Are all the awards out at once?
My daughter was admitted to the honors program and the research scholars program with a 2K ( 500 a semester for 2 years) scholarship she was notified about on 2/26. Today she received an email to check her portal and it only had the same scholarship offer listed. Very disappointed to be told she was in the top 5% of applicants in the research scholars letter and then receive absolutely no merit. It also was almost a cruel joke to ask her to check her portal for scholarship information only to find the previous offer instead of a merit scholarship.
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The top 5% of applicants is about 2,000. They donât offer merit scholarships to that many people. It is more like 700. See below from the 2019 UF Admissions Annual Report:
For the 2018-2019 academic year (for the 2019-2020 freshman class), 354 in-state awards and 357 out-of-state awards were offered with 174 in-state awards accepted and 104 out-of-state awards accepted. Average yield rate for in-state awards was 49.15% and 29.13% for out-of-state awards.
As you can see, it is very rare to get offered Merit at UF, especially if you are In State. The year of this report had 28,200 In State applicants. About 1.2% of those received a Merit Scholarship offer.
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UF honors takes in a little less than 10% of each class. Thatâs a little below Cornellâs acceptance rate. I would think people understand when 1 of 2 kids with the exact same stats get in to Cornell because of holistic admissions while the other doesnât. Same deal here.
Another mom here wondering ⊠My son had 35ACTs, 4.5 GPA, National Merit Finalist, 3 varsity sports, Head Prefect, science award, math award, english award, chess and Jeopardy whiz, tutors others, musician, student ambassador - and it was just not enough.
@Jupiter2025 Although no one knows the exact honors profile, probably because there isnât one, rest assured that your sonâs achievements were more than enough for enrollment in the Honors Program. There arenât too many 35 ACT / 4.5 GPA / NMF / 3 sports/ musician / whiz kids out there anywhere, let alone at UF Honors. He would be very competitive for all elite schools including HYP. Not saying he would get in because the whole admissions thing can appear to be quite random within his top tier peer group.
Your son will do great wherever he decides to attend. Congrats!
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I am in no way trying to flex this, but looking for genuine advice as I have to decide by today - I am OOS and got into honors and got the gator nation scholarship ($20k/yr), is this a huge deal for UF?
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I donât get why you are waiting go accept! And yes 80k is a big deal
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You got an 80K scholarship and acceptance in to the Honors program at a top 30 university. I think that is a huge deal for anyone.
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Thank you! I am deciding between UF and Pitt for context as Iâm from PA, trying to balance transportation costs and fit but this is affirming, thank you so much!
Congratulations and best of luck!
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Yup. Same thing. My daughter is valedictorian, National Merit Finalist, 35 ACT/ 1540 SAT, 4.89, State Cup final 4 team, Regional All-Star and didnât get into honors. The essays are read by students and if it doesnât catch the interest of the reader in 30 seconds, they donât read the rest of it.
Iâve seen this mentioned before on this site. Is this verified anywhere by the university?
When S went through the process a few years ago (may have changed), we attended an honors application session while touring UF. They had a panel of Honor students address the group. They stated the essay was an important part of the application and was read / judged by current honor students. I donât know if that was the initial pass and then on to the pros for final round or if the kids make the decision. Seems odd to me that the kids would play such an important role if the university is really trying to attract the top students for the program. Thatâs important as most state schools are primarily filled with state residents and the state economy would benefit if the best students stayed in state and were recruited by local companies.
UF needs to really build a true Honors College (with real impactful differentiation) if they want to compete with the best schools. It may be that they donât feel the need as they get lots of great students selecting them over FSU, UCF, etc. However, they lose a lot of great students to OOS destinations that offer far more compelling programs. Maybe they donât care. Maybe they do.
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This is from their website:
The Honors Program sets the criteria for reviewing the two Honors essays. The senior associate director trains current Honors students who have been carefully selected to serve as essay reviewers. These students begin their work by successfully completing the university-required student records and privacy training.
Student reviewers spend a significant amount of time learning the intricacies of each essay, with detailed instructions and rubrics for evaluation provided. Students then review mock essays to ensure they can accurately categorize essays with the rubrics. The Honors review process is a blind review, meaning that the reviewers do not know whose applications they are reading.
They donât have life experiences and the maturity to make those decisions (in my opinion). I was an honor student in college. Graduated Magna Cum Laude from a fine state flagship. I know the present me would view / read/ interpret these essays quite differently from the college me. Experience canât be taught, it has to be experienced.
Not saying the kids donât do a good job. Saying it shouldnât be their job.
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Not necessarily. I think current honors students that are very involved in the honors college generally have a very good grasp on what an honors college student (or more accurately, the best of them) looks like.
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Iâll agree to disagree. No way to really know. Just seems like they pass on lots of amazing kids that statistically would be at the higher end of the quant piece. Full disclosure, S was admitted to the Honors Program at UF and chose another option as he didnât see that program as a meaningful differentiation from the âregularâ UF which didnât suit his wish list.
UF has way more high stats kids than can be in honors. So not surprising that some donât get in. High stats doesnât guarantee that the student will be a good fit for the honors college. I see that with my DDâs honors program, which also weighs essays heavily with many high stats students not getting into honors (although applicants are evaluated by staff, not students). I do agree that UF honors isnât one of the stronger honors colleges/programs out there. That doesnât stop students from feeling slighted at not getting in.
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No issue with the essay. Quite the contrary I think they should have to write one and maybe answer some other creative questions. Just donât think the existing Honors students should have anything to do with reading and evaluating essays. Donât see why they wouldnât have an admissions officer doing that. Iâm sure itâs more of a resource / capacity issue and thatâs a challenge with many large state schools.