re: Off-topic question for Gator students and/or alumni

Look, I'm not going to continue to argue with you. We will have to agree to disagree. You are correct that it is my opinion of the liberal bias that exists at UF and don't believe that I am the only one with that opinion. In fact, I know that I am not because I hear about it too often.

I have no agenda other than hoping that UF and other universities apply equal admission and other policies to all, regardless of race, creed, color, religious beliefs, sexual preferences or whatever else people are separated by.

Go Gators!

Just because other people agree with you doesn’t mean you all can’t be wrong together.

I’m sure there are individuals at uf that have liberal bias. I’m sure there are people with conservative bias. I have met both.

That being said Admissions is not biased against white people. For that matter since you keep bringing up liberals, liberals aren’t biased against white people either. Just like conservatives that work in admissions aren’t biased against minorities.

How can you believe something without proof?

This mindset is seriously flawed. You should consider being open to be proven wrong. What would it take to even change your mind? How could anyone ever prove uf doesn’t have biased admissions?

I think that’s the issue some people have. It should be based 100% solely on merits. Grades, test scores, extra curricular, leadership positions, etc.

All prestigious schools should be (and hopefully are) meritocracies. The perception that they are not, whether true or not, is bad for higher education and it’s authority/respect in society as a whole.

I’m glad UF seemingly does what’s right, and admits based on merits and not characteristics that we are born with and cannot control. That’s the most fair and just process.

100% agree, that’s more poignant than I could word it.

My only issue would be if part of the decision making process included giving “points” towards acceptance based solely on factors that nobody can control and are based on sheer luck at birth- race, gender, sexuality, etc.

Let me ask you this: is there any truth to the thought out there that out of state students are admitted at a higher rate?

UF has been more competitive for top out of state applicants in recent years as they have climbed up the rankings.

So what happened, in about 2010, 2011 maybe, UF started getting a stronger pool of out of state applicants.

Consequently, more started getting admitted. Pretty simple.

Now, some people have accused them of a bias here, because out of state students pay more to be here, but the reality is the applicant pool just got stronger, and that has continued to increase as UF's prestige has rocketed upwards.

Consider this: The UF administration is ridiculously afraid of law suits. There is no way this group would have any official policy of obvious bias in the admissions process.

They designed a defensible HOLISTIC process which gives them a little bit of wiggle room, but only just enough to keep diversity/inclusion nazi's from saying the school discriminates against minorities.

What's so funny about UF is you have people on BOTH sides, minorities and white people, saying that UF is biased. People just get mad when they get denied, and one of the easiest rationalizations a person can make about failing to get admitted is that the system is somehow rigged against them. The victim mentality of denied students at UF is something magical and deeply sad to behold.

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Knowing the black students from my high school (And at UF in general) that somehow got in vs the white students from my high school that didn't, UF absolutely admits on a race based curve

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Maybe, maybe not. Admissions has been trying to tell people for a decade now that they aren't taking people based solely on GPA and ACT/SAT scores but more on their entire body of work. Back in 2012/2013 the provost or someone was quoted as saying doing something like getting a patent in high school on something would be better than a perfect SAT score. UF likes interesting people - that's how I got into one of the Top 10 PhD programs they have despite having a train wreck of an undergrad GPA and a very solid, but not necessarily top drawer GPA or GRE score. Better than most? You bet? Top 10 percent on those two items alone? Probably not. They just thought my background was weird and liked that I had successfully done a lot of oddball shite. And so far, at least in the world of academia, I'm doing better than most of my cohort, so I guess they got something right.

I'm a straight white male from the Deep South btw with a pretty serious libertarian streak. I had a communist on my dissertation committee who I picked. We didn't agree on a damn thing economically, but we got a long well. There are a few blowhards around, on the left and right actually at UF (though I will admit it is skewed to the left), but my experience was most people didn't really give a shite on what you thought, only if you could defend your position intelligently.

A not so big secret at every university at which I've ever been as a student or professor - the vast majority of us don't like other professors who use their classes as soapbox even if we agree with what they are preaching about.

But I get it - the suburbs are sold on this idea that if you do all the right quantitative things, test scores, clubs, GPA, then that means you must be best, even if in practice those aren't always great predictors on their own. I had a good friend whose father used to screen FBI applicants. He once told me that they were wary of students with 4.0s and great test scores because they felt like a lot of time either those students had never really been tested by life or that they had been running so hard since junior high that they were due to crack up. In general, their best new agents tended to be the ones who had a completely blown semester at some point in their lives and recovered.

A little of that is at play when it comes to admissions, though from a different angle. The concern is that modern primary education with it's teach toward the test philosophy - ironically mostly in place to appease the three R's crowd that wants hard numbers on what their kids are learning - says almost nothing about critical thinking skills, creativity, or even the ability to work as a part of a team. My experience with UF, both my own and in watching admissions, is that they will take lower GPAs and test scores (not that much lower, but lower) if I student has shown promise as a leader, critical thinker, creative, or something like that.

So maybe the black students got a second look just because they were black, or maybe, and more likely, they were just more interesting prospects.

I've got students from UF who have been out now for 10 years, and I have students from other universities out in the world as well. In general, the UF grads out perform the others in how fast their careers are advancing. I realize that is anecdotal, but without some contrary data, my opinion is that admissions may be missing some great students, but they certainly aren't just letting scabs in.

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Consider this: The UF administration is ridiculously afraid of law suits. There is no way this group would have any official policy of obvious bias in the admissions process.

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Can you send me a link on UF's official admissions policy and process please? TIA

Thanks. You are right. Holistic approach, right there in black and white. I really would not think a major public university would play it down the middle, but at the very least this gives me hope that we are not headed down the same path as Mizzou.