UT Austin must be doing something right in tech as they were selected as the home of the National AI Institute focused on machine learning in August. Tons of tech startups and major firms relocating to or adding significant footprint in Austin.
Has anyone received an email yet from UF to set up their Gatorlink account?
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yes, i got mine yesterday
Thanks, I’ll keep a lookout for it.
Check your Junk folder. That’s where it went for my son
Thank you. I will check that folder too.
I think many instate students like to start Summer B. It’s nice to get those 6 credits out of the way, plus the campus isn’t as crowded (in a normal non-Covid world). Summer B is social, a great way to meet people.
In the 80’s and 90’s it was the safety route, but today I don’t think it makes a difference.
All of this is IMO.
Lots of Happy Gator’s at school today 
Agree, my Gator is trying to change from fall to summer now!
We may “switch” with you. My son was admitted for Summer but may have to request term change to Fall due to a medical procedure we may not be able to move. I hope that they grant it if we can’t change things
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The deposit is only $25 and it secures you an opportunity to live on campus. Priority is given to students who applied earlier to UF and submitted the deposit. Remember, the upperclassmen have already reserved their dorms for next year. As an aside, there are a lot of good dorms on campus and some that are not so good. You need to read reviews so you have a better feel for which one fits your needs best. You may want to choose based on location or a living learning community, or which one has better rated air conditioning – OOS students should never discount the importance of air conditioning in Gainesville (or Rainesville as it is called most of the time). There are traditional freshman dorms you will learn about as you read reviews.
Don't worry if your priority number is not good. There is a roommate matching service UF will refer you to that is really effective at connecting you with potential roommates. And the chances will be good that the roommate your student chooses will have a better priority number and he/she will be able to get the dorm they want, along with the roommate they want, based on the other student's priority.
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I absolutely wanted my son to go instate to UF as it was a phenomenal opportunity financially. They gave him everything except the kitchen sink. He would have been at UF if he did not plan to major in the CS department. In his public school the top 10 students who were all accepted to UF chose to go elsewhere as they wanted to major in CS/Math and they went to MIT, CMU, YALE, Berkeley, Michigan, UCLA, Georgia Tech, UT Austin. There have been multiple problems with the CS department at UF for the last 2 decades and it was still underperforming even two years ago. My son’s friend (girl) from who was probably the best high school coder in Florida last year got accepted by UF, MIT, Georgia Tech and UCF as a National Merit Scholar was not impressed by CS department of UF and she now attends UCF as a freshman. The list is endless of the top instate CS people rejecting UF for other State colleges.
@fl1234 The 70 million ($25 Million Cash) is a drop in the bucket funding to the CS department but it is a good start. I have friends who are faculty at UF who are discouraged and would themselves leave if they had other options. Almost all of the brightest of the UF faculty’s kids in Gainesville are encouraged by their parents to go out of state public schools or private. It shows the confidence in their own school system. Berkeley, UIUC, Michigan, UT, Washington have overcrowded CS departments but rarely do they leave their flagship public universities to attend public out of state CS departments. It is truly disappointing for Florida residents to send their children to out of state public schools. Florida is the 3rd largest state and spends insane amounts of money on educating the children and the flagship university is way behind the curve in the most important future job creating field. It is common knowledge that the current Dean tried to abolish the CS department about 7 years ago and merge it with the Electrical Department and in the process put the reputation of UF and the CS department in the sinkhole. UF CS department is lagging behind California, Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Maryland, Minnesota, Indiana, Georgia, North Carolina, New York, Virginia, Washington etc flagships . Florida does not even have a top notch private school CS department so the opportunity for UF being the flagship university to take the lead with unlimited support from the taxpayers squandering this opportunity is mind-boggling.
The instructors and curriculum in the UF CS at the core curriculum in the undergraduate department are not very good to say the least. Berkeley, UT, Michigan, UIUC etc have more students in CS than UF but the curriculum is excellent. UT Austin & Berkeley for example students have great difficulty registering for most upper division classes in CS and Math. The core classes are however excellent despite having more than 150 students in the lecture as they have multiple TA’s and the curriculum is always updated and challenging. The faculty at UF blames the quality of students in CS at UF as the reason they cannot have a more challenging and updated curriculum. Apparently, the administration puts pressure on the department to lower the standards of the curriculum and inflate grades. The students put the failure on the teaching faculty so its a classic blame game. Apparently, UF which used to be preferred destination along with other top public universities in the 80’s for the best faculty in CS has dropped off the radar completely and is now a middling destination like Ohio state, Indiana, NC State etc and can only attract mediocre talent.
UF is quick to pull the trigger on the UF football coach who fails to deliver for a couple of years. Uf CS department has been underperforming for 2 decades. It is time for UF to clean house and become world class CS department and keep the best and brightest high schoolers in house which will in turn attract the best tech companies to our state.
In conclusion, UF does not have to reinvent the wheel to make UF a top 10 undergraduate program. All they have to do is take pages from the playbook of MIT, Berkeley, CMU and Stanford curriculums and hire the best teaching faculty (not research) and make CS major admission competitive like Berkeley, UT, UIUC, U.Washington etc to attract the best in the state. Florida has phenomenal high schools and our students deserve a top 10 CS public school flagship. I am optimistic our flagship will change course soon.
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Where are you getting any of this information??? You seem to use a lot of ‘apparentlys’ and general hearsay. UF has a great CS department which can be backed up by their employment outcomes at top companies. Obviously, UF is not an MIT, Berkeley, or CMU, and UF should learn from them, but UF is certainly better than UCF, and the best in the state for CS.
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Yes, the bill applies to both in-state and OOS students. I would think in-state students have Bright Futures and/or Florida pre-paid, though, so it would have less of an impact than on OOS students.
Again, this was only recently assigned to committee – it has not reached the point of passage yet. Hopefully, it will not pass.
We are concerned our student would commit to UF based on promise of NMS Benacquisto scholarship covering cost of attendance and then arrive at UF to find the Florida legislature has discontinued or severely reduced funding. UF could say that it is a state issue and not the University’s responsibility to cover the scholarship. But students commit to Universities for (hopefully) four years and pass on other college opportunities in the process. I hope UF will put out a formal statement or blanket reassurance about this so that families can decide with confidence.
815 Section 16. This act shall take effect July 1, 2021.
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same thing happened with FSU, it appears >20k applications were “incomplete” I would assume that means many had no test scores
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There are uncertainties where I don’t think UF is going to help based on the information I have learned. In the end, we may have to assess the situation and take some risks. That depends on what other options are available too. Hopefully, things will get clear soon.
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For those who got into UF Honors - I just received the Honors confirmation email. I am wondering if everyone received the Student Honors Organization waiver? Just wondering if that is a typical thing that all new admits recieve.
My email said “You have been granted a waiver of the $80 SHO membership dues, which will open a third confirmation option. This waiver allows you to access all SHO membership benefits at no additional cost.”
Also, an additional question about room & board: What are the rooms in Hume Hall like? If any current UF Honors students can share their experiences in the program and everything, please do!!
i thought i remember seeing them saying they will give me a credit card to pay the $80 fee or something but i can’t find it anymore. where did u see it?
Housing: OOS D did the housing app right after she applied in early Nov; is there a lottery number or something? Thoughts on freshmen living off campus? I assumed she’d live on campus as a freshmen (and hoped to avoid her taking a car 1st year) but D is hearing from other admitted students that the dorms awful, and many plan to live off campus. Met a current UF parent this past weekend (visiting FSU with her high school D), who said her older D lived in a UF dorm that was terrible. And walking/driving the UF campus this past weekend, for the most part dorms looked very dated and many seemed far from the core classroom buildings.
This Youtube channel reviews about 5 dorms. It is helpful because it provides a consistent review format and comparison.
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