
1530 SAT, 34 ACT, 4.5 GPA, lots of AP classes. When we inquired as to why we were denied they told us lack of student extracurricular activities. My son wrote his own appeal letter detailing his rather busy (in depth) extracurricular activity which apparently the school did not quite understand from his original application. Further he also became a national merit finalist after admission decisions were made. This combination (NMF and detailed explanation of his extracurricular) convinced them to admit him! He will now start fall 2019. His guidance counselor was shocked both when he originally got denied but also now that he won the appeal. The latter is apparently very rare but just wanted to share and let you guys know there is hope!
Did you guys just email the admissions director on why he was originally denied admission?
Hi sorry just seeing your question now… our high school guidance counselor called UF and inquired on a few students behalf as they were all shoe ins in his opinion. We then got the info like i wrote above from GC. My son called and requested an appeal package and wrote a lengthy letter detailing his extra curricular which they obviously had not understood and valued as significant enough, which my son did
a fine job explaining the true depth and width of the activity (which leads me to believe he might not have done such a great job in his essay in the original application.) Further he had at that point become a national merit semifinalist and now a finalist. My son wrote that he had been told in college planning sessions that as a national merit finalist he would most likely get the Benaquisto scholarship (full ride) from the Florida public schools and that for this reason he had chosen UF as they have the best program for the major he wants to pursue. It worked. A few weeks later he had his acceptance letter in hand. And a full ride/Benaquisto scholarship:-)))
This is just further evidence that UF’s holistic admissions is garbage. Every National Merit Finalist goes through a screening for grades/extra curriculars to get that designation. It’s beyond appalling UF rejected you to begin with. And if you are in-state, it’s further outrageous that the state would pay tens of millions to out-of-staters for free rides while rejecting an in-state NMF.
The legislature should basically write a law that states any national merit finalist will have automatic admission to any public university in the state. Your situation just shows what a joke the admissions is at UF. Every parent should be angry at what happened to you.
If an in-state applicant has a 1530 SAT an a 4.5 GPA, there is absolutely no reason they shouldn’t be accepted at UF - or any other Florida state school. If this is happening, and I don’t doubt that it is, then the legislature needs to stop whatever bizarre and biased admission process UF is employing by forcing them to alter their admissions process. So much of the UF decision making process is now focused on EC’s and creative writing skills (and other non-academic nonsense) that I’ve begun to question their commitment to academic excellence. The entire process is quickly becoming a fraud and the taxpayers need to stop it. This should never have happened to this student, regardless of EC’s, but this story is not an outlier. This is happening far too often to be a coincidence. There is a problem at UF and UF is doing nothing to fix it.
@Anisqoyo I totally agree. I understand there is a “bell curve” for the average test scores/gpa but they are missing out on students that would have been awesome without joining every single club offered at school or whatever they wrote on their essay.
@deniedgator I with you on this one. How in the heck does an instate kid with a 1530 SAT and a 4.5 GPA not get admitted. Holistic approach or not, there appears to be something inherently wrong with the process for this to happen. I struggle to accept the reasoning that a brilliant student would get turned away due to a less then stellar essay, or not having the correct EC’s.
Can’t say I agree with the outrage. A mistake was made and they corrected it. Had the appeal been denied, then I would help you sharpen your pitchforks, but the kid’s gonna a be a Gator. Great news.
I think the fact that a 1500/4.0+ student isn’t automatically accepted shows that it is a holistic admissions process. I’m sure there are some of those from every high school in the state.
A friend lives in Gainesville and her daughter had great stats but so did a lot of other kids from that school and the daughter didn’t get in at UF. I’m sure every single one applied to UF.
Benacquisto/Bright Futures is a state program and those who earn it can use it at any school. UF, FSU, UCF do not have to accept those students. If the schools want to give merit, it is on top of the Benac/BF so it isn’t saving the school anything (but the funds are guaranteed o the schools).
I agree with some others, can’t believe with those stats he was rejected. Had to have been a mistake is all I could say. Glad the appeal worked.
Just to comment on @GatorDad305’s post, and for everyone’s information. The appeal is heard by a committee of UF faculty formed by the VP of Enrollment Management. It is not comprised of people in the admissions department that originally denied the applicants. So, if everything we are being told about this situation is accurate, I don’t see it as Admissions ‘fixed their mistake’, another group fixed Admissions’ mistake. In the end, though, UF fixed its mistake. But with 40k plus applications and a process that depends on people, mistakes are likely to occur.
How on earth can every single application be holistically evaluated at a school like UF? The UCs have a point system in place that makes me wonder when I see rejection posts from kids that seem to hit every note just right.
Thanks @fl1234 for the info.
On this forum, all we know is what the poster tell us. In this case, there was a disconnect between the kid’s ECs and how he promoted them in his application and essay. We know that because he told us. I’m glad his appeal was successful.
I have heard of many other stories where high flyers didn’t get into UF. Why? Might be that the student made an error on the app; might be that they used an essay not specifically written for UF and it showed; might be that the essay sucked even though their parents thought it was magnificent; might be that they didn’t show interest; might be that even though they had high test scores and GPA the rigor wasn’t there; might be that UF liked 40 other kids from the same school better. My point is that UF wants to reward kids beyond GPA and test scores – and so much of that is subjective.
I agree that it seems like a no-brainer that a kid like @abasilisk should be close to automatic, but you still have to draw a line for “automatic” somewhere.
I also agree that the sheer volume of applicants has to put tremendous strain on the holistic process.
Again, happy that @abasilisk got in. Certainly hate to see the kid at FSU. Go Gators.