Ashley Morrissey became a Gator on Feb. 11, 2010.
After getting a text message from her friend, she went to check her UF application status online. She didn’t expect to get in.
But her application was accepted. She refreshed the page to make sure it was real.
When she realized it was, she jumped around her room and screamed in celebration.
“I was overcome with joy,” she said.
According to UF spokesman Steve Orlando, an estimated 11,000 out of 26,500 high school applicants across the country will find out Friday that they — like Morrissey — are Gators.
Of that 11,000, Orlando said 6,400 are expected to enroll.
“I know it’s hard for some people to believe, but not everybody who is admitted comes to the University of Florida,” he said.
Orlando said one reason is that students who are qualified to get into UF are also getting accepted to other top schools around the country.
“Part of it is a function of how competitive it is now” he said. “Maybe a few years ago, the students we were admitting were deciding between UF, FSU and UGA. Now, the students are deciding between UF, Stanford and MIT.”
The competitive atmosphere has paid off for the university’s graduates, Orlando said.
In a survey published by the Wall Street Journal in September, job recruiters listed UF as ninth in their top 10 schools to find new college graduates.
The average GPA of admitted students has been increasing steadily over the past eight years. In 2010, the average GPA of admitted students was 4.28.
Also, the average SAT and ACT scores of admitted students in 2010 were 1940.5 and 29 respectively.
Michael Cornwell is one of the students waiting for an answer from the university.
Cornwell, an 18-year-old senior at Gainesville High School, said UF is his first choice.
He hopes to enter the mechanical engineering program.
However, he said he is unsure if he’ll get in.
Though he scored a 30 on the ACT and has a 4.6 GPA, he said he can’t help but have his doubts.
“My friends tell me I’m going to get in, but me myself I’m not so confident,” he said.
If he is accepted, he plans to run a celebratory lap through the streets of his neighborhood, letting out a victorious “Yeah!”
But until Friday, Cornwell and all of the 26,000 others will be forced to wait for their turn to either celebrate like Morrissey or look for somewhere else to go.
