@MYOS1634 She has not as of yet gotten direct admit to Ross. They say they send invitations in waives through June, and to only a very small percentage of students Primarily they want you to apply after your freshman year. . She would not consider that after the end of April. Before today, She still would have chosen UF (though I agree with you!) After the honors rejection she would have taken it. But not direct admit I’ve been told getting into Business is very cutthroat. It’s not that I don’t think she would put in the effort, I just don’t want her to have it hanging over her head so that she feels she has to transfer if she doesn’t get in, so that she can have the career of her choice. McIntyre does not have any direct admit. I agree with you about UCB as even the student who called trying to recruit her didn’t answer her questions well regarding engagement. He said as a junior he is still having TAs for all his classes and some have over 500 students. I’m not sure why they are the number 1 public university with that atmosphere. UF was her first choice, not necessarily for the right reasons. She wants to be a Gator despite issues she has with facilities and programming. She loved the UCF honors college and had a great visit there. She just wants a school with more spirit and sports, and felt that the school was very commuter based as well. Florida State’s honors program really was pretty impressive to be honoest. The faculty involved are very invested. Unlike the emails sent to UF, those sent to the FSU honors advisors by my daughter were replied to and very personal. She just didn’t feel the rest of the school was a good fit and that the city wasn’t either. UF has always been her first choice, it’s only now that she is seriously considering going elsewhere. She has some concerns about getting involved in groups on campus. Apparently the girl who she did gator for a day with as well as a friend of hers, told her that they have each applied to get into several different leadership groups and such and have been denied each time despite their good grades, other involvments and so forth. She is worried not being in honors will put her now behind all those students trying to get into these groups as well.
A current student my daughter spoke with thought that maybe it was related to how many ap credits she would have, since she would be almost junior credit. I don’t think that should count against them though, It doesn’t mean they plan to graduate early. My daughter plans on a double major and combined masters so she will be there the full 4 years.
The AP credit should have nothing to do with it. Mine brought in the maximum allowed- 45 as well as some dual enrollment. You mentioned your daughter was wanting to pursue business. Again, I am wondering if they are wanting a more diverse group? There are many, many business majors.
Here’s my take on the honors program (warning, it’s not really worth much!).
Honor colleges are used to recruit high performing students. It’s a recruitment tool first. It can also help compensate for what may be an academic environment that’s not the strongest (students, class rigor, and such).
The better the academics, the less one is needed. UCB, MIT, etc., don’t even bother with honor programs. In their view, the whole school is a “honors” college. UF is no UCB (not yet!), but it’s “standard” classes (and students) are rigorous and fairly strong.
My daughter’s final choices were between UF, UCF (Honors+Merit) and University of Alabama (Honors+Merit). These other two schools have nice honors programs (and associated dorms, and classes), but at the end of the day, UF was still the stronger school for academics (and while more expensive than the other two, while still a great deal for us).
When it came to engagement, in her first semester, she joined the society of women engineering (SWE), and participated in a UF sponsored volunteer organization through which she was able to work with elementary students in a local school. She also attended meetings for a few other clubs, went to sporting events, all while spending a substantial amounts of time on academics. In her second semester she joined Phi Sigma Rho (a social sorority for women in engineering) and volunteered for some leadership roles. This year, she’s been elected to one of the VP roles. Her focus has been on her sorority responsibilities (never thought she would join a sorority, but she’s really enjoying it), classes and interviewing for internships (oh, and still attending meetings of SWE and other groups, when she can). If she had been in honors, she likely would have dropped out.
She really has far more things she would like to do, but simply doesn’t have the time. Such as get more involved in SWE, IIE, INFORMs, and several other major(Industrial Engineering) related organizations, work on some corporate sponsored case studies, and do more “fun” events (though she’s attended at least 2 or 3 concerts this semester).
Her roommate (pre-vet/CALS major), has gone a completely different path. She’s volunteered for a year at one of UF’s museums, and then was able to get it turned into a paying, major related, position. She’s also joined a CLAS (College of Agricultural and Life Sciences) related professional/social co-ed fraternity(Alpha Zeta) and is busy trying to get through organic chemistry (good luck with that). As a freshman she did volunteered for an officer role, thought I don’t know if she want’s to apply to one of the more senior roles this year.
UF really does have close to 1,000 clubs, and students are creating new ones every semester. While it has a ton of opportunities, you’ll not always get the position or into the group you want (like Honors), but for every chance you miss, 10 more pop up.
Good Luck!
@fbhsmom I am positive you do not need to be in Honors to be immersed in UF’s learning culture and connected to the University.
@Gator88NE thank you! That makes me feel soooooo much better!!!
@Gator88NE That was absolutely great insight and advice! thanks for that! My friend did not get into the Honors Program, so I told her not to feel bad at all. There will be plenty of opportunities. When one door closes, plenty more open. And I really do appreciate that post, since I was accepted into Emory (both colleges) and was really sold on the aspect of them having great opportunities especially in the field i want to go to (medicine). However, when the financial package rolled in I was feeling really sad because it essentially ruled that option out. But seeing that post and how successful your daughter is and the opportunities there are I feel cements my decision to go to UF (which i worked out to be around 7k/year when factoring the scholarship and taking out some things in their estimated cost of attendance). Because in the end, (at least in my opinion), spending 100k (aka a mortgage) on undergraduate just didn’t sit right with me.
@Gatormom22 I agree. I also believe that essays played a major role. While the creative essay (may seem like only people geared towards writing excellently) seems to be biased towards these individuals, this is only slightly true. My sister is 100% math and science. Writing…ehhh…needs help. But when it came to it she still wrote an excellent creative essay (and on that difficult poetry one which I completely avoided). I also think another essay which may have played a major role was the one (sorry pulling from memory) on choosing one of the UF goals (??? pretty sure that’s not how they phrased it) and explain how you would solve or attempt to address this problem.
Anyways, good luck to everyone on your decisions! 
You will be successful wherever you go!
@blue44 and everyone else, thank you all for your support… just an update … While my daughter already committed anyway, she was excited to receive an email today from Dr. Johnson. Apparently, there was a problem with her senior schedule and some of the classes weren’t showing so it appeared she had a very light load. It may have had something to do with her taking some of her courses through FLVS. When they reviewed her actual senior schedule they felt it warranted a reversal of the honors decision!! They said it was the first time they have ever reversed a decision (and my daughter hadn’t asked her to) but that it was due to an actual error. My daughter is THRILLED!!! It had nothing to do with her essay after all! Just so glad it worked out!!
Wow, that is great news @fbhsmom! Congratulations!
@fbhsmom That’s awesome! Your daughter sounds amazing and it is great to see that the administration at the honors college was willing to acknowledge an error and do the right thing.
Just saw this comment and had to respond: Somebody’s “full-ride” from Dartmouth (or any other Ivy) has nothing to do with merit. FA is need-based at these schools.
@LucieTheLakie I 100% agree right there with that comment
@Gator88NE
I just see this thread. My S is looking at UCF, University of KY, and University of Cincinnati as a National Merit Finalist for Computer Science
All 3 are ranked #90 in CS, all 3 have Co-ops.
When you looked at UCF, did you learn anything about Coop experience? Did UCF seem too large? Even if in Honors, some lectures may still be LARGE
@2sunny I never really researched Co-ops. I get the sense that if a student has solid grades, Co-Ops will be available, especially in CS. Summer Internships, on the other hand, seem to be much more competitive, but once again, CS seem to have an edge in lining up internships, over other STEM majors. I think Co-ops are well supported at each of the schools you’ve mentioned.
The challenge with UCF, is that it’s not as well funded as other schools (especially when compared to UF or even FSU). The greatest impact is likely on the high student to faculty ratio, which leads to larger classes, etc. I never felt UCF was “too large”, as once you find your “tribe” and major, it will start to feel much smaller. The question is how much advising and support will be available,
UCF and the CS department have come up with some strategies to deal with it. First, the honor’s program helps, with honor classes and additional advising. Unlike UF, where the honor’s college is just a nice to have (maybe), at UCF, it really helps to compensate for some of UCF’s weaknesses.
The CS department, also limits enrollment, to keep it at a manageable number. One way is the CS Foundation Exam. It’s taken before your upper level classes and the student MUST pass it. This leads to a very strong group of peers, and a well-respected program.
@Gator88NE OK, also I was advised at UCF, that a student would need a car (since the Co-ops at Research Park are very competitive) I like the Honors at UCF. However, I read that students at UCF were still having issues getting the classes they need (only offered at certain times). UCF has about 1,500 CS students, and U of KY has 150 CS students, so I get the sense that U of KY would be more personalized & overall better teacher/student Ratios
The dorms at Towers and Neptune seem very nice, but you would most likely have 3 other roommates (but private bedrooms)
@2sunny Without a doubt, faculty to student ratio’s is UCF’s biggest weakness. You may want to read through this thread, as at some point I do compare UCF to UK.
@Gator88NE and @2sunny S is deciding between U of F and UCF (and still waiting to hear from VT). Frankly, the deciding factor for him likely will be that he got admitted to the UCF Burnett Honors College. I agree with @Gator88NE that the UCF Honors Program seems to add significant value to the UCF experience. S will be in Mechanical Engineering, and I saw that a number of Honors Classes (which are capped at 20 students) include engineering courses, such as Thermodynamics.
Getting all your classes may be a challenge at any large university. I heard that some Texas A&M engineering student actually had to come home one semester, all because he simply couldn’t get the classes he needed. This must be very frustrating especially as the student closes in on needing only one or two classes to graduate. Planning – and perhaps a bit of luck – are needed. That said, I think U of F and UCF are fabulous schools.