Oscar Santiago Perez was shaking when he saw that he had been accepted to UF.
The 17-year-old senior at Lake Gibson Senior High School lives in Lakeland but is from Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. He scored a 1280 on the SAT, a 28 on the ACT and has a 4.3 GPA. He plans to study political science and eventually go to law school.
He said he was working on homework when he found out, and the first person he told was his best friend, Emily, who said:
“You didn’t need to doubt yourself.”
Santiago Perez was one out of 49,401 people who applied to UF and one of 14,561 accepted, said UF spokesperson Steve Orlando.
The number of applications UF receives each year is steadily climbing. Last year there were about 41,000 applicants, which means that more than 8,000 more people applied wanting to be a part of the university’s class of 2024.
Of those accepted, 11,115 were accepted for Fall 2020 and 3,443 were accepted for the Summer B term, said Orlando. These numbers are similar to last year’s numbers of about 3,000 and 11,000 respectively. The information regarding the average test scores and GPA of the class of 2024 and demographics will be released to Monday, Orlando said.
There were 3,719 students accepted to PaCE, or the Pathway to Campus Enrollment, Orlando said. This is about 600 more students than those were accepted to the program last year. Students who enroll in PaCE are required to start their degrees online but can transfer to courses on-campus after they earn 60 credits.
More students were accepted into the Innovation Academy as well. Orlando said there were more than 600 who were accepted into the program, compared to 500 last year. Innovation Academy operates on a Spring-Summer calendar to allow students to utilize the fall semester for internships and other extracurricular activities.
Alexa Farmer, 17, was the captain of her cheer team at Kingwood Park High School in Houston, Texas. She was involved in the National Honor Society as well as the Humble Rotary Program, where she helped with community service projects.
Farmer maintained a 5.5 GPA and got a 1390 on her SAT. She intends to study health science on a pre-medical track.
She said she didn’t want to go to anywhere but UF. Her father is an alumnus. When Farmer was born, in fact, her dad wore a Florida Gators shirt. She’s come to UF to watch volleyball and football since she was a child.
“I love everything about Florida and I knew that it was a perfect fit for me,” she said.
Contact Kaelyn Cassidy at kcassidy@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @kaelyn_cassidy.
Alexa Farmer, 17, was recently accepted to the UF class of 2024 with her dad, John Farmer, a UF alumnus. Farmer had a 5.5 GPA and got a 1390 on her SAT.
