It\u2019s not just for the Ivy League, Duke or Vanderbilt anymore. Early decision has come to Florida\u2019s two flagship universities, so now there\u2019s a new strategy for getting into the University of Florida and Florida State University.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got a big shock this year when FSU first decided to add early decision, which was like, what? Early decision is common at private colleges, not very common at public colleges,\u201d said Mandee Adler, owner of a company called International College Counselors.<\/p>\n
UF quickly followed FSU\u2019s lead and decided to offer early decision admission as well. So what does it mean? Early decision applicants are bound, like a contract, to attend that school if they\u2019re admitted. The universities gain students who will definitely matriculate at their campuses, rather than going elsewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Students can only apply ED to one college. It\u2019s a way to show commitment, said Ilan Leff, a senior at the Poznack School who intends to use the ED option to apply to UF.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think especially for students who have grown up in Florida and have known for a while that UF and FSU might be their top choices, I think this really gives them the opportunity to show that loyalty, show that commitment,\u201d Ilan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A senior at Wellington High School, Taylor Browning says she, too, will apply ED to UF.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a lot harder to get into FSU and UF and just having the option of early decision could be a game changer,\u201d Taylor said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both students said the ED option is a big topic of discussion among their friends.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we can feel very proud that we have great colleges at good prices in our state,\u201d Adler said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She reminds students that if they get their early decision choice, they will never know at what other schools they might\u2019ve been accepted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I think that\u2019s kind of a loss that the kids won\u2019t be able to compare those options,\u201d Adler said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the flip side of that reality, doesn\u2019t ED give students who are borderline a better opportunity to get into that school?<\/p>\n
\u201cA hundred percent,\u201d Adler replied, \u201cSo if you know you want to go to UF, apply ED, full stop, I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything else to say.\u201d<\/p>\n
UF and FSU have acceptance rates at about 20%. That\u2019s not close to the 4-5% acceptance rates at Yale, Brown or Duke, but it\u2019s significantly lower than the national average for public universities, which is 70%. So expect early decision to be a popular option in Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not just for the Ivy League, Duke or Vanderbilt anymore. Early decision has come to Florida\u2019s two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[149357,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-368873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-colleges-universities","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}