More than 1,400 rejected applicants called UF’s Admission Office Monday looking for answers.
UF spokesperson Steve Orlando wrote in an email that the calls came from “disappointed applicants who didn’t get admitted.”
The volume of calls increased by about 300 compared to the Monday after decision day in Spring 2016, he said.
Andrea Felder, the director of freshman and international admissions, said the office likely received more calls because more students applied to UF this year. She said the university has been working to recruit more high-school students from around the world.
This was also the first year students could apply using the Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success, a mass application system which allowed more students to submit applications, Felder said.
“We express our empathy for their disappointment for not being admitted to the University of Florida,” Felder said.
Friday, UF announced that 13,214 students were admitted for Summer and Fall out of more than 34,000 applicants. In 2016, 42.5 percent were admitted from about 32,000 applicants, and 44 percent were admitted for the Class of 2019.
Felder said she won’t know if appeals have increased this year until students can officially submit them March 1. She said students often call and imply they will try to appeal their decision, but few do.
Even fewer have their decision overturned, she said.
“Applications are reviewed multiple times during the initial review process, so our admission staff and committee makes strong and solid decisions,” Felder said. “So students can appeal their decision but, again, because their application has been reviewed multiple times already, there isn’t any new or compelling information that would cause a decision to be changed.”
When students call, Felder said they are advised on other ways to enroll at UF, including UF Online or planning to transfer.
“We are limited in the number of spaces for students to enroll on campus,” she said. “Despite the disappointment, we stand behind our decision and we cannot change them or reevaluate applications just because they’ve gone through an extensive evaluation to begin with.”
When Bianca Barrera was a senior in high school in 2015, she said she still planned to eventually make it to campus after she found out she wasn’t accepted into UF.
Barrera, 20, said UF was her No. 1 choice for a university, so Barrera, a business administration sophomore, enrolled at Santa Fe College and transferred to the university this Spring.
“I just didn’t take no for an answer,” she said. “There’s always other options. The first initial decision is not always the final decision.”
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