Over two months after UF temporarily halted transfer admissions for out-of-state and international students, the restriction remains in place.
UF initially paused transfer admissions for out-of-state and international students in February, and labeled it a temporary measure administrators deemed necessary to “better balance UF’s resident and nonresident populations.” The restriction, outlined in emails sent by Provost Joe Glover and Vice President of Enrollment Management Mary Parker to college deans and assistant deans, was expected to last one week.
The pause came amid broader state-level efforts to limit nonresident enrollment in Florida’s public universities.
In February, the House Budget Committee approved a proposal by Rep. Jennifer Kincart Johnson, R-Lakeland, that would require Florida’s state universities to reserve 95% of new fall enrollments for in-state students.
The proposal would reduce the current allowance of out-of-state students from 10% to 5% in incoming cohorts.
UF enrolled 2,124 transfer students in Fall 2024 from a pool of 5,870 applicants, according to the university’s most recent Common Data Set. Among all first-year students, nearly two in 10 came from outside Florida.
The policy also carries financial implications for the university. In the 2024-25 academic year, out-of-state students paid over $22,000 more annually in tuition and fees than in-state students.
UF didn’t respond in time to multiple requests for comment from The Alligator.
For students, the policy shift raised concerns about access and institutional identity.
Sulei Mejia, a 19-year-old public health junior and director of transfer affairs for UF’s Student Government Cabinet, transferred to UF a year ago. Mejia said she understands the pressure surrounding UF admissions for Florida residents, but she still believes the university shouldn’t close the door on qualified applicants from outside the state.
“I feel like UF is such a diverse place,” Mejia said. “It would be wrong to not be able to get more culture and more diversity from these other parts of the world where students are able to transfer in from.”
Transferring to UF transformed Mejia’s college experience, she said. Through Student Government and cultural organizations, she found leadership opportunities, friendships and access to experiences like study abroad, which she said wouldn’t otherwise have been possible.
Julie Habboush, a 20-year-old botany junior, transferred to UF last fall from Santa Fe College through UF’s Going Gator Program. It guarantees acceptance for students pursuing Associate in Arts degrees at several Florida community colleges.
Under Florida’s statewide articulation agreement, students graduating with Associate of Arts degrees from Florida public colleges receive priority over out-of-state applicants.
Habboush said many of her international friends at Santa Fe had hoped to transfer to UF before the university paused nonresident transfer admissions.
“You did all that work to achieve your dream,” she said, “and it’s just out of your hands because of what UF and the state issued.”
Habboush said she didn’t understand why UF wanted to make it more difficult for out-of-state and international students to transfer. With UF increasingly being viewed as a “New Ivy” institution, she said the university should aim for more diversity.
The pause, combined with UF’s consideration of increasing tuition for out-of-state and international students, didn’t make sense to Habboush.
UF’s Board of Trustees will consider a proposal to increase out-of-state and international student fees by 15% at its next meeting on June 11. If approved, UF will have increased tuition for out-of-state students by 25% in two years, after a 10% increase in 2025.
“I think it’s really stupid,” Habboush said of the proposed tuition raise.
In the 2024-25 academic year, international students made up 921 of 35,629 undergraduate students.
Marta Esteves de Melo, a 22-year-old business student at Santa Fe, came to the U.S. from Lisbon with hopes of studying at UF. Like many Santa Fe students, she chose the college because of its reputation as one of UF’s strongest transfer pipelines.
Esteves de Melo has other international friends who applied to UF this year as transfers and got rejected, she said, despite meeting all the prerequisites. Some even signed apartment leases near UF, believing they would get in, she said.
“It’s just a little bit heartbreaking seeing these students getting their rejection letters," she said.
Even though she still plans on transferring next year, Esteves de Melo said watching other out-of-state and international students face rejections this cycle has increased uncertainty.
“Right now, I’m a little bit scared,” she said, “I know I’m not the only one that my dream is to go to UF.”
Contact Swasthi Maharaj at smaharaj@alligator.org. Follow her on X @s_maharaj1611.
Swasthi Maharaj is a political science and politics, philosophy, economics and law (PPEL) junior at UF. This is Swasthi's fourth semester at The Alligator, and her third semester on the university desk. She's also reported on the enterprise desk. Swasthi loves coffee, reading, going to concerts, baking and taking long walks.
