I was hoping the scholarship was separate from Presidential. Since you both got it, sounds like it’s something new. My son will be a Gator unless he gets a giant merit scholarship from a college that isn’t supposed to give them.
My son’s acceptance says he was selected for honors as well. Only got $2000 also. Hard to compare that to UCF provost of $7500/yr for 4 years.
Do we know if the $2000 is renewable?
@oldandwise That’s interesting because I thought I have to be admitted before applying for Honors
Obviously, something has changed. Maybe someone heard last year’s criticism that it had become more of a Creative Writing Club instead of a collection of the top kids academIcally based on their high school performance.
My D also got the same email. She has a brother in honors at UF. The early registration benefits of honors are great.
My daughter got the same. We are OOS. Trying to determine if there is a possibility she’ll get more merit aid.
I am pretty sure research scholars and the honors colleges are separate selections. The research scholars is absolutely more selective. I won’t say you can’t be chosen for both, but they aren’t the same thing.
https://scholars.ufl.edu/
@Rubix1 - you raised an interesting question so I researched it. So university scholars and undergraduate research scholars are two different programs at UF. My D’s email said undergraduate research scholars. I have included the link to that program.
https://cur.aa.ufl.edu/undergraduate-research-scholars-program/about-ursp/#d.en.459419
Similar, but different then the other program.
@caspiancat this^^ makes sense…awesome!!!
Congrats to everyone on the direct admit to honors. This money is separate from merit aid which will go out in the next few weeks.
Are you aware if this money is annual, or a one time thing?
Also, to everyone else, I believe we automatically get into the honors college, as well as being a part of the URSP.
If the direct entry into the honors program is a change from the current selection process based on input from existing members, the program will be more attractive to top applicants. First, being offered direct entry into the honors program is an honor in itself, which will please an applicant, and, second, it provides certainty to an applicant (and the parents) that they will be part of a select group of students that may more closely mirror the student body that they might have found at another university higher in the national rankings. As the product of a large southern, public university myself, I know that one can get an exceptional education at virtually any college if a student applies themselves, but the worry is that peer pressure from other students may distract an otherwise exceptional student from the goal at hand, which is supposed to be a focus on scholarly achievements. At least, that’s why I have assumed that colleges below the top 20 rankings now offer honor programs. I have encouraged my son to go to UF ever since the thought of college entered his horizon because it is an excellent school and because it is less expensive than private schools and OOS public schools. I’ve explained to him to save his money for a prestigious grad school if he wants something more then UF. My father gave me the same advice about our state’s flagship university 40 years ago, and it’s still good advice. And I went on to get an MBA at Harvard.
Pod Market and Chomp it are very close to Hume, Reitz is close and the other dining halls aren’t that far away. Getting to class isn’t difficult either. Not that far and there is a bus stop right at Hume as well if they want to use it. These were things we were concerned about when my son opted to live in Hume, but haven’t been an issue at all. He was also concerned that it would be antisocial and the kids in Hume wouldn’t be interested in sports and socializing but this hasn’t been the case at all. He’s met tons of friends with similar interests and his floor is VERY social. He is very happy there. Hope that helps with some of your concerns.
This is a very interesting change to the honors program. Honor’s programs are really a recruitment tool, and direct admit to the program makes it much more effective (as well as the $2K).
^^^I agree. Although S isn’t at UF, he was accepted into honors last yr (and got a Presidential scholarship). The scholarship came with his regular acceptance letter. He was less than enthused to have to write another essay / application a separate honors admissions decision. He was just worn out from the whole college application process and the timing of the UF Honors application was after regular admissions. Something like mid March you were given 2 weeks to submit the honors app. So late in the season I imagine many have admission fatigue and / or are excited about other options (because they already heard from several schools). Makes sense, at least for a certain tier of students, to automatically admit into honors. Get them locked in and let them enjoy the rest of their senior year.
Agree that the Honors program is a true perk. I was in the Freshman honors program at UF in the early 80’s and at the time we had small classes and labs only available to the honors students. You were selected to be in this program and it was designed to give students the feeling they were in a smaller college. We had a tight group of students and many went on to great graduate and post graduate programs. We had an honors dorm for those who wanted, but I picked Beatty towers which was a more modern dorm at the time. For me, I eventually went on to study at Oxford while at UF, and got an MD from Case Western (turned down MD/PhD at UF back then). My son was just accepted to UF Summer B with what I thought was a strong application, but seems we will need to apply to the honors program. Would like to know what criteria are getting those directly admitted to the honors program? Seems like those that I have seen have SATs well over 1500?
I would like to know too as my SAT was a 1500 and my UF GPA is a 4.8 but I did not receive anything other than a Fall admit.
My son had 1560.
My daughter had a 1560 SAT. Not sure what her UF GPA is but it’s 4.0 UW. She was auto admitted.
My friend and I were the only two of our friend group to receive the auto-admit. We both had a perfect 36 on our ACT, while I had a 3.75/4.5 and he had a 4.0/4.8. I had friends with a 34 and a 3.95/4.67 not receive it. Doesn’t make a lot of sense.