Would you consider UF a big party school?
I got in for the fall regularly, and I am considering it, but I want a school with lots to do concerning the social scene. I’ve heard mixed things though.
Congratulations on your daughter getting into UNC. I don’t think there is any secret you are missing. Objectively, I don’t think there’s much question of UNC IS > UF OOS, unless there is a specific major you want where UF excels. I’m glad to hear others saying that as well so I know I’m not missing anything.
From the start, UNC has been her #1 and when she got in, I thought we were basically done. Florida was one of many plan B’s she applied to in case she didn’t get in to UNC because it is a fine school, a well-regarded state flagship that is reasonably priced even OOS. However, UNC is very familiar to her, we live not far away, and she’s never been to UF, so I think the idea of going some place new intrigues her. She hasn’t taken any college tours besides UNC and we haven’t traveled anywhere to speak of in a year, so we thought we’d go take a tour. At this point, I just think she is curious and wants to see at least one or two other schools in person before she wraps this up. She’s a smart girl who thinks long range and understands the value of a UNC degree plus the added value of saving money in case she decides she wants to go to graduate school. I have about a 95% confidence level that she will end up in Chapel Hill next fall.
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So, if there was no merit email yesterday, there is no merit? I must say, I am surprised!
My son is the opposite. He was Accepted to UNC Honors OOS but no merit. He Also was accepted to UF Honors program, in state, Benacquisto, and yesterday received the 5K a year Presidents Scholarship offer. He really wants to go out of state and we would consider The UNC offer if he would have received reasonable merit aid from them. But so far it is not to be.
He does not really like UF but understands its his best choice monetarily combined with academics. He is warming Up to being in the honors dorm and program and the scholarship offer yesterday is icing.
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UNC like most highly ranked state schools gives very little merit aid. It is reasonably priced OOS in comparison to some (UVA, Michigan) and meets 100 percent of need. Still hard to turn down a free education at a quality school. Congrats to your child!
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Yes. Why surprised? We weren’t expecting any even though he has merit at Clemson and free tuition at Alabama almost (29k a year). Florida is in a different category.
Your son had it made - but he needed to apply to Arizona or Alabama. Or a South Carolina, etc. He could have, for example, did Arizona State Honors. UNC is awesome - I’d say the drop from UNC to UF is larger than UF to Alabama or South Carolina.
All that said, you have terrific kids coming out of your 2nd or 3rd tier universities like an FAU. And life failures out of Harvard.
So your son will be fine and you can retire at 65 instead of 85.
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Even Alabama isn’t free for most. My son got the highest level Presidential scholarship plus an additional 1k a year. He didn’t apply to honors or any full ride scholarship since he was in UGA with free tuition in December - so that may have affected his award. Hard to compete with a free ride!
Yes , i am multi tasking - sorry if i came off wrong. I’m saying - if you got free to UF, you gotta go. I get the allure of UNC and I love the pedigree - but free is free. There are kids that go to UAH for engineering and they could have gone to a top 30 school - maybe not a GA Tech but a UMD or Illinois. My son chose Alabama for engineering over Purdue…saved me $80K. He chose, not me - but pedigree wise it’s not close.
But there will be Purdue engineers who fail in life and Alabama who are studs.
Her son is obviously brilliant and he’ll be fine.
I guess depending in where from Florida you are from, Gainesville could be like OOS.
The cool thing about getting into UNC and Honors is that - he got into UNC and Honors. You can old that forever - even if you didn’t go. That’s an AMAZING accomplishment.
Looks like there was a last minute amendment by Senator Thurston to delete lines 183-543 of the senate bill SB 86. https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/86/Amendment/936858/PDF. Doesn’t look like this amendment addresses the changes to Benacquisto, its mainly about Bright futures.
Thanks!
He visited South Carolina just before the COVID shut down last year and did not care for the location in Downtown Columbia. The honors program information session was impressive though, but not enough for him to get excited about the school.
Alabama is too southern for him and Arizona is too far west. I was encouraging him to consider U of U, (great merit aid options, good med school and great outdoors recreation options year round ) but he was not into it due to how far west it is. We did a drive through tour of it while skiing in SLC Xmas of 2019.
Even UNC was not perfect for him as he is a strong lean towards engineering as a pre med major and UNC is limited compared to UF for that. He liked the UNC/NC State Biomedical Engineering option for UNC though.
He was very happy to get in UNC but knew without the long shot merit aid it did not make a lot of sense to go there over UF even if he does not care for UF.
My DS is admitted to UNC-CH and Honors Carolina in-state but no merit. We are considering UF though because of the Benacquisto scholarship for national merit finalists. Hard to pass that up.
U of U - i.e. Utah. Wow, you never hear about Utah on the page of a Southeastern college 
I know some (including us) applied to Colorado.
Next week my daughter will go to FSU and UF - but she is in love with College of Charleston. She’s an international scholar…it’s less than UF (about $21K tuition), more than FSU. As a parent I have a hard time as it’s $15K more than FSU. But we’ll see. She did not earn honors at FSU.
My daughter is in at U of SC and liked it - is Honors there - it’s about $6 a year more than FSU but $10K less than C of C. Why does my child pick the school with the least pedigree? and should it matter? i’ve asked b4 and i’ll keep asking - because i’m struggling with that!!!
Yep, UNC is not for engineering - NC State is.
All our kids are going to end up fine or not - and it won’t be because where they go - as long as they go somewhere, we need to chill - most notably me
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I heard back from housing; you’re correct.
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Thanks for the update. So we will not have on-campus housing if we don’t sign the contract before 3/30?
Yes, if you don’t fill out the agreement and pay the $225 you won’t get on campus housing since it is not required for freshman
Got that. It’s a smart way to collect some spare money
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Can anyone convince us this early housing deposit due date is nothing more than a money grab? Is there a legitimate reason the school can’t wait a few weeks and use a may 1st housing deposit due date?
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if UF rlly tryna nickel and dime us?!?
The same for the $25 deposit even before an admission decision. BTW, UT Austin asked for $60. I was happy that I didn’t put it down as I didn’t think my son would get in. It turned out that I was right, so saved $60 