University of Florida

While on vacation, I visited the University of Florida (UF), a public university in Gainesville, with about 36,000 undergraduates, about 90 minutes north of Orlando. My guide was a senior finance major who had studied abroad in Barcelona one summer. He also had a summer internship that he got through UF which led to the job which he has accepted for after graduation.  

UF is among the largest universities in the nation. It has over 100 undergraduate majors, more than 1000 student organizations, and is on more than 2000 acres. Most of the buildings are low-rise brick buildings.  One fun fact about UF is that Gatorade was invented here.

Century Tower

Housing and Food – Freshmen are not required to live on campus but 75% do. There are about 8000 beds available on campus, including traditional doubles, suites, and apartments.    Housing is on a first-come first-serve basis so make a $25 deposit even before you get accepted, if you want to increase your chance of getting the housing you want. 

The school offers all-you-can-eat dining, as well as food from many chain eateries including Chick-fil-a, Starbucks, Subway, and Einstein Bagels. Hare Krishna sells the popular all-you-can-eat $5 vegetarian lunch.

Student Union

Scooter & Motorcycle Parking

Transportation – There are a lot of buses to take you around campus and around surrounding Gainesville. 

The most desirable parking is allocated to scooters and motorcycles.

Library – The libraries are organized from noisiest to most quiet floor as you go from the first floor up.

Football – Go Gators! Football is huge at UF.  Students pay $20 per game or $120 per season for seats.

Football Stadium

Applying – UF uses the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success Application.  Students apply by 11/1 and get a decision on the 2^nd Friday in February at 6 pm. Students can apply to start in the summer or the fall.

UF re-calculates your GPA using only English, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Foreign Language classes.  They weight grades depend on the difficulty of these classes (e.g., Honors, AP, IB).  The mid 50% recomputed GPA is between 4.2 and 4.5.  The middle 50% test scores are 28-32 for the ACT and 1290-1440 for the new SAT. UF also look at your senior year classes.