Gender: F
Ethnicity: White Child of a military family with two 100% VA disabled parents (medically retired) I have been told that FSU gives preference to dependents of medically disabled veterans as they supposedly recieve extra money from the state (the state pays entirely for my tuition).
Location: Brevard County Florida
College Class Year: 2021
High School: Satellite Senior High School (Public)
Academics:
GPA - Unweighted: 3.80 (I have held a 4.0 for 10th, 11th, and hopefully 12th grade so my 9th grade year is what really messed up my unweighted)
GPA - Weighted: 4.50
GPA - Dual Enrolled @ Eastern Florida State College: 4.0 (have taken 63 credits so far but will end up at around 85 after senior year and yes I am aware that FSU will only accept around 60 credits max)
Scores:
ACT: 30
SAT: (have not ever taken, I fell in love with the format of ACT and hated the PSAT so didn’t bother, I’m thinking perhaps I should have…)
AP Language & Composition: 4
AP Statistics: 4
AP Human Geography: 3
AP Physics : 2 (I will not be sending this score over)
Extracurriculars:
(Captain) Girl’s Varsity Bowling Team 11,12
Chorus 7,8,9
(co-Captain) Junior Varsity Soccer 8,9 (stopped after car accident injuries)
Waitress at Perkins Breakfast Restaurant 11,12 (20 hour weeks to save for college)
Volunteer/Service Work:
Volunteering at Relay for Life (American Cancer Society) (48 hours)
Volunteering at Holmes Regional Hospital (80 hours so far)
Honors and Awards:
National Honor Society 11,12
Mu Alpha Theta (math club) 11,12
Eastern Florida State College President’s List 10,11,12
Florida Academic Scholar Award (Bright Futures)
Another note: I have been told that I am an excellent writer by many of my past AP teachers/professors and so I am definitely planning on putting my all into my Personal Essay.
Assuming no surprises between now and then, you’re good. Are you applying for the Honors program? It’s worth doing: honors housing in Landis, priority registration, smaller honors sections of key classes. Bear in mind though you’ll need to have your application in by early October.
Suggestion: start working on your “Why Florida State?” essay now, while you’re not busy with school/job/extracurriculars/other applications.
Assuming there’s nothing you’re leaving out (no bad grades freshman year), I wouldn’t even bother putting much effort into the essay since it wouldn’t even be read. You’ll be in based off your grades and ACT score.
I have already started working on my essay as it is but I don’t want to send everything over until I get several people to review it. I am DEFINITELY going to put a lot into my essay so if they weigh it heavily per admissions I think I’ll be fine (and hopefully they actually read it but it’s understandable if they don’t). Otherwise, I was thinking about applying to the honors college eventually as well. I’m more worried about not qualifying for that.
The way things work at FSU in the Admissions office is that the only time your essay is even looked at is if you are borderline on admission. If you aren’t borderline, the essay is something that you don’t need to worry about spending hours crafting some magnificent work of art.
As long as you have an essay that meets the requirements that FSU has (length, topic, etc), it doesn’t matter the quality unless you’re borderline on admission, and you aren’t.
Well, of course here’s the thing. That may be entirely true, or…may not. Personally, I’m thinking anyone who decides to just make a half-hearted effort at any part of their application on the advice of an anonymous person on the web is probably playing with fire, but that’s just me.
I know several of the admissions officers at FSU that have told me that this was true, and they have said as such multiple times in the media. The average applicant at FSU is reviewed for under 30 seconds before they are either approved or denied.
And I’m not saying to spew a bunch of crap for your essay. However, if you aren’t a borderline student I wouldn’t spend hours worrying over something that no one is going to read. There’s a lot better things you can be doing instead of freaking out over an essay.
I pretty much agree with petrichor in the matter that I’d rather be safe than sorry. I will try my best on the essay regardless of whether FSU completely reads it or not because maybe in reading my essay they’ll offer me a spot at their honors college or more money towards a scholarship of some sort who knows. I’m feeling pretty good about my chances but you can never be sure. However, I am not surprised by the fact that the average applicant is only reviewed for 30 seconds, they have a lot of applicants to go through! There’s no doubt that I’ll be applying this fall and touring it once more. Thanks to everyone who was able to offer me a little more insight.
Update: I am applying for early graduation at my highschool so that I may graduate in December of 2016, I will also be graduating from my local college (Eastern Florida State College) with my AA in December of 2016. It has been a bit complicated, but it looks as if I will be applying as a Transfer student to UCF from the Spring term of 2017 with a total of 81 credits. I’m glad to hear, as physicsfreak mentioned, that there is no fixed cap on dual enrollment credit transfers. In fact, even if I am accepted to UF I will still most likely attend UCF because of this matter. Most other colleges like UF, FSU, and USF have a cap of around 60 total transfer credits, or so that’s what I’ve heard. Does anyone have any advice for my transfer to UCF for Spring 2017, or any criticisms at all? I’m just trying to save time and money at this point.
You are a freshman applicant even if you have an Associates degree if you earned that AA while still in high school. That’s actually better for you as there are usually more freshman scholarships available than transfer ones.
From UCF’s website (most schools are the same), read the freshman (FTIC) description:
UF has a cap of 60 transfer credits for DE, unsure of USF or UCF. FSU has a cap for AP/CLEP and other testing credits but we were told that didn’t apply to credits earned through dual enrollment.
