Admissions Game

The stakes are higher. The rules have changed. And not everyone can win.

[Times photo: Thomas M. Goethe]

Justin Semeyn and his mother, Lisa Semeyn, joke about what school he might end up at as they look around during a college recruiting session at Plant High School in Tampa in September.

FSU telemarketers Marla Cabrera and Sheileen Acevedo, both senior psychology majors from Puerto Rico, and Amanda Hayes, an exercise physiology major from Tampa, make calls to prospective students. [Photo: Reggie Grant]

[Times photo: Dan McDuffie]

Ileana Acevedo, a senior at Land O' Lakes High School, says she is nervous about applying forcollege admission. "I still felt like I needed to impress (admissions officials),'' she said.

Rising standards The number of students applying for admission to Florida universities is on the rise, which is making it considerably harder to get in. Below are the average SAT score and grade point averages for the state's 11 universities, and the percentage of applicants who are admitted. SCHOOL SAT GPA ACCEPTED New College of Florida 1325 3.96 63.3 percent University of Florida 1265 3.95 59.3 percent Florida State University 1185 3.75 61.8 percent University of Central Florida 1165 3.75 59.4 percent Florida International University 1140 3.5 47 percent University of North Florida 1130 3.55 67.4 percent University of West Florida 1085 3.45 77.9 percent University of South Florida 1055 3.54 67.5 percent Florida Atlantic University 1030 3.34 72.7 percent Florida Gulf Coast University 1025 3.48 76.9 percent Florida A&M University 990 3.18 67.5 percent OTHER SCHOOLS University of California Berkeley 1315 3.81 24 percent Princeton University 1460 NA 11 percent Statistics for Florida universities are from 2002-2003. UC Berkeley and Princeton information is for 2003 class. Sources: schools, Florida Department of Education. Anthony Dudley, a senior at St. Petersburg High School, says he gets recruiting letters from universities almost every day. [Times photo: Cherie Diez]

Young telemarketers in sandals, ball caps and shorts are sitting in a university office full of tiny cubicles, calling high school seniors.

"Hey Brian. My name is Cy," says Cy Vincent, 22. "I'm calling from the Florida State University office of admissions."

Speaking into the phone on his shoulder, Vincent's hands are in constant motion as he extols the virtues of FSU to the Orlando high school senior. But his eyes are fixed on his computer screen, where Brian's grades, SAT score, academic interests and race are laid out in considerable detail.

Vincent and the cadre of FSU students who work these phones four nights a week are part of a revolution that is transforming the way Florida universities select their students. The new game is sophisticated and market driven, and maddeningly unpredictable.

It used to be enough to have good grades and high test scores. Now Florida universities are looking at the classes an applicant took, their extracurricular activities, their economic status, even what part of the state they are from.

A good SAT score still helps. But it helps just as much to be the child of an alumnus or a minority.

Colleges in other states have been considering such factors for decades. But they were much less important in Florida, where there were always plenty of freshmen seats to go around.

Then the pool of applicants exploded.

Between 1983 and 1993, the number of high school graduates in Florida grew by less than 5 percent. But in the decade since, the number of graduates has jumped by 31.5 percent. The largest surge has happened in the past three years.

Given the record crowds now gathering at the gates of higher education, it's not surprising that many admission rituals are starting earlier than ever.

During a recent Tuesday evening in Tampa, about 200 parents crowded into the Grand Ballroom at Wyndham Westshore Hotel. They nibbled on Swedish meatballs and cheese cubes while University of Florida admissions director Bill Kolb offered advice on how to get their kids into the state's flagship university.

These were not parents of high school seniors, or even juniors. These were parents of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.

"When we got the invitation, I thought it was for my daughter (a high school junior)," says Cathy Towne of Tampa. She attended the seminar with her 14-year-old son Sheldon.

"I guess it's so competitive you have to really think ahead."

Nic Fischer has an excellent 4.5 grade point average and a solid 1290 score on the SAT. His leadership role in the Seminole High School band, where he is the drum major, looks great on his application. He has his heart set on UF, and seems a good bet to get in.

But his mother isn't taking any chances.

It has changed since Debbie Fischer went to UF. "You knew where you could go, you applied, you got in," she says of those days.

She wants Nic, 17, to apply to at least one other Florida school. "You can never tell what's going to happen," Fischer says.

Is she being overly cautious? Probably not. At the end of this school year, lots of students with solid scores and impressive credentials will not get into the Florida school of their choice.

It won't always be clear why. Adding to the confusion, a classmate with similar or lesser credentials will get in.

It happens most often at four Florida schools: UF, FSU, the University of South Florida and the University of Central Florida in Orlando. That's because those schools receive about 70 percent of the applications submitted by Florida students. UF and FSU alone get about 40 percent.

College admissions officers are fond of saying, "There's a college for every student and a student for every college." For many students now applying to the state's top schools, a better aphorism might be: "There's a college for you somewhere, but not necessarily the one you have in mind."

While schools such as the University of West Florida in Pensacola and Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers take almost every qualified student that applies, UF and FSU turn away about 40 percent.

It's a self-perpetuating cycle.

The more students apply to those schools, the more selective they become. The more selective they become, the better they appear to be and the more students want to go there.

The cycle has allowed some Florida universities to raise their standards significantly.

At UF, the average grade point average for new freshmen is essentially a 4.0. It's just as high at New College in Sarasota, the state's smallest school with fewer than 1,000 students. Even a less distinguished school such as Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton just raised admission standards to a point that would have shut out dozens of students accepted this year.

"We get comments from parents whose kids were rejected and they're dumbstruck," said John Barnhill, FSU's director of records and admissions. "A kid with a 1300 SAT, how could they be rejected?"

Bright Futures is one reason. In one of the ironic twists of this brave new world of admissions, the popular state scholarship program may actually be making it harder for some kids to get in.

Justin Semeyn, a senior at Tampa's Plant High School, illustrates why.

The sandy-haired teen with the surfer-dude look has gotten calls from Brown University in the Ivy League. They like his grades and his pole vaulting ability. Georgia Tech is on his short list.

Justin recently picked up a Harvard brochure at a college fair, saying "Why not?" as he admired the crimson letters on the cover.

But Justin is likely bound for UF. He has a family connection; both his father and brother were Gators. And his parents are aware of the financial advantages - a 100 percent Bright Futures scholarship that will pay the full cost of his tuition and books.

It's an astonishing bargain, and one that appears to be distorting admissions standards. Because Bright Futures is enticing many of Florida's best students to stay home for college, there are fewer seats available for everyone else, especially at the most selective schools.

About 86 percent of this year's freshmen class at UF is on Bright Futures, which is based on grades and SAT scores. At FSU, it's 74 percent.

"Bright Futures is the economic argument for staying in state," says FSU's Barnhill. "Maybe you've always wanted to go to Harvard. But maybe you go to FSU for undergrad on a Bright Futures scholarship and then consider Harvard for graduate school. Economically, that makes a lot of sense."

UF's Kolb likes to tell a joke at college fairs. A parent asks: Is it better to get a B in an honors class or an A in a regular class? The answer: It is better to get an A in that honors class.

The joke tends to elicit nervous laughter as the message sinks in: There is little room for error.

As the average grades and SAT scores start to bump the ceiling, Florida universities are having to find other ways to choose between qualified students. Several now require essays. Most are paying more attention to letters of recommendation and extracurricular activities.

All are tools for achieving diversity, a key term in the admissions revolution. Simply put, universities don't want too many of the same kind of students.

They want a smarter group every year. But they don't want all rich kids, all poor kids, all white kids or all South Florida kids. What they want is a class that has something of everything.

It's a tough balancing act.

To get the right mix, Florida schools devote considerable time and money on the front end, spending millions each year on phone banks, customized surveys and targeted mailings. The goal is to build a diverse pool of applicants.

Some think they are trying way too hard.

Stephanie Key, a senior at Chamberlain High School in Tampa, has a 5.6 GPA and a 1250 on her SAT. She says she sometimes receives as many as five recruiting letters a day.

Stephanie is applying to schools both in and out of Florida. She didn't chose any of them based on the mail they sent her.

"It's kind of like a guy," Stephanie says. "If they want you, you're kind of like "ewwww.' "

USF pays a private company to survey potential applicants, who are asked about their goals, concerns and academic interests. The students don't know USF is behind the survey.

The data comes in handy when the school's own telemarketers call later. To the student, it's as if the university is reading his mind.

"If they're worried about getting scholarship money, we'll already know that," says USF admissions director Dewey Holleman. "We'll start talking to them about all the scholarships that are available."

The quest for diversity means an applicant from the Panhandle might get a spot at UF despite having lesser grades and test scores than a Tampa applicant who is turned down. UF already has a high percentage of students from Central Florida, but relatively few from the state's rural areas.

Such a scenario is even likelier if the Panhandle student is poor, or can show they have overcome hardship or disability.

But few factors are more critical than race. That remains true despite Gov. Jeb Bush's order four years ago that banned explicit consideration of race in university admissions.

Anthony Dudley, an African-American senior at St. Petersburg High School, started getting courted two years ago. Now the mail comes every day.

"I discovered there's a lot of colleges I've never heard of," quips Dudley, who has applied to several Florida universities. "I got one from a college in . . . Idaho? Iowa? One of those."

Anthony recently got a call from the FSU call-center. It would have been surprising if he hadn't.

FSU has records on 500,000 students in its database. Like most other colleges in the nation, the school purchases student information from the College Board, which administers the SAT. They get test scores, grade point averages and a surprising amount of demographic information, including race and religion.

The information can be tailored to meet a university's specific needs. A school can ask for information on rural students who scored between 900 and 1300 on the SAT. They can ask for students interested in engineering or those who want to major in liberal arts.

The database is the engine that drives modern-day admissions. It allows universities to initiate the elaborate dance.

Schools spend only 25 cents per student for all of the information. That's a pittance compared to the money they spend courting students. FSU spends $250,000 a year just for the postage on its mailings to potential recruits. The school sends postcards. Slick brochures with bucolic campus scenes. Calendars focused on Seminole sporting events. That's the norm.

USF sends tiny ice scrapers to prospective students in the Northeast and Midwest during the winter. The not-so-subtle message is that yes, you too could be in sunny Florida next winter attending USF.

Anthony, 17, has been leaning toward USF or Florida A&M University, though FSU is still in the running. He has a 3.7 grade point average and an SAT score of 1010, which is near the national average. He has retaken the SAT to improve his score.

Those are solid credentials - enough to earn him strong consideration from any Florida school.

His race helps him stand out even more.

Though Bush's order barred universities from making race an explicit factor in admissions, the process is hardly free of such consideration. That's because Bush also put tremendous pressure on universities to increase minority enrollment.

At UF this year, minority students made up about 30 percent of the freshmen class. At FSU, the percentage was about 24 percent. Both schools are considerably behind the university system as a whole, where minorities fill about 37 percent of the freshmen seats.

So how does race figure into admissions?

On his application, Anthony was never asked his race. But the data from the College Board includes a student's race or ethnicity, which Florida schools, at the very least, use to build their applicant pool.

That focus on race - on the front end of the process - is perfectly acceptable in the governor's view of college admissions.

"The answer to successful race-neutral admission policies is a diverse pool of qualified students," said John Winn, Florida's deputy education commissioner. "Highly qualified minority students have been heavily recruited for years."

It is less clear how race is used on the back end, when the actual admissions decisions are made.

While Anthony's race isn't on his application, his interests and activities are. In addition to holding down two jobs, Anthony is a member of the National Honor Society. He also is a member of the NAACP Youth Council, president of the local chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers and an Ebony Scholar.

That seems likely to catch the eye of a college admissions officer.

"There's no way of being blind (to race) unless you eliminate every identifying factor," says FSU's Barnhill. "I don't know how you could review a file without knowing."

Ileana Acevedo, a senior at Land O' Lakes High School, is playing the guessing game.

Like most high school seniors this time of year, she wants her college applications to look as strong as possible. Her 3.8 GPA will help, paired with an SAT score of 1100.

Beyond that, what do colleges want?

"As much as I tried to be laid back and calm about applying to a university, I still felt like I needed to impress them," says Ileana, 17. "And the more I thought about it, the more I kept thinking of more stuff to put on there."

The activities she listed - National Honor Society, Student Council and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes - are likely to score points. Ileana would love to think so. But honestly, she has no idea.

"I personally don't think they really care . . . but because of the nervous person I am, I did list everything I have done," Ileana says.

Admissions officials say quality matters more than quantity. When looking at applications, they want to see evidence of leadership and real commitment to a cause or activity. In other words, less is more if it is clear the student really got involved in one or two worthwhile activities.

Universities also are seeing more letters of recommendation, a practice that used to be common only at elite, out-of-state schools.

"I know I'm writing more letters of "rec' than I have in the past," says Eric Bergholm, the principal at Plant High School. "I believe this year every kid I've written a letter for is considering a Florida school."

At some schools, the letters of recommendation are considered as much an art as the college essay, except it's the teachers getting the pointers.

Margaret Gandy, who spent 18 years as the guidance resource specialist at Plant High, routinely conducted seminars for teachers struggling to write the perfect letter of recommendation.

"Don't just say "The student is reliable,' " says Gandy, who retired last year. "Universities get bored with that. Tell them something that student did that showed how reliable he is."

There are other ways students can improve their chances to get into the right Florida school. Some turn conventional wisdom on its head.

The easiest route to the best college is to attend a high school with a reputation for academic excellence, right? Not necessarily. Students who excel in the toughest courses available at a lesser school will fare just as well, and maybe better. Colleges look warily at students who cruise through easy courses on their way to a high GPA.

And then there's the summer route. Some students have discovered they stand a better chance of getting into the college of their choice by applying for summer admission, when there is less competition.

Back at the FSU call-center, Cy Vincent is wrapping up his call to Brian in Orlando. He has been helpful, informative and downright chatty.

But make no mistake: Vincent is working on a sale, and the product is FSU.

He ends the call by leaving Brian his number, sounding to all the world like a long-lost friend: "Hey, if you have any questions . . . feel free to give me a call."

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