State of Florida Admissions Standards
The State of Florida has implemented new minimum admission standards for freshman applicants to all Florida state universities. In order to be considered, students must have a minimum 2.5 recalculated Core GPA on a 4.0 scale and meet minimum test score requirements (460 SAT Critical Reading, 460 SAT Math, 440 SAT Writing; OR 19 ACT Reading, 19 ACT Math, 18 ACT English/Writing). Please keep in mind that these standards only outline potential eligibility for admission to a state university. Each university will also have their own standards that must be met, which could be higher than the minimum standards outlined above.
College Update
All parents should get in the habit of clicking on the College Update at the top of the weekly e-blast to get the latest news on colleges and scholarships. Even if your child is not a senior, it's good to get familiar with what some of the colleges will be expecting, and what scholarships may be available for your child when they are a junior or senior. This week's college update contains important information from the state universities in Florida!
Senior Parent Workshop Clarification
For all senior parents who attended the College Workshop at Verot on September 1, please note the following: A discussion ensued at one point towards the end of the program regarding the ability of students to send specific test scores (SAT) to colleges. Students can send scores to colleges from specific tests dates, all test dates on which they have taken the test, or one test date. They cannot, however, send a specific Critical Reading score from one test date, a Math score from another date and a Writing score from another test date. For further information, please check out the College Board.
SAT/ACT Testing for juniors
A number of parents have contacted Guidance inquiring about when the best time is for juniors to start taking the SAT and ACT. Though it is true students can test as many times as they wish, we have found that students that start too early are not as well prepared, and at times get discouraged if their scores weren't as good as they had hoped. Likewise, students can actually over test, in which case scores begin to level off and at times even drop if a student tests too many times. Therefore, here is what we recommend:
- We encourage juniors to begin testing in the spring of their junior year. This is also what the test centers and colleges recommend.
- All juniors take the PSAT in Oct and get scores back in Dec. Testing in the spring allows them to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses in testing and to work on improving prior to taking the SAT in the spring.
- Students that test in the spring are able to get their entire 1st semester of coursework in, which will help them when testing! They can test again in May/June, which allows them to get their 2nd semester of coursework in.
- For the reasons listed above, we recommend taking their 1st SAT Jan 22, 2011, and their 1st ACT February12, 2010.
- All juniors should test approximately 2-3 times by the end of junior year.
Keep in mind these are simply guidelines for testing. If your child feels they have taken the appropriate courses and/or a prep course and are confident in testing later this fall, that is perfectly fine. Click on the Testing (SAT/ACT) link on the Guidance website for more information on testing.