Subpar students still admitted
Despite competition, data shows 3% of fall freshmen were ‘alternative admits’
Even as admissions to Florida public universities have become increasingly competitive, those institutions are still accepting students who don’t meet the state’s basic admission requirements.
Nearly 1,000 students who lacked the grades or test scores to get into the state’s four-year universities were admitted and enrolled in the fall 2018 freshman class, data obtained through a records request shows. These socalled “alternative admits” repre“At sent about 3% of the 30,670 freshmen who entered the state’s universities last August.
The data doesn’t specify why students who lacked admission requirements were admitted but university officials say they consider the entire application, which can include essays, when making decisions. They also say accepting applicants who fall short of the state requirements makes freshman classes more diverse and allows more students who are the first in their families to attend college.
the end of the day what we’re trying to do is pick students who we think are going to be able to be successful and that covers a wide range of backgrounds and student abilities,” said Marc Laviolette, the former director of admissions at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers.
Students who leave high school with the best grade-point averages and test scores, he added, aren’t always stars in college.
Most of the 980 students who didn’t meet the state’s criteria were accepted to three of the state’s least competitive institutions: Florida A&M University,
Florida Atlantic University and Florida Gulf Coast University. Nearly one in five of last fall’s freshmen fell below the state’s minimum requirements at Florida Atlantic and Florida A&M.
An even greater number — 1,565 applicants — were admitted and enrolled for the summer term in 2018, when the competition for slots is less stiff at most institutions.
To be admitted to state universities, students typically need high school GPAs of 2.5 or higher and their coursework must include, in addition to the classes required to earn standard diplomas, two foreign language credits.
Applicants are also supposed to present scores of at least 1060 out of 1600 points on the SAT or 21 out of 36 points on the ACT. For the SAT, students need a score of 440 each on the critical reading and math sections. If students submit the rival ACT exam, the state looks for scores of 19 on the reading and math sections and 17 on the English portion.
Students who enroll in state universities without meeting these requirements are called “alternative admits.”
At the University of Central Florida’s fall 2018 class, 77 students, about 2% of the fall class, were admitted without meeting the state’s criteria.
The state’s most competitive institutions, the University of Florida and Florida State University, were among the least likely to take students who didn’t meet state requirements. Fewer than 20 students who didn’t meet the state requirements enrolled at each of those schools last fall.
Several institutions contacted by the Sentinel said they don’t weigh whether an applicant has relatives is the family member of a donor when making admissions decisions. UCF said it considers whether a student has a relative who attended, but it isn’t the deciding factor. Some institutions said a talented athlete or musician might get a leg up.
Most of the students admitted to UCF who didn’t meet the state requirements lacked at least one of the high school courses required for admission to state universities, a UCF spokeswoman said. Some were first-generation college students and others had “special talents or abilities,” she said.
Competition was stiff for spots in last fall’s freshman class at UCF, which rejected about 64% of the recent high school graduates who applied. The class had an average SAT score of 1328 and weighted GPA of 4.12.
Those denied admission to this fall’s freshman class at UCF included Jenaeé David, who moved to the Orlando area last year after graduating from high school in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. She said she thinks she didn’t make the cut because of a low score on the math portion of the SAT.
“I really do feel like I could have done well,” said David, who instead enrolled at Valencia College.
She’s decided she’s fine with starting her college career at Valencia but called being shut out of UCF “frustrating.”
At Florida Gulf Coast University, applicants from high schools in places where graduation requirements are different from Florida’s sometimes don’t have all of the required credits required for admission and the university doesn’t want to penalize them, former director of admissions Marc Laviolette said.
About 10% of the state’s fall freshman were from outside Florida in 2017. At Florida Gulf Coast, out-ofstate students made up 14% of the class.
The university isn’t trying to increase its class size, Laviolette said, but to meet enrollment goals, “we do have to look at students that don’t meet the minimums.”
Students with special talents, such as athletes and musicians, go through a separate review process but aren’t guaranteed admission.
“They don’t have a blank check, trust me,” he said.
Some states limit the number of students who can be accepted without the minimum requirements. Last fall, 7.5% of Louisiana State University’s freshman class didn’t meet that state’s criteria, which says the school is supposed to admit only students with scores of at least 25 on the ACT or a grade point average above 3.0 on a scale of 4, The Advocate in Baton Rouge reported. No more than 4% of the school’s freshman class was supposed to fall below that mark.
More than 40% of Florida’s alternative admits last fall enrolled at Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton. That’s partly because the school admitted some students who have the minimum cumulative scores, but not the subscores, Chief Press Officer Lisa Metalf said.
“In an effort to fulfill our mission to provide access to quality education and expand opportunity for first generation, low socioeconomic status, and other marginalized populations, we have admitted students who fall below the sub score threshold yet are otherwise admissible,” she said.
But two out of five students who applied to be part of FAU’s fall class were turned away. Those who were accepted had an average SAT score of 1137, well above the state minimums.
Some groups urge colleges and universities to
rely less on entrance exam scores, saying high school GPAs are better indicators of how students will fare at their institutions.
A 2014 study by the National Association for College Admission Counseling of students at institutions that don’t require SAT or ACT scores concluded there were no significant differences in college graduation rates and grades between students who did submit test scores and their peers who didn’t.
Posting test score requirements may discourage otherwise eligible applicants from trying because they may not know institutions sometimes make exceptions, said Wil Del Pilar, vice president of higher education policy and practice for The Education Trust. The trust is a nonprofit research and advocacy group that works to close opportunity gaps for students of color and students from low-income families.
“It serves as an immediate signal that you don’t meet the requirements and you shouldn’t apply,” Del Pilar said.