UF delayed its Fall undergraduate application deadline to Nov. 16. The previous deadline was Nov. 1.
The extension was first announced in a tweet on UF’s admissions Twitter account. UF’s admission pages were later updated with the new date.
In an email to applicants, UF cited the COVID-19 pandemic and said the move would offer more time for students to complete their application.
“We hope these additional two weeks will reduce any stress you are feeling and give you a little more time to complete and submit your application,” wrote Charles Murphy, director of Freshman and International Admissions.
The deadline to submit the student self-reported academic record, similar to a transcript, is Dec. 1 and SAT and ACT scores must be requested from the testing agencies by Dec. 15.
Applications for next Fall opened in August and can be submitted through either the Common Application or the Coalition Application.
At a Faculty Senate meeting Oct. 15, UF President Kent Fuchs said undergraduate applications were down 23% from that point in 2019.
This, he said, is due to the challenges surrounding administering standardized tests, like the SAT and ACT, and more students opting to take classes at colleges local to them.
Those reasons contribute to his desire to offer more in-person classes in the Spring, calling the decrease worrisome due to past years’ influxes.
He also said that UF is looking to determine the demographics of students who aren’t applying.
Despite that, he remains confident about UF’s ability to cater to future undergraduate students.
“I’m confident we’ll fill our class,” Fuchs said.