Santa Fe College students now have guaranteed transfer admissions into UF through a new program established this year.
The Going Gator transfer program offers Santa Fe and Florida Gateway College’s students direct admissions into 18 degree programs from UF’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. UF transfer applications for the program open Summer B 2025.
“I think it's great, especially for people like me,” Omar Pimentel, an 18-year-old Santa Fe geology freshman, said. “There's situations in which there's kids that don't do very well in high school, but then they want to commit when they get older in college or for their future careers.”
He said he applied for the program after hearing about it from an advisor at a Santa Fe open-house event. The adviser told Pimentel that the Going Gator program is trying to increase enrollment into less popular majors by making them more accessible to community college students.
Pimentel said he got lucky since geology, a major that qualifies for the program, is also what he wants to pursue. He said he’s thankful for the program.
“I have many friends that are already in UF,” Pimentel said. “It's nice to be able to go into that school with them.”
Transfer students in the program must complete their associate in arts degree, prerequisite courses for their intended major and maintain a 2.5 cumulative GPA, according to a WUFT article. Students must also show an intent to transfer to UF for Summer 2025 or later.
“A student who comes to Santa Fe will know exactly what they need to do in order to be ready and to be accepted into their program of choice,” Stefanie Waschull, Santa Fe’s associate vice president of liberal arts and sciences, said. “It's a seamless pathway.”
She said more than 70 Santa Fe students are already in the program.
Santa Fe College offers multiple collaborative programs with UF. In July, Santa Fe announced it had partnered with UF’s College of Pharmacy to create the Pharmacy Early Assurance Program to help Santa Fe students get into UF’s pharmacy school, according to a news release.
“I feel like there's multiple routes that you can take to get to where you want to be,” said Lia Farrell, a 20-year-old Santa Fe business administration sophomore. “I don't think not getting accepted into UF the first time should stop other people from taking an alternate route, which Santa Fe offers.”
She said she is looking to transfer to UF but is not using the Going Gator program. Farrell said she had not heard of the program before, and she thinks Santa Fe doesn’t inform students enough about Going Gator.
Though she doesn’t qualify for the program, she said it seems like an important avenue to help students transition into a larger university.
“Transferring is a stressful process,” said Arasan Subramanian, a 19-year-old Santa Fe environmental science sophomore. “If you don't get in, you're kind of f*cked.”
He’s heard about the Going Gator program but decided against that path. He said he plans to submit a transfer application to UF this semester.
Students who are admitted into UF through the Going Gator program cannot change their major after transferring to UF, according to Santa Fe’s website.
Subramanian said he doesn’t like the inability to change majors.
“[If you] change your major to go transfer [to] UF, you'll get in,” he said, “but I don't know if it'll be worth it.”
According to NPR, 83% of enrolled community college students plan to transfer to a four-year college or university.
About 33% of those enrolled in community colleges for Fall 2015 transferred to four-year institutions, according to a report published this year by the Community College Research Center, an independent research center studying two-year colleges and open-access four-year institutions.
“There can be obstacles for transfer students,” said Adrienne Provost, the UF CLAS director of student strategic initiatives. “Things like not knowing the appropriate course sequence or not knowing which prerequisites lead to which majors.”
Provost said more majors could be added to the program, which is still developing. She said the program doesn’t have a maximum number of students who can apply.
The Santa Fe website says students who are in Going Gator will have benefits such as “specialized advising” and “college success workshops.”
“We know that this is going to be something that will support students from our local communities,” Provost said.
Contact Timothy Wang at twang@alligator.org. Follow him on X @timothyw_g.
Timothy Wang is a junior journalism student and the Fall 2024 Santa Fe College Reporter. He was the University Administration reporter for Summer 2024. His hobbies include gaming or reading manga.
