Essential University of Florida Admissions Tips

You want to get into University of Florida, I want to help you do it. My name is Craig Meister. I'm a college admissions coach. You can learn more about me and my college admissions and college application coaching services over at my website, collegemeister.com. University of Florida is a public institution. It's the flagship institution in Florida. And it's popular with Floridians in particular. Nine out of ten undergraduates at UFR are Floridian. But for those from out of state who are interested, there could be a lot of draws to the institution and so I'm happy to make this video today not just for the Florida residents but for all those students who might find a great deal of attraction with elements of what is available to you at University of Florida. Tip number one, below this video there's a link to my classic article, How to Get Into the Ivy League Ethically. I want you to read that article from start to finish because if you can... absorb what's in that article as early in high school as possible, you are going to be in a very strong position to have a compelling case for admission at UF. UF is quantitatively interested in you and qualitatively interested in you, but they're going to be looking first and foremost at your high school transcript and the rigor of the courses you took and the grades you earned in those academic courses. So it's extremely important that you pay notable attention to the part of that article that focuses on the rigor of your curriculum and also your test scores in a world that's gone test optional or test free, which is a politically correct way of saying test blind. UF has never gotten rid of tests. There's a lot of reasons associated with that, particularly the Bright Futures Scholarship, which is available to Florida students, is contingent on one's test scores on one of three tests, the ACT, the SAT, or the CLT. And so they never could get rid of it in Florida, even if they wanted to. Oh, my phone is ringing. Are they going to ask me a question about standardized testing? I'll mute the phone. So Florida still puts a great deal of emphasis on test scores. And so I encourage you to not joke around when it comes to preparing for the SAT, ACT or classical learning test, CLT. If you take those tests, you want to do well and you're going to submit those scores if you want to be considered for admission at University of... Florida. So that article that I just mentioned, How to Get Into the Ivy League Ethically, summarizes sort of the foundation that you need to build for yourself so that you can enter the first day of your senior year in high school well-positioned to get in to UF as a 12th grader. Tip number two, in terms of those test scores, I would say you really want to try to go high with those scores. 1400s are higher on the SAT, 32, 33 are higher on the... ACT and I think it's like a 96 or something on the CLT. This is a new test, the classical learning test for students who go to classical curriculum education schools, but also for students who are just well-read could be another option that is now considered for admission to University of Florida. So any and all of these tests could be worth your while researching so that you can have a standardized test component of your application. that will make the UF admissions team swoon. My next tip is focused on the actual UF supplement to the Common Application. UF is on the Common Application. For many years it was not, and as a result they have seen a bump in their demand in recent years at University of Florida to get in because the UF application was not that user-friendly, whereas the Common Application is used by so many students all around the world. And therefore it makes sense that more students from out of state would be interested in UF. As a full-fledged member of the Common App, UF does require you to submit the essay on the Common Application. So unlike schools like Penn State or Pitt or Virginia Tech or even Northwestern now, which is crazy, that does not require the Common Application essay, UF... does. So I'm not going to talk about the Common App Essay in this particular video, but what I will say is I have linked below this video previous videos I have produced about the Common App Essay, particularly how to strategically approach which prompt to respond to on the Common App Essay, but also some common pitfalls that very smart students just like you make when they are writing their Common App Essay. So I encourage you at a later point after you're finished watching this video, please watch my videos on the Common App Essay because... UF will be reading your Common App essay so you do need to take that seriously just because it's a large state school and a lot of large state schools have reputations for being more focused on your actual transcript and like back in the day on your test scores. UF focuses on all of it but of course the grades, the transcript, the rigor, the curriculum, the test scores will be reviewed. first and foremost, but the Common App essay is important as well. So definitely make sure not to give that short shrift on your actual time commitment and efforts in the first weeks of your senior year. You want to make sure you actually are knocking the Common App essay out of the park. Now, as it relates to the UF supplement, let's dig into that because this is where things get a little bit sort of, frankly, complex and confusing. Students often sort of second guess, should I be applying this way? Should I be applying that way when it comes to UF? University of Florida allows you to apply for fall or for what is known as summer B. You should apply for what you want. Summer B has less demand than fall, clearly. But basically, the acceptance rates are similar. I would say that what you get from starting in the fall is that you're starting when most of the students are starting. You get the last summer after your senior year to yourself or whatever you want to do privately. Whereas summer B, you start in the summer and you start with a smaller cohort of students. If you apply for fall but they want to only accept you for summer, that's what they're going to do. So just realize that even if you put your preferences fall, you could absolutely be offered summer B. If you put... Summer B, I don't believe it is as common or even happens where they offer you fall, but there's just less demand for Summer B. And because who wants to start college in the summer? Summer is associated with freedom and not school. But what I will say is that if you like the idea of maybe having a more user-friendly start or quieter start to your experience at UF, I would recommend Summer B. Because that allows you to start with a smaller number of students will be less overwhelming. This big campus will be made smaller for you when you start. Yes, it will be extremely hot. I think you have a slightly better shot of getting into UF as a summer B student, but it's ever so slight. But again, that's only for you if socially you're OK not starting when sort of the vast majority of freshmen start. And I think that should be OK for you because ultimately you're going to graduate from UF and It shouldn't really matter when you start, but a lot of people are very particular about when they start their college experience. So I can understand why a lot of kids will just put fall. But also knowing that if you put fall, you will still be considered for summer B, I can also understand why most people put fall. Because if they think for whatever reason you're not a great fit for their fall, but they want to offer you summer, they'll do it. Okay, so just be aware of that in terms of selecting your preferred start term. In terms of the actual deadline to apply to University of Florida. for out-of-state students, you need to understand it is 11-1. That is their regular decision deadline. It is the regular decision deadline for fall start or for a summer B start. So that's a very early deadline for fall start. I'm sorry, for no EA, no ED, but that's their regular deadline. So please make sure you understand that is the drop-dead deadline. You need to apply to University of Florida. By 11-1, if you are going to really give yourself the shot of a mission that you want, now if there's space available, they officially say you could apply afterward. But frankly, they caught a regular deadline for a reason on 11-1 because it's the deadline. So treat it as the deadline. Don't just roll up to the bar at 11-15, basically the 15th of November and say, I think I'll apply to, oh, now I'm interested in UF. No, that's not how it's going to work. If you're serious about UF, you have to do some planning and you have to get your application in by November 1. And that includes your test scores. Everything needs to be in by November 1 to give yourself the very best shot of admission to University of Florida. If you're from out of state, again, this is surprising because usually you associate early action or early decision deadlines with November 1, but now you need to associate UF's. regular decision deadline with November 1. What is your housing plan is also asked to you on the application. If you ultimately get into UF and want to go to UF, you ideally probably want to live on campus. And say you want to live on campus on the application, I would go so far as to say that even before you get into UF, you won't know until late January, early February, you should apply for housing before you even know if you've gotten in. You lose $25 if you don't. actually go or get in or you don't need it, but the housing may not be available to you if you wait to apply for housing until after you actually get in. So it's extremely important that you are willing to part with $25 in order to start reserving your housing even before you've heard whether or not you've been accepted to University of Florida. In the academic section of the Common App for UF, they ask you... to indicate where you're coming from. Was it a three-year high school? Was it a four-year high school? Was it a home school, non-traditional degree, a GED equivalency program? Definitely answer that honestly. Also, they're gonna ask you about whether or not you will earn an AA degree. Will you receive an AA degree or earn 60 dual enrollment credit hours prior to graduating from high school or earning your GED? That happens more with UF because they have really robust dual enrollment. current enrollment options in Florida, many dual enrollment credits in the state floating around, and so as a result, many students who are only graduating high school also seem to have their AAs relative to other states. So just don't be confused by that. They also do ask you to best describe your ranking in your high school. That is a question that you don't need to answer, especially if you go to a private school that doesn't rank. But if you do know your rank, definitely estimate it correctly in response to that question. Academic major, they ask again what academic major you're interested in. Officially UF does not give students a harder time of getting into one major or the other dependent on the demand for the major and they don't have officially higher standards from one major or the other. I don't know if I can believe that but because some of their programs are exceptional but maybe it's just because so many UF applicants these days are pretty strong applicants they don't need to necessarily have higher standards for one major or another program or the other. But just put what you honestly want to major in as the major because switching once you get there could be more of a pain in the butt. Beyond that, let's get into the next section. Again, I'm going through this very sort of methodically because there are a lot of important small questions that you might not think are important that are really important. They ask you, do you have any siblings applying this year? Again, be accurate, be honest about that. They do ask about your gender identity, even at UF, be honest about that. They ask you about whether you're from foster care or you've grown up in foster care or homeless or are classified as a dependent or ward of the state. Definitely be honest about that as well, because UF is known to be relatively welcoming to students who come from under-resourced backgrounds. Then they also ask for you to estimate your gross family income. Don't lie. Do not lie. Definitely be honest. If your parents are honest with you, you're going to be able to be honest with UF and explain to your parents or parent or guardian that you need this information in order to accurately and honestly respond to a particular required question on the UF application. Do you live in a single-parent household? Again, please be honest. Don't make it up one way or the other because you think it's going to give you a benefit, but please be honest. These are important questions. All questions are important to be honest about. Have either of your parents, step-parents, or legal guardians earned a bachelor's degree? Again, be honest about that. And are you a US citizen? Of course, you want to be honest about that. And what is your military status? You want to be honest about that. So you may be thinking, this is not a very valuable video so far. All he's telling me to do is be honest. But here we're getting to more parts that are going to be a little bit more subjective in nature. So you want to hold on. The honors program at UF is a great program. And it makes a small school, a big school small and with a cohort of really smart people. Just to give you an idea, the profile most recently published by University of Florida states that the honors program participants undergrad have an average of a 15. 10 roughly on the SAT or a 33.5 on the ACT. These are smart kids. Their GPA is weighted to be 4.6. And so, you know, if you go to UF, what a great way to surround yourself with some sort of high IQ kids maybe with you by being in the honors program. So I would definitely say apply if you're a smart person, a smart guy or gal who has the statistics to back it up. Yes, though it's going to require more writing. So if you are interested in the Honors Program, you're going to be responding to the following essay prompt. American novelist Henry Miller once said, my hunger and curiosity drive me forward in all directions at once. Students in the UF Honors Program are known for pursuing multiple interests and passions. Tell us about a subject or topic that you find intellectually stimulating and are curious to learn more about while in college. Which directions do you imagine your hunger for that subject or topic will take you while at UF? How do you envision the honors program, academic and extracurricular resources will support you along the way? You have 400 words with which to respond. This sort of rhymes with the essay prompt number six on the Common App's main essay. You know, what is something you're passionate about? But unlike that essay where you really cannot focus in on a particular college and give nitty gritty in the weeds details. of how you want to pursue that in college because you can't align it with one college in particular. In this particular essay you can and you must. You must make the case that you're interested in X, Y, and Z with great passion. It doesn't have to be three things. It could be two things. It could be one thing. It could be three things. And then you need to paint a picture with words of you taking advantage of specific opportunities at UF in general and available to honors program students in particular that will allow you to sort of harness your passions in ways that you could not do so elsewhere. This has to be a very compelling essay. It needs to be structured well. You want to have an intro with a thesis. You know, that paragraph that starts the essay needs to give the reader a sense of where you're going to be going with this essay. So you want to sort of lay out in that first paragraph what the subject or topics are or is that you find intellectually stimulating. You know, again, it may be up to three at most, but really probably less is more here in the sense that, you know, you can focus on one thing that really is stimulating for you. You can go hog wild on describing that in the body, but you just lay it out, introduce it in the intro. And you can at least allude in summary to sort of how you feel like the elements that are going to come together for you as a UF honors student are going to particularly allow you to dig deep with that subject or that passion area or that topic while a UF student and ideally a UF honors student. Again, in the body is where you're really going to want to describe how you're going to. You imagine your hunger for that subject or topic will take you in particular ways through the UF experience. You've got to get specific. You've got to name a professor or a course that's available only to honors students or other opportunities that are only available to honors students and are based in or founded in resources that, again, are UF specific. So you really have to make this particular essay sing UF. By the time they're reading. done reading this, you want to have given the readers of this essay the sense that you know UF backwards and forward, you know the honors program backwards and forward, and you have made a compelling case that you were a strong fit for the honors program at UF and that the honors program at UF is a strong fit for you. You've got to really paint and convey that fit throughout the specifics that you use to make your case in your body. And then the conclusion needs to say something new. Do not just restate. what you say in the intro or the body. Say something new and compelling and reflective and thoughtful at the end so they can see that you can communicate effectively like someone with a 1510 on the SAT should be able to communicate. You know, again, this is a work the equivalent on the CLT or the ACT. This is a program that is for the very best of the best students. In a world that really is increasingly de-emphasizing academic and intellectual ability, an honors program essay application is really looking to... have you prove that you are actually able to keep up with the Joneses academically and intellectually. And so you definitely want to make sure that the way in which you produce this essay conveys that both explicitly and implicitly. All right. So we've gotten through the honors essay. We haven't even gotten to the standard essay yet. But the next section asks you about Innovation Academy. What the heck is Innovation Academy? Again, this is what makes UF confusing. Innovation Academy at UF is a groundbreaking academic program that pulls unique students from more than 25 majors into a spring-summer academic calendar filled with energy collisions that become ideas and one common minor, innovation. So it's not all the majors that are available at UF that offers this. The main majors that offer it are things related to design, entrepreneurship, science, creativity. type majors are associated with this. Everything from sustainability in the built environment to public relations and journalism management, as I mentioned, entrepreneurship type majors are associated with this. And therefore, if you don't find your major in the list that's available on Innovation Academy, don't do it. But the benefit of applying for Innovation Academy concurrently with applying to UF is that Not as many people want to get into Innovation Academy because, A, they may not be into innovation, but B, what did I just say? The calendar is such where you basically are on campus like spring, January through August. You're not going to be officially a full-time student at UF during football season. And so those who are very interested in their social lives and having very robust, vigorous social lives may be less into. the Innovation Academy. But if you are mainly in it to win it at UF and get a degree from UF, then Innovation Academy could be an amazing fit for you if you don't care about sort of your unusual spring, summer academic calendar and also the fact maybe you actually would love the idea of having an innovation minor. and also have the opportunity to really combine the innovation with whatever your major is. And that major is offered via Innovation Academy. So again, my recommendation would be if this intrigues you and excites you and you're not so upset about the calendar change, I would definitely seriously consider Innovation Academy. And if you do consider Innovation Academy, you have another 300-word essay you can respond to and you must respond to. Discuss why you are interested in becoming a UF Innovation Academy student and how it will influence your professional career path. You got to do that. You got to write the essay just like that. So intro paragraph, really intro sentence or two with a thesis that lays out a quick abstract or summary of what you're going to be arguing in your body. Then the body paragraph or two is going to prove your thesis that you stated in the intro and you're going to use good supporting showing specific detail about UF Innovation Academy and how sort of marrying innovation minor with the major that you're intending to major in. would be like a dream come true for you vis-a-vis your long-term or short-term goals after graduating from UF. So you have to sort of connect it with what is your goal for why you want to even study, let's say, oh, I don't know, advertising, persuasive messaging, and then connect that to why combining that with an innovation minor would be really beneficial for you upon graduation from UF. So you've got to sort of make the connections very explicit in your response. And then the conclusion, like I often say, needs to say something new. Do not just repeat the thesis of the body. or elements of the thesis of the body in new words in the conclusion. Say something new so that they can really get a sense that you've given this thought, you're reflective, you're mature, you're thoughtful, and you're able to communicate in a way that they would be excited to have you on campus, even if it is this sort of unique niche program where you get to sort of focus a hybrid on your major and innovation. All right, that's a nice opportunity for you to make a compelling case. So if you really want to be in it to win it, as I often say at any school, Take the time necessary to draft. Take the time necessary to draft well. Don't just cobble something together on Halloween and think that it's all going to work out for you if you submit it by November 1. You've got to start well ahead of time to go through the drafting process for all essays. But I would definitely say for the UF essays in particular, because they're coming at things from different perspectives or angles. So if you're applying for the Honors Program or if you're applying for Innovation Academy, if you're applying for these things. You need to really think from the perspective of how am I going to make a new compelling case in this essay, and it's not going to be repetitive compared to what I've also shared in another essay. All right. There is another program you might be considered for at UF, which is called PACE. That's actually where you don't have to do any extra essays, but that's where they don't think you're really ready for UF writ large, but they'll offer you the opportunity to start at UF online for a while. Again. that would be something I would not turn down if your ultimate goal is to graduate from UF, but that would mean that your social life would be like you know really inhibited because you would be an online student and therefore your academic engagement with professors would be very different it would be much more virtual and online if you end up doing Pace especially in the first several semesters. But that's not going to be an extra essay that's just going to be something that's offered to you if you cannot be offered according to the admissions team over at UF any of the other slots. at UF. Now, beyond that, let's say you don't want Innovation Academy. Let's say you don't want the Honors Program. You just want to get into sort of traditional UF. You still have some extra writing to do. They ask you the question, do you have any employment or family obligations that limit your participation in extracurricular activities? If you say no, you move on to the next question. If you say yes, another 250-word essay opens up to you. So what do you do here? I would think long and hard about having a liberal approach to defining whether or not you have family or employment obligations that limit your participation in other extracurricular activities. What do I mean by this? Let's say you need money to feed yourself or need money for the things that you want in life or your parents don't let you sit home all day after school or during the summers. They make you go get a job. That would all qualify in my mind as having a family obligation to get a job. Um, so Definitely click yes so you can sort of explain more about that job and how it limits your ability to do other extracurricular activities. Similarly, let's say you take care of your four younger siblings or your homebound grandmother. Don't be shy in sharing those details here. They want to get a sense of why maybe your extracurricular resume slash commitments are not as robust as maybe other competing students. And so this is your chance to explain that. So I would definitely say yes, if anything could remotely be construed to be a situation where you have an obligation to your family or to just earning money or some sort of job that requires you to not then take on. leadership positions at your school or do community service, et cetera. So definitely take the opportunity to explain it in this short essay. How I would organize this essay? I would organize it like an essay. Introduce what your obligations or jobs are or job or obligation is at the top in an intro slash thesis sentence or so. Then in the body, show the amount of time and explain the responsibilities that you have that may really tire you out. Don't make it sound like you're making an excuse or you're complaining, but try to show them. the commitment and responsibilities you have to that family obligation or to that employment so that they get a sense that this is serious, this is real, and it would make sense that it would distract you from maybe having other engagements within your school or overall community because of the amount of time, energy, and focus and accomplishments or achievements that you have taking care of members of your family or taking care of your house or doing other things within your family or within the employment. And then the conclusions would say, again, something new, thoughtful. Again, you don't want to seem like you're asking for sort of a get-out-of-jail-free card here or an excuse or complaining about your responsibilities in any way. So try to keep things positive and light, but definitely try to be explicit and specific about what those responsibilities are in narrative format in this short 250-word essay. The next question is, have you participated in or been assisted in your college preparation and search by programs outside of classroom? such as education, talent search, take stock in children, upward bound, boys and girls club, et cetera? If the answer is yes, you have another 250 word essay to provide the name of the program, details, benefits of your involvement, and how long your experience has continued. I would not qualify. So just by watching this video, you do not have to say that Craig Meister helped me with my application. The college Meister's awesome and I love him. No, you don't have to do that. This is only for one of those structured programs. But again, If you, in fact, did take part in one of those sort of upward bound type programs or take stock in children programs or talent search programs, you can explain briefly. It doesn't even have to be the full 250 words here. You know how you feel like you benefited, how it opened your eyes to the world of post-secondary education and how maybe you're thankful for the opportunity and how you feel like you're a better applicant for it to UF. And you're better prepared to hit the ground running at UF as a result of sort of the skills that you've developed working with. you know, the Boys or Girls Club or whatever other organization maybe helped you. If you cannot honestly answer that question as a yes, then say no, but that means that you will not have that 250-word essay to respond to. And that's okay. You know, you don't want to write too many essays if you can avoid it and it's really not applicable to you. So don't just look at, oh, I have to write as many essays as I can. As a good thing, if you're really lying and you're not, you haven't taken part in one of those programs, you shouldn't, particularly this one, you should not say yes to the question unless it is in fact an answer of yes, being truthful. And then finally, you get the one essay that is unique to UF if you are just applying as a traditional student and you don't want honors, you don't want an innovation academy, you don't have family obligations or a job, and you also didn't work with the Boys or Girls Club, etc. You have the first and last essay question that is a supplemental essay question for UF, which is this. Please provide more details on your most meaningful commitment outside. the classroom while in high school and explain why it was meaningful to you. This could be related to an extracurricular activity, work, volunteering, an academic activity, family responsibility, or any other non classroom activity. So if you already talked about a meaningful experience in your family obligation slash employment essay, don't talk about the same one here. Again, I'm a big believer that you don't want to repeat yourself unless absolutely necessary. So try your very best to talk about some other commitment, either, you know, in an extracurricular setting in the school or in your community or another job that you had that you had to mention in the previous section. But whatever it might be, you want to try to focus not specifically on a narrative resume entry here, but rather share sort of a more subjective take on, you know, why you got into it, what you learned from it, how you've grown from it. why you're a better student or person as a result of it. So you want to focus sort of on the qualitative or the subjective, much more on the quantitative and the objective, because that's more focused on what you would include on the activity section of the common apps common portion and less so on, you know, the touchy-feely stuff. You're not going to say how you felt in the activities page about one of your activities, but you can and you should talk about how you felt. about an activity in this particular essay and sort of why it's important to you. Why was it meaningful to you? Is it meaningful to you because you got out of it something very different than what you expected? or you were forced to do it by your mom or your friend, but then you really loved it and you're so happy you tried something new. So there has to be sort of a moral to the story. And this has to be written like a story, like a little essay. Intro with a thesis in a sentence or so, body to support the thesis, prove the thesis in showing specific detail. Again, focus more on your feelings than on facts because that's more of a resume type approach would be just facts. You want to engage the reader and then the conclusion should go a step beyond the thesis, should go a step beyond the body. and say something new, thoughtful, and reflective, something you have not said already. All right. Beyond that, they give you one more spot. It's not an essay officially, but they give you one more spot to please provide information in less than 650 words if you say yes to the following question. Is there any additional information or extenuating circumstances the admissions committee should know? when reviewing your application? I would absolutely click yes for this question. Not a lot of students will though, because they're going to look at it more conservatively and they're going to say to themselves, no one died. There wasn't any big sickness in my family or for me. There wasn't any extenuating circumstances. I've done my activities page of the Common App. I don't need to really say more about that. And so they'll click no. I think that's a wasted opportunity. You should click yes. And in that space, you should provide any additional information that you've not been able to fit elsewhere in the application. Nine times out of ten, that is going to be you elaborating on one or more of your extracurricular activities in a way that you could not do in either the activities page of the common portion of the Common App or the additional information section on the writing page of the Common App. And so this brings to mind a very important point that I'm so happy you've held on to. or hold it held on for because I know I've talked at you a long time. But I'm a strong proponent of putting together a full-fledged, unabridged, extracurricular resume about yourself in either a Google document or a Word document before you even start filling out your Common Application. And if you do do that, you are going to be well positioned in one of those three spaces that I just mentioned, the Activities page of the Common App, the Additional Information section on the Writing page of the Common App. or in this 250-word response on the UF Supplements, the Common App, to throw into all of those sections the details you need to throw in so that by the time UF admissions officers are done reading your application, they're going to have 900 words additional about you related to your extracurricular achievements and accomplishments, plus all those extra characters on the activities page that... Students who are just going to do the minimum just the activities page are not going to be providing So you you have 900 extra words if you add the 600 enough. I'm sorry not at 950 extra 900 words I'm doing the math wrong, but yeah, I know actually that's right six. Yes, that's right nine 900 extra words 650 plus 250 is 600 7800 yes 900 extra words see we've gotten late in the video, and I'm losing track of things, but Let me make this very clear. The additional information section of the writing page, as well as this optional 250-word response in the UF supplement, gives you 900 extra words plus all the characters you have in the activities section. Treat them all as your opportunity to paste in, where appropriate, all the juicy details of the depth and breadth of what you've accomplished in the extracurricular realm since you started high school. This could be jobs. This could be community service. This could be religious activities. This could be sports. This could be arts-related activities that are not showing up on your transcript. If it goes beyond your transcript and you have maybe pre-college programs that you did over the summer or other enrichment programs that you did over the summer, any and all of that, maybe travel you've engaged in that has been educational or edifying for you, all of that can and should be thrown in somewhere. And the way you start to put that together is by putting together one unabridged awesome resume about yourself on a Google or Word document. And once that is perfected, That's the point at which you start copying and pasting that content into the different parts of the common application and the UF supplement in order to make sure that the UF admissions committee is going to see it in one way, shape, or form before they make a final ruling or judgment on your application. So you may be saying, Craig, how do I put together a really strong resume? Whether you have two activities or you have 20 activities, I strongly recommend that you purchase or rent. my how to build an extraordinary extracurricular resume short course which is linked below this video. That short course is less than an hour in length. And like I said, for a few dollars, you can rent it. For a few more dollars, you can buy it. And that course is going to explain how you put together a strong extracurricular resume that differentiates you in a positive manner for admissions committees, not just at UF, but admissions committees at all the colleges you're applying to. How you're going to be able to share or convey that information will depend on the college you're applying to. But again, in the case of UF, we've just mentioned the three places where you're going to be able to copy and paste. that information from your resume into the UF application in some way, shape, or form. But the first step, like I said, is putting together an awesome, and I would argue extraordinary, extracurricular resume. And that is why I've named that course How to Build an Extraordinary Extracurricular Resume. Now, again, that course is not so pretty in terms of the actual production value because I'm just one guy, but the actual content you're going to get from that 40 to 50 minute course is going to be exactly what you need in order to put together. and on your end, a beautiful and extraordinary extracurricular resume from which you will be able to pull and throw into the common application for UF. And that's really what's key here because this video is all about helping you seal the deal at UF. And I want you to use every blank space to your benefit. And this is a key blank space. Even though it's really not set up like an essay, it should be treated very seriously, just as important as an essay. And you could definitely just open it up by saying, See below for additional details about one or more of my extracurricular activities that did not fit into another part of the application. That's a nice way to open it up. And then you can just throw in those additional resume entries. Now, if you have had an extenuating circumstance, God forbid, like a family divorce, or maybe you move countries or states in your high school career, and that explains something else that maybe you have not been able to convey elsewhere, you can absolutely write that short little essay here as well. But that means you will be able to write less about your extracurricular activities. But maybe you don't need to write more about your extracurricular activities here because maybe you feel like you've already done a really good job of that in the additional information section on the Common Apps writing page or on the activities page. So again, every student's in a unique situation. But if you do have more details to share about your awesome extracurricular exploits to date, this would be the third and final place where you could include them for UF to consider them. All right. My mouth is dry. I hope you've enjoyed this. This went on way longer than I had hoped. And this is why I had avoided doing UF for so long because University of Florida is a pain in the butt to apply to if you really can sleep well at night after you've hit submit and feel good about the fact that you've given yourself as many ways in as possible. Because as you see all these optional avenues in add up. And so, you know, you definitely want to sort of, you know, pace yourself. Which is ironic because they have a program called the PACE program. But pace yourself with your UF application because whether you're in-state and in Florida and you think your numbers are right on track and you can get in easily, or whether you're from out-of-state, in which case no one should think they can get in easily. And I would argue no one should think they should get in easily, whether from in-state or out-of-state, because UF is a competitive school these days and it's a strong school these days academically. You need to not put this together in two or three days before your deadline. You need to be building out your UF application slowly but surely. August, September, and hopefully hit submit sometime in October, earlier in October, just to get it off your mind, my goodness, because as you see, there's lots of nooks and crannies within the University of Florida supplement to the common application and therefore just the overall common application experience itself when applying to University of Florida. Thank you for holding on. I think you've learned a lot if you've lasted this long. You've seen my little Italian little doggie there. All right. So he's been... I'm searching up at you, looking up at you this entire time. My name is Craig Meister. If you want to learn more about me and working with me one-on-one throughout the college application process, definitely go to my website, collegemeister.com. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. Please share it with your family and friends because this video could help them, but also my overall YouTube channel could help them. And of course, my YouTube channel is CollegeMeister, the at CollegeMeister. So that's YouTube.com slash CollegeMeister. I hope you stay safe and stay well in this crazy world. And most importantly, I wish you the very best of luck getting into the University of Florida. Go Gators. Go Gators. And I think I'm going to get a drink of Gatorade. Talk to you soon.

You want to get into University of Florida, I want to help you do it. My name is Craig Meister. I'm a college admissions coach.

You can learn more about me and my college admissions and college application coaching services over at my website, collegemeister.com. University of Florida is a public institution. It's the flagship institution in Florida. And it's popular with Floridians in particular.

Nine out of ten undergraduates at UFR are Floridian. But for those from out of state who are interested, there could be a lot of draws to the institution and so I'm happy to make this video today not just for the Florida residents but for all those students who might find a great deal of attraction with elements of what is available to you at University of Florida. Tip number one, below this video there's a link to my classic article, How to Get Into the Ivy League Ethically. I want you to read that article from start to finish because if you can...

absorb what's in that article as early in high school as possible, you are going to be in a very strong position to have a compelling case for admission at UF. UF is quantitatively interested in you and qualitatively interested in you, but they're going to be looking first and foremost at your high school transcript and the rigor of the courses you took and the grades you earned in those academic courses. So it's extremely important that you pay notable attention to the part of that article that focuses on the rigor of your curriculum and also your test scores in a world that's gone test optional or test free, which is a politically correct way of saying test blind.

UF has never gotten rid of tests. There's a lot of reasons associated with that, particularly the Bright Futures Scholarship, which is available to Florida students, is contingent on one's test scores on one of three tests, the ACT, the SAT, or the CLT. And so they never could get rid of it in Florida, even if they wanted to. Oh, my phone is ringing. Are they going to ask me a question about standardized testing?

I'll mute the phone. So Florida still puts a great deal of emphasis on test scores. And so I encourage you to not joke around when it comes to preparing for the SAT, ACT or classical learning test, CLT.

If you take those tests, you want to do well and you're going to submit those scores if you want to be considered for admission at University of... Florida. So that article that I just mentioned, How to Get Into the Ivy League Ethically, summarizes sort of the foundation that you need to build for yourself so that you can enter the first day of your senior year in high school well-positioned to get in to UF as a 12th grader.

Tip number two, in terms of those test scores, I would say you really want to try to go high with those scores. 1400s are higher on the SAT, 32, 33 are higher on the... ACT and I think it's like a 96 or something on the CLT.

This is a new test, the classical learning test for students who go to classical curriculum education schools, but also for students who are just well-read could be another option that is now considered for admission to University of Florida. So any and all of these tests could be worth your while researching so that you can have a standardized test component of your application. that will make the UF admissions team swoon. My next tip is focused on the actual UF supplement to the Common Application. UF is on the Common Application.

For many years it was not, and as a result they have seen a bump in their demand in recent years at University of Florida to get in because the UF application was not that user-friendly, whereas the Common Application is used by so many students all around the world. And therefore it makes sense that more students from out of state would be interested in UF. As a full-fledged member of the Common App, UF does require you to submit the essay on the Common Application.

So unlike schools like Penn State or Pitt or Virginia Tech or even Northwestern now, which is crazy, that does not require the Common Application essay, UF... does. So I'm not going to talk about the Common App Essay in this particular video, but what I will say is I have linked below this video previous videos I have produced about the Common App Essay, particularly how to strategically approach which prompt to respond to on the Common App Essay, but also some common pitfalls that very smart students just like you make when they are writing their Common App Essay.

So I encourage you at a later point after you're finished watching this video, please watch my videos on the Common App Essay because... UF will be reading your Common App essay so you do need to take that seriously just because it's a large state school and a lot of large state schools have reputations for being more focused on your actual transcript and like back in the day on your test scores. UF focuses on all of it but of course the grades, the transcript, the rigor, the curriculum, the test scores will be reviewed. first and foremost, but the Common App essay is important as well.

So definitely make sure not to give that short shrift on your actual time commitment and efforts in the first weeks of your senior year. You want to make sure you actually are knocking the Common App essay out of the park. Now, as it relates to the UF supplement, let's dig into that because this is where things get a little bit sort of, frankly, complex and confusing.

Students often sort of second guess, should I be applying this way? Should I be applying that way when it comes to UF? University of Florida allows you to apply for fall or for what is known as summer B. You should apply for what you want.

Summer B has less demand than fall, clearly. But basically, the acceptance rates are similar. I would say that what you get from starting in the fall is that you're starting when most of the students are starting.

You get the last summer after your senior year to yourself or whatever you want to do privately. Whereas summer B, you start in the summer and you start with a smaller cohort of students. If you apply for fall but they want to only accept you for summer, that's what they're going to do. So just realize that even if you put your preferences fall, you could absolutely be offered summer B.

If you put... Summer B, I don't believe it is as common or even happens where they offer you fall, but there's just less demand for Summer B. And because who wants to start college in the summer? Summer is associated with freedom and not school.

But what I will say is that if you like the idea of maybe having a more user-friendly start or quieter start to your experience at UF, I would recommend Summer B. Because that allows you to start with a smaller number of students will be less overwhelming. This big campus will be made smaller for you when you start. Yes, it will be extremely hot. I think you have a slightly better shot of getting into UF as a summer B student, but it's ever so slight. But again, that's only for you if socially you're OK not starting when sort of the vast majority of freshmen start.

And I think that should be OK for you because ultimately you're going to graduate from UF and It shouldn't really matter when you start, but a lot of people are very particular about when they start their college experience. So I can understand why a lot of kids will just put fall. But also knowing that if you put fall, you will still be considered for summer B, I can also understand why most people put fall.

Because if they think for whatever reason you're not a great fit for their fall, but they want to offer you summer, they'll do it. Okay, so just be aware of that in terms of selecting your preferred start term. In terms of the actual deadline to apply to University of Florida.

for out-of-state students, you need to understand it is 11-1. That is their regular decision deadline. It is the regular decision deadline for fall start or for a summer B start.

So that's a very early deadline for fall start. I'm sorry, for no EA, no ED, but that's their regular deadline. So please make sure you understand that is the drop-dead deadline.

You need to apply to University of Florida. By 11-1, if you are going to really give yourself the shot of a mission that you want, now if there's space available, they officially say you could apply afterward. But frankly, they caught a regular deadline for a reason on 11-1 because it's the deadline.

So treat it as the deadline. Don't just roll up to the bar at 11-15, basically the 15th of November and say, I think I'll apply to, oh, now I'm interested in UF. No, that's not how it's going to work. If you're serious about UF, you have to do some planning and you have to get your application in by November 1. And that includes your test scores. Everything needs to be in by November 1 to give yourself the very best shot of admission to University of Florida.

If you're from out of state, again, this is surprising because usually you associate early action or early decision deadlines with November 1, but now you need to associate UF's. regular decision deadline with November 1. What is your housing plan is also asked to you on the application. If you ultimately get into UF and want to go to UF, you ideally probably want to live on campus.

And say you want to live on campus on the application, I would go so far as to say that even before you get into UF, you won't know until late January, early February, you should apply for housing before you even know if you've gotten in. You lose $25 if you don't. actually go or get in or you don't need it, but the housing may not be available to you if you wait to apply for housing until after you actually get in. So it's extremely important that you are willing to part with $25 in order to start reserving your housing even before you've heard whether or not you've been accepted to University of Florida. In the academic section of the Common App for UF, they ask you...

to indicate where you're coming from. Was it a three-year high school? Was it a four-year high school?

Was it a home school, non-traditional degree, a GED equivalency program? Definitely answer that honestly. Also, they're gonna ask you about whether or not you will earn an AA degree. Will you receive an AA degree or earn 60 dual enrollment credit hours prior to graduating from high school or earning your GED?

That happens more with UF because they have really robust dual enrollment. current enrollment options in Florida, many dual enrollment credits in the state floating around, and so as a result, many students who are only graduating high school also seem to have their AAs relative to other states. So just don't be confused by that. They also do ask you to best describe your ranking in your high school.

That is a question that you don't need to answer, especially if you go to a private school that doesn't rank. But if you do know your rank, definitely estimate it correctly in response to that question. Academic major, they ask again what academic major you're interested in.

Officially UF does not give students a harder time of getting into one major or the other dependent on the demand for the major and they don't have officially higher standards from one major or the other. I don't know if I can believe that but because some of their programs are exceptional but maybe it's just because so many UF applicants these days are pretty strong applicants they don't need to necessarily have higher standards for one major or another program or the other. But just put what you honestly want to major in as the major because switching once you get there could be more of a pain in the butt. Beyond that, let's get into the next section.

Again, I'm going through this very sort of methodically because there are a lot of important small questions that you might not think are important that are really important. They ask you, do you have any siblings applying this year? Again, be accurate, be honest about that.

They do ask about your gender identity, even at UF, be honest about that. They ask you about whether you're from foster care or you've grown up in foster care or homeless or are classified as a dependent or ward of the state. Definitely be honest about that as well, because UF is known to be relatively welcoming to students who come from under-resourced backgrounds.

Then they also ask for you to estimate your gross family income. Don't lie. Do not lie. Definitely be honest.

If your parents are honest with you, you're going to be able to be honest with UF and explain to your parents or parent or guardian that you need this information in order to accurately and honestly respond to a particular required question on the UF application. Do you live in a single-parent household? Again, please be honest. Don't make it up one way or the other because you think it's going to give you a benefit, but please be honest. These are important questions.

All questions are important to be honest about. Have either of your parents, step-parents, or legal guardians earned a bachelor's degree? Again, be honest about that. And are you a US citizen?

Of course, you want to be honest about that. And what is your military status? You want to be honest about that. So you may be thinking, this is not a very valuable video so far.

All he's telling me to do is be honest. But here we're getting to more parts that are going to be a little bit more subjective in nature. So you want to hold on. The honors program at UF is a great program. And it makes a small school, a big school small and with a cohort of really smart people.

Just to give you an idea, the profile most recently published by University of Florida states that the honors program participants undergrad have an average of a 15. 10 roughly on the SAT or a 33.5 on the ACT. These are smart kids. Their GPA is weighted to be 4.6. And so, you know, if you go to UF, what a great way to surround yourself with some sort of high IQ kids maybe with you by being in the honors program.

So I would definitely say apply if you're a smart person, a smart guy or gal who has the statistics to back it up. Yes, though it's going to require more writing. So if you are interested in the Honors Program, you're going to be responding to the following essay prompt. American novelist Henry Miller once said, my hunger and curiosity drive me forward in all directions at once. Students in the UF Honors Program are known for pursuing multiple interests and passions.

Tell us about a subject or topic that you find intellectually stimulating and are curious to learn more about while in college. Which directions do you imagine your hunger for that subject or topic will take you while at UF? How do you envision the honors program, academic and extracurricular resources will support you along the way?

You have 400 words with which to respond. This sort of rhymes with the essay prompt number six on the Common App's main essay. You know, what is something you're passionate about?

But unlike that essay where you really cannot focus in on a particular college and give nitty gritty in the weeds details. of how you want to pursue that in college because you can't align it with one college in particular. In this particular essay you can and you must.

You must make the case that you're interested in X, Y, and Z with great passion. It doesn't have to be three things. It could be two things.

It could be one thing. It could be three things. And then you need to paint a picture with words of you taking advantage of specific opportunities at UF in general and available to honors program students in particular that will allow you to sort of harness your passions in ways that you could not do so elsewhere.

This has to be a very compelling essay. It needs to be structured well. You want to have an intro with a thesis.

You know, that paragraph that starts the essay needs to give the reader a sense of where you're going to be going with this essay. So you want to sort of lay out in that first paragraph what the subject or topics are or is that you find intellectually stimulating. You know, again, it may be up to three at most, but really probably less is more here in the sense that, you know, you can focus on one thing that really is stimulating for you.

You can go hog wild on describing that in the body, but you just lay it out, introduce it in the intro. And you can at least allude in summary to sort of how you feel like the elements that are going to come together for you as a UF honors student are going to particularly allow you to dig deep with that subject or that passion area or that topic while a UF student and ideally a UF honors student. Again, in the body is where you're really going to want to describe how you're going to. You imagine your hunger for that subject or topic will take you in particular ways through the UF experience. You've got to get specific.

You've got to name a professor or a course that's available only to honors students or other opportunities that are only available to honors students and are based in or founded in resources that, again, are UF specific. So you really have to make this particular essay sing UF. By the time they're reading. done reading this, you want to have given the readers of this essay the sense that you know UF backwards and forward, you know the honors program backwards and forward, and you have made a compelling case that you were a strong fit for the honors program at UF and that the honors program at UF is a strong fit for you.

You've got to really paint and convey that fit throughout the specifics that you use to make your case in your body. And then the conclusion needs to say something new. Do not just restate. what you say in the intro or the body. Say something new and compelling and reflective and thoughtful at the end so they can see that you can communicate effectively like someone with a 1510 on the SAT should be able to communicate.

You know, again, this is a work the equivalent on the CLT or the ACT. This is a program that is for the very best of the best students. In a world that really is increasingly de-emphasizing academic and intellectual ability, an honors program essay application is really looking to... have you prove that you are actually able to keep up with the Joneses academically and intellectually.

And so you definitely want to make sure that the way in which you produce this essay conveys that both explicitly and implicitly. All right. So we've gotten through the honors essay. We haven't even gotten to the standard essay yet.

But the next section asks you about Innovation Academy. What the heck is Innovation Academy? Again, this is what makes UF confusing.

Innovation Academy at UF is a groundbreaking academic program that pulls unique students from more than 25 majors into a spring-summer academic calendar filled with energy collisions that become ideas and one common minor, innovation. So it's not all the majors that are available at UF that offers this. The main majors that offer it are things related to design, entrepreneurship, science, creativity.

type majors are associated with this. Everything from sustainability in the built environment to public relations and journalism management, as I mentioned, entrepreneurship type majors are associated with this. And therefore, if you don't find your major in the list that's available on Innovation Academy, don't do it. But the benefit of applying for Innovation Academy concurrently with applying to UF is that Not as many people want to get into Innovation Academy because, A, they may not be into innovation, but B, what did I just say?

The calendar is such where you basically are on campus like spring, January through August. You're not going to be officially a full-time student at UF during football season. And so those who are very interested in their social lives and having very robust, vigorous social lives may be less into. the Innovation Academy. But if you are mainly in it to win it at UF and get a degree from UF, then Innovation Academy could be an amazing fit for you if you don't care about sort of your unusual spring, summer academic calendar and also the fact maybe you actually would love the idea of having an innovation minor.

and also have the opportunity to really combine the innovation with whatever your major is. And that major is offered via Innovation Academy. So again, my recommendation would be if this intrigues you and excites you and you're not so upset about the calendar change, I would definitely seriously consider Innovation Academy.

And if you do consider Innovation Academy, you have another 300-word essay you can respond to and you must respond to. Discuss why you are interested in becoming a UF Innovation Academy student and how it will influence your professional career path. You got to do that.

You got to write the essay just like that. So intro paragraph, really intro sentence or two with a thesis that lays out a quick abstract or summary of what you're going to be arguing in your body. Then the body paragraph or two is going to prove your thesis that you stated in the intro and you're going to use good supporting showing specific detail about UF Innovation Academy and how sort of marrying innovation minor with the major that you're intending to major in.

would be like a dream come true for you vis-a-vis your long-term or short-term goals after graduating from UF. So you have to sort of connect it with what is your goal for why you want to even study, let's say, oh, I don't know, advertising, persuasive messaging, and then connect that to why combining that with an innovation minor would be really beneficial for you upon graduation from UF. So you've got to sort of make the connections very explicit in your response. And then the conclusion, like I often say, needs to say something new.

Do not just repeat the thesis of the body. or elements of the thesis of the body in new words in the conclusion. Say something new so that they can really get a sense that you've given this thought, you're reflective, you're mature, you're thoughtful, and you're able to communicate in a way that they would be excited to have you on campus, even if it is this sort of unique niche program where you get to sort of focus a hybrid on your major and innovation. All right, that's a nice opportunity for you to make a compelling case. So if you really want to be in it to win it, as I often say at any school, Take the time necessary to draft.

Take the time necessary to draft well. Don't just cobble something together on Halloween and think that it's all going to work out for you if you submit it by November 1. You've got to start well ahead of time to go through the drafting process for all essays. But I would definitely say for the UF essays in particular, because they're coming at things from different perspectives or angles.

So if you're applying for the Honors Program or if you're applying for Innovation Academy, if you're applying for these things. You need to really think from the perspective of how am I going to make a new compelling case in this essay, and it's not going to be repetitive compared to what I've also shared in another essay. All right. There is another program you might be considered for at UF, which is called PACE. That's actually where you don't have to do any extra essays, but that's where they don't think you're really ready for UF writ large, but they'll offer you the opportunity to start at UF online for a while.

Again. that would be something I would not turn down if your ultimate goal is to graduate from UF, but that would mean that your social life would be like you know really inhibited because you would be an online student and therefore your academic engagement with professors would be very different it would be much more virtual and online if you end up doing Pace especially in the first several semesters. But that's not going to be an extra essay that's just going to be something that's offered to you if you cannot be offered according to the admissions team over at UF any of the other slots. at UF.

Now, beyond that, let's say you don't want Innovation Academy. Let's say you don't want the Honors Program. You just want to get into sort of traditional UF. You still have some extra writing to do. They ask you the question, do you have any employment or family obligations that limit your participation in extracurricular activities?

If you say no, you move on to the next question. If you say yes, another 250-word essay opens up to you. So what do you do here?

I would think long and hard about having a liberal approach to defining whether or not you have family or employment obligations that limit your participation in other extracurricular activities. What do I mean by this? Let's say you need money to feed yourself or need money for the things that you want in life or your parents don't let you sit home all day after school or during the summers.

They make you go get a job. That would all qualify in my mind as having a family obligation to get a job. Um, so Definitely click yes so you can sort of explain more about that job and how it limits your ability to do other extracurricular activities.

Similarly, let's say you take care of your four younger siblings or your homebound grandmother. Don't be shy in sharing those details here. They want to get a sense of why maybe your extracurricular resume slash commitments are not as robust as maybe other competing students. And so this is your chance to explain that. So I would definitely say yes, if anything could remotely be construed to be a situation where you have an obligation to your family or to just earning money or some sort of job that requires you to not then take on.

leadership positions at your school or do community service, et cetera. So definitely take the opportunity to explain it in this short essay. How I would organize this essay?

I would organize it like an essay. Introduce what your obligations or jobs are or job or obligation is at the top in an intro slash thesis sentence or so. Then in the body, show the amount of time and explain the responsibilities that you have that may really tire you out.

Don't make it sound like you're making an excuse or you're complaining, but try to show them. the commitment and responsibilities you have to that family obligation or to that employment so that they get a sense that this is serious, this is real, and it would make sense that it would distract you from maybe having other engagements within your school or overall community because of the amount of time, energy, and focus and accomplishments or achievements that you have taking care of members of your family or taking care of your house or doing other things within your family or within the employment. And then the conclusions would say, again, something new, thoughtful.

Again, you don't want to seem like you're asking for sort of a get-out-of-jail-free card here or an excuse or complaining about your responsibilities in any way. So try to keep things positive and light, but definitely try to be explicit and specific about what those responsibilities are in narrative format in this short 250-word essay. The next question is, have you participated in or been assisted in your college preparation and search by programs outside of classroom?

such as education, talent search, take stock in children, upward bound, boys and girls club, et cetera? If the answer is yes, you have another 250 word essay to provide the name of the program, details, benefits of your involvement, and how long your experience has continued. I would not qualify.

So just by watching this video, you do not have to say that Craig Meister helped me with my application. The college Meister's awesome and I love him. No, you don't have to do that.

This is only for one of those structured programs. But again, If you, in fact, did take part in one of those sort of upward bound type programs or take stock in children programs or talent search programs, you can explain briefly. It doesn't even have to be the full 250 words here.

You know how you feel like you benefited, how it opened your eyes to the world of post-secondary education and how maybe you're thankful for the opportunity and how you feel like you're a better applicant for it to UF. And you're better prepared to hit the ground running at UF as a result of sort of the skills that you've developed working with. you know, the Boys or Girls Club or whatever other organization maybe helped you. If you cannot honestly answer that question as a yes, then say no, but that means that you will not have that 250-word essay to respond to. And that's okay.

You know, you don't want to write too many essays if you can avoid it and it's really not applicable to you. So don't just look at, oh, I have to write as many essays as I can. As a good thing, if you're really lying and you're not, you haven't taken part in one of those programs, you shouldn't, particularly this one, you should not say yes to the question unless it is in fact an answer of yes, being truthful. And then finally, you get the one essay that is unique to UF if you are just applying as a traditional student and you don't want honors, you don't want an innovation academy, you don't have family obligations or a job, and you also didn't work with the Boys or Girls Club, etc. You have the first and last essay question that is a supplemental essay question for UF, which is this.

Please provide more details on your most meaningful commitment outside. the classroom while in high school and explain why it was meaningful to you. This could be related to an extracurricular activity, work, volunteering, an academic activity, family responsibility, or any other non classroom activity. So if you already talked about a meaningful experience in your family obligation slash employment essay, don't talk about the same one here. Again, I'm a big believer that you don't want to repeat yourself unless absolutely necessary.

So try your very best to talk about some other commitment, either, you know, in an extracurricular setting in the school or in your community or another job that you had that you had to mention in the previous section. But whatever it might be, you want to try to focus not specifically on a narrative resume entry here, but rather share sort of a more subjective take on, you know, why you got into it, what you learned from it, how you've grown from it. why you're a better student or person as a result of it.

So you want to focus sort of on the qualitative or the subjective, much more on the quantitative and the objective, because that's more focused on what you would include on the activity section of the common apps common portion and less so on, you know, the touchy-feely stuff. You're not going to say how you felt in the activities page about one of your activities, but you can and you should talk about how you felt. about an activity in this particular essay and sort of why it's important to you.

Why was it meaningful to you? Is it meaningful to you because you got out of it something very different than what you expected? or you were forced to do it by your mom or your friend, but then you really loved it and you're so happy you tried something new.

So there has to be sort of a moral to the story. And this has to be written like a story, like a little essay. Intro with a thesis in a sentence or so, body to support the thesis, prove the thesis in showing specific detail. Again, focus more on your feelings than on facts because that's more of a resume type approach would be just facts.

You want to engage the reader and then the conclusion should go a step beyond the thesis, should go a step beyond the body. and say something new, thoughtful, and reflective, something you have not said already. All right.

Beyond that, they give you one more spot. It's not an essay officially, but they give you one more spot to please provide information in less than 650 words if you say yes to the following question. Is there any additional information or extenuating circumstances the admissions committee should know?

when reviewing your application? I would absolutely click yes for this question. Not a lot of students will though, because they're going to look at it more conservatively and they're going to say to themselves, no one died. There wasn't any big sickness in my family or for me. There wasn't any extenuating circumstances.

I've done my activities page of the Common App. I don't need to really say more about that. And so they'll click no. I think that's a wasted opportunity.

You should click yes. And in that space, you should provide any additional information that you've not been able to fit elsewhere in the application. Nine times out of ten, that is going to be you elaborating on one or more of your extracurricular activities in a way that you could not do in either the activities page of the common portion of the Common App or the additional information section on the writing page of the Common App.

And so this brings to mind a very important point that I'm so happy you've held on to. or hold it held on for because I know I've talked at you a long time. But I'm a strong proponent of putting together a full-fledged, unabridged, extracurricular resume about yourself in either a Google document or a Word document before you even start filling out your Common Application.

And if you do do that, you are going to be well positioned in one of those three spaces that I just mentioned, the Activities page of the Common App, the Additional Information section on the Writing page of the Common App. or in this 250-word response on the UF Supplements, the Common App, to throw into all of those sections the details you need to throw in so that by the time UF admissions officers are done reading your application, they're going to have 900 words additional about you related to your extracurricular achievements and accomplishments, plus all those extra characters on the activities page that... Students who are just going to do the minimum just the activities page are not going to be providing So you you have 900 extra words if you add the 600 enough.

I'm sorry not at 950 extra 900 words I'm doing the math wrong, but yeah, I know actually that's right six. Yes, that's right nine 900 extra words 650 plus 250 is 600 7800 yes 900 extra words see we've gotten late in the video, and I'm losing track of things, but Let me make this very clear. The additional information section of the writing page, as well as this optional 250-word response in the UF supplement, gives you 900 extra words plus all the characters you have in the activities section. Treat them all as your opportunity to paste in, where appropriate, all the juicy details of the depth and breadth of what you've accomplished in the extracurricular realm since you started high school. This could be jobs.

This could be community service. This could be religious activities. This could be sports.

This could be arts-related activities that are not showing up on your transcript. If it goes beyond your transcript and you have maybe pre-college programs that you did over the summer or other enrichment programs that you did over the summer, any and all of that, maybe travel you've engaged in that has been educational or edifying for you, all of that can and should be thrown in somewhere. And the way you start to put that together is by putting together one unabridged awesome resume about yourself on a Google or Word document. And once that is perfected, That's the point at which you start copying and pasting that content into the different parts of the common application and the UF supplement in order to make sure that the UF admissions committee is going to see it in one way, shape, or form before they make a final ruling or judgment on your application. So you may be saying, Craig, how do I put together a really strong resume?

Whether you have two activities or you have 20 activities, I strongly recommend that you purchase or rent. my how to build an extraordinary extracurricular resume short course which is linked below this video. That short course is less than an hour in length. And like I said, for a few dollars, you can rent it.

For a few more dollars, you can buy it. And that course is going to explain how you put together a strong extracurricular resume that differentiates you in a positive manner for admissions committees, not just at UF, but admissions committees at all the colleges you're applying to. How you're going to be able to share or convey that information will depend on the college you're applying to.

But again, in the case of UF, we've just mentioned the three places where you're going to be able to copy and paste. that information from your resume into the UF application in some way, shape, or form. But the first step, like I said, is putting together an awesome, and I would argue extraordinary, extracurricular resume. And that is why I've named that course How to Build an Extraordinary Extracurricular Resume. Now, again, that course is not so pretty in terms of the actual production value because I'm just one guy, but the actual content you're going to get from that 40 to 50 minute course is going to be exactly what you need in order to put together.

and on your end, a beautiful and extraordinary extracurricular resume from which you will be able to pull and throw into the common application for UF. And that's really what's key here because this video is all about helping you seal the deal at UF. And I want you to use every blank space to your benefit. And this is a key blank space.

Even though it's really not set up like an essay, it should be treated very seriously, just as important as an essay. And you could definitely just open it up by saying, See below for additional details about one or more of my extracurricular activities that did not fit into another part of the application. That's a nice way to open it up.

And then you can just throw in those additional resume entries. Now, if you have had an extenuating circumstance, God forbid, like a family divorce, or maybe you move countries or states in your high school career, and that explains something else that maybe you have not been able to convey elsewhere, you can absolutely write that short little essay here as well. But that means you will be able to write less about your extracurricular activities.

But maybe you don't need to write more about your extracurricular activities here because maybe you feel like you've already done a really good job of that in the additional information section on the Common Apps writing page or on the activities page. So again, every student's in a unique situation. But if you do have more details to share about your awesome extracurricular exploits to date, this would be the third and final place where you could include them for UF to consider them.

All right. My mouth is dry. I hope you've enjoyed this.

This went on way longer than I had hoped. And this is why I had avoided doing UF for so long because University of Florida is a pain in the butt to apply to if you really can sleep well at night after you've hit submit and feel good about the fact that you've given yourself as many ways in as possible. Because as you see all these optional avenues in add up.

And so, you know, you definitely want to sort of, you know, pace yourself. Which is ironic because they have a program called the PACE program. But pace yourself with your UF application because whether you're in-state and in Florida and you think your numbers are right on track and you can get in easily, or whether you're from out-of-state, in which case no one should think they can get in easily. And I would argue no one should think they should get in easily, whether from in-state or out-of-state, because UF is a competitive school these days and it's a strong school these days academically.

You need to not put this together in two or three days before your deadline. You need to be building out your UF application slowly but surely. August, September, and hopefully hit submit sometime in October, earlier in October, just to get it off your mind, my goodness, because as you see, there's lots of nooks and crannies within the University of Florida supplement to the common application and therefore just the overall common application experience itself when applying to University of Florida. Thank you for holding on.

I think you've learned a lot if you've lasted this long. You've seen my little Italian little doggie there. All right.

So he's been... I'm searching up at you, looking up at you this entire time. My name is Craig Meister. If you want to learn more about me and working with me one-on-one throughout the college application process, definitely go to my website, collegemeister.com.

If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. Please share it with your family and friends because this video could help them, but also my overall YouTube channel could help them. And of course, my YouTube channel is CollegeMeister, the at CollegeMeister. So that's YouTube.com slash CollegeMeister. I hope you stay safe and stay well in this crazy world.

And most importantly, I wish you the very best of luck getting into the University of Florida. Go Gators. Go Gators. And I think I'm going to get a drink of Gatorade. Talk to you soon.

Transcript for:Essential University of Florida Admissions Tips

Transcript for:
Essential University of Florida Admissions Tips