<p>I am really being torned. I do know that uf has the top ten material engineering program in US. But my goal is to get into a goog Ivy graduate program.</p>
<p>What are my chances of getting into UF?</p>
<p>Which school's honors program will better prepare me for an Ivy graduate program, especially based on early (i.e. freshmen) opportunities to do research with professors, intern opportunities, and future hiring aspects? Does UF graduates have better appearance (attractiveness) to employers?</p>
<p>(Sidetrack question: Are UF counselors and engineering professors less friendly? Do they seem to care about students?)</p>
<p>Here is my general Information</p>
<p>Gender: Female
Ethnicity - Asian (not native born Asian-American)
State: FL </p>
<p>Major - Biomedical-Material Engineering/Economics-Business
(Considering double major in Chinese w/ Material, minor in business or engineering managment)</p>
<p>School: Renaissance
Unweighted - 4.0
Weighted - >6.0
Class Rank: 1
AP Scores: 5- Calculus BC, World History, Biology, Human Geography </p>
<p>Your stats are excellent. However, your ECs/Comm. Service are not that strong. You may want to do some more volunteering over the summer or some kind of EC. Either way, you’re in. </p>
<p>The obvious choice would be to go to UF. They have more connections than USF and send more graduates to better schools.</p>
<p>What do you mean “getting in to a better school?” For undergraduate or graduate school?</p>
<p>If you mean graduate school, then you will have to have an excellent GPA and letters of recommendation as well as college ECs/Comm. Service and research experience/internships to get accepted at a great school. All of these which can be done at UF.</p>
<p>Essentially, you will be competing with students from many different schools, not just UF, when you apply to graduate school, so you have to show you’re a strong candidate.</p>
<p>getting into graduate programs is all about rankings. go to UF. USF doesn’t have much for you. from my conversations with students at USF, i think UF has a much more accessible undergraduate research system. but really, rankings are way too important to the kinds of graduate programs i know about. letters of recommendations and all are also very important. graduate programs really don’t expect that much undergrad research.</p>
<p>I don’t know if location is a big deal to you, but maybe applying to ivies for undergrad would be a good idea. I applied to both UF and USF. I got a better financial aid package from an ivy. I’m a FL resident and I would have to take out loans to go to FL schools. I have bright futures, but it doesn’t cover that much. Plus ivy grad schools prefer ivy undergrads. I asked my personal advisor.</p>
<p>Melody, most engineering internships are not in Gainesville. I know many UF engineers doing internships in other states and in other towns in Florida. So being in a college town has no effect on your internship opportunities.</p>
<p>Would you please clarify some of the questions I have? Thank you.</p>
<p>Are usf people who you have contact with in the usf honors program?
From what I know about usf honors, there are opportunities to conduct research for freshmen. </p>
<p>Since the graduate admission people do not expect undergrads to do research, then wouldn’t a research conducted by an undergrad look impressive to them?</p>
<p>About rankings, do you mean a student’s academic ranking? If so, since getting a graduate school is all about rankings, would it be easier for a student get a higher ranking and recond at USF than at UF?</p>
<p>Melody in D
Question—
You stated;
Unweighted - 4.0
Weighted - >6.0
How is this possible ???
Even if everyone of your classes since your freshman year
was an AP class, which is impossible, then your highest possible Weighted GPA would be a 5.0, please explain, Thanks</p>
<p>Cornell. Do not listen to what others say. Chance me threads are useless. I know that I may sound hypocritical, but I will never chance anyone again. People told me that I wouldn’t get anywhere and that I wasn’t “smart” enough. It’s obvious that they were wrong. You have nothing to lose by just trying. One thing I did notice with UF is that they have snobby faculty (at least from my experience; it may differ for different people). UF treated me like trash and I’m happy that I’m not going there. I could not stand that and did not deserve their disrespect. Good luck with whatever decision you make.</p>
<p>I’m in the Engineering program. Several friends are studying Materials…</p>
<p>It’s the most wonderful program ever. There is always a counselor available and they want you to succeed. So many resources available to Gator Engineering Students. Keep up the good work and try to come to UF. The Engineering program is beyond amazing and I HIGHLY recommend the StepUp program. Best decision I ever made if you decide to study engineering at UF.</p>
<p>but i realize that i misspoke: research is important. publishing isn’t. they don’t expect you to get published as an undergrad (no one would read it anyways), but ivys usually require writing samples, and research papers are good samples to use.</p>
<p>regardless, my friend at USF is in honors and still hasn’t had as much success as they’d like. i’ve been in a position to do research under a professor multiple times in my first 2 years at UF. but neither of us have anything to do with engineering.</p>
<p>either way, i don’t think the atmosphere at USF is really very much catered towards students of your caliber. i know a number of pretty smart people who are happy for going there, but none who i think really are better for having gone there vs somewhere that might afford them better opportunity–whether that be UF or some school north of here.</p>
<p>Congratulations! Cornell is one of the institutions on my top list! I like its comprehensive engineering program. </p>
<p>I understand that chance me threads are subjective. However, at least they provide some opinions that I want to hear. From this American education, I have learned that good decision makers consider all sides.</p>
<p>Unlike you, I was told that I am smart and I can go somewhere significant. However, to me, just hearing relatives’, friends’, teachers’, my high school counselors’ praises is not enough. Perhaps I would have achieved even more if they had given me more constructive advice (not just what I need to graduate). </p>
<p>I will apply to my top schools anyway because I would like to present the best of me and think that I have tried my best. </p>
<p>Thank you for sharing your experiences and giving encouragement. Best wishes to you!</p>
<p>Exactly. I have a few friends who chose USF for various reasons that joined me up at GT for grad school. They complained that, after they got to Tech, they realized the classes taught you in the first 6 weeks what would have taken a whole semester at USF because the average caliber of the students demanded a slower pace. By contrast, my experience at UF was closer to 80% of the same material would be covered.</p>
<p>People like to say that you can go anywhere and flourish, but that’s simply not true because schools are forced to cater to their students. If you could simply learn everything from self-study, there would be no use for college.</p>