<p>UF now has an acceptance rate of 43%, which is relatively high compared to years past. Why the increase in acceptance rate? Is this a bad omen for the quality of the university?</p>
<p>I don’t think so. If you look the 2012 class compared to three years ago, the acceptance stats have trended upwards, with the percentage of lower stat students decreasing. </p>
<p>It looks like less low-performing students have applied, while more high-performing students have. Those same high performing students also apply at other great schools, so UF has to admit more of them, knowing nearly all have other great options and some won’t end up attending. Now, I ,ay be wrong as I have no experience in this area, just observations of the data. </p>
<p>2013: [University</a> of Florida - Admissions](<a href=“http://www.admissions.ufl.edu/ugrad/frprofile.html]University”>Freshman - How To Apply - University of Florida)
2009: [University</a> of Florida - Admissions](<a href=“http://www.admissions.ufl.edu/ugrad/frprofile09.html]University”>http://www.admissions.ufl.edu/ugrad/frprofile09.html)</p>
<p>It may have to do with the whole Innovation Academy thing they started. It’s a spring/ summer term only that allows them to admit more kids during times when the school isn’t so full. this year they accepted like 800, and they hope to eventually increase to 2,000 or something like that. may want to check their site, don’t quote me on anything.</p>
<p>UF is admitting more students, mainly because of the IA. The IA gives the chance for more students to attend UF. So say one person who was highly qualified for UF indicates IA interest and another not as qualified but still qualified for UF did not indicate IA interest. Unlike past years where the more qualified would get in and the latter would not (or would get deferred to summer), the higher qualified would go to IA and the latter would get in. UF can also take an IA-interest applicant and want them for IA instead of traditional or traditional instead of IA, depending on their essays, extracurricular and stuff, if I’m not mistaken.</p>
<p>Also mfhettig is right, more higher stat students are applying to UF each year. It’s to the point that a UF student in the class of 2005 or before, would not get in today (even if they would be considered well qualified). The competition for UF and UM have gotten immensely HUGE than compared to 6+ years before.</p>
<p>Medschoolplease: I wouldn’t worry about the quality of UF. It’s fantastic, and the best in the state by a wide margin according to a new Forbes ranking. </p>
<p>And as far as sciences go, you can’t do better than UF in Florida. It has the top University hospital in the state and garners about $700 million in research funding annually. That is more than every other Florida state university combined. Compare that to about $360 million at UM. </p>
<p>Go Gators!</p>
<p>That’s great news considering that I want to go into academic medicine! I consider UF and UM to be the best schools in FL, and I’m glad to be a Florida Gator!</p>
<p>Admission rates don’t mean anything by themselves. It really depends on the quality of the applicant pool. FIU actually has a lower admission rate than than all other Florida public schools, including UF, but which school do you think is more selective?</p>
<p>For some perspective, here is a list of the big public universities in Florida with their acceptance rates, along with their applicant statistics (according to last year’s US News data):</p>
<h2>School: Acceptance% Avg HS GPA 75 Percentile SAT/ACT</h2>
<p>UF: 43.22% 4.0 1360 / 30
FSU: 59.5% 3.8 1290 / 28
UCF: 46.38% 3.7 1280 / 28
USF: 44.56% 3.6 1230 / 27
UNF: 50.79% 3.6 1230 / 25
FIU: 39.5% 3.7 1210 / 27
FAU: 50.73% 3.3 1150 / 25
UWF: 66.05% 3.3 1150 / 26
FGCU: 69.9% 3.4 1120 / 24
FAMU: 61.11% 3.0 1020 / 21</p>
<p>The difference is that UF (and FSU) are not located in big metro areas so most people don’t bother to apply unless they have good grades/test scores (or they play football) so a higher percentage are admitted. Basically, they have a “higher-quality” applicant pool.</p>
<p>FIU, UCF and USF have to reject many, many applicants. A large number of wildly unqualified people in their respective metro areas apply because they are the nearest, half-way decent schools. Many people probably assume (incorrectly) that these schools will just take anyone.</p>
<p>A guy who lives in the Miami, Orlando or Tampa metro area with a 2.9 weighted GPA and a 1000/1600 SAT isn’t going to bother applying to UF or FSU (unless he plays football) but I’ll bet he applies to FIU, UCF or USF who will most likely reject him, thus lowering their “acceptance rate.”</p>
<p>I wish USNews would include some of this information when they mention admission rates in their rankings, because a lot of people seem to take them at face value.</p>