University of Florida Decision

When Cameron and I visited the University of Florida in November of 2021, we were really impressed with the school and its academic rigor.  Cameron felt very comfortable there and was impressed with the fact that the students that we met were a lot like him.  When we came home, it was top on his list.  

As much as we liked the university, we were also very realistic about his chances of getting into Florida.  The head of admissions was intense and she made it very clear that AP and Dual Credit classes were absolutely necessary to be admitted into the school.  At Bethany, most of those classes were taken during the students' senior year.  Cameron and I were both concerned that even with his 4.0 grade point average, it wouldn't be enough since he would have only taken AP English by the time he applied last fall.  We also came to realized that as an out of state student, Cameron would also only have a 22% chance of being accepted.  Those facts along with Cameron's interest in business as a major, made him sway from Florida as his top choice and move towards IU.  The familiarity of Bloomington also added to IU's favor.

Thus, when Cameron texted me Friday to see if we had heard anything from Florida yet, I was a little apprehensive to answer.  He hadn't gotten an email from the university, but I knew that he could check his admissions portal today as decisions were due on the 24th.  I didn't want him to get bad news while he was in Indy for the girls' tournament.  In the end, my fears were all for nothing.  Cameron texted me once again with the words "I GOT ACCEPTED!"  I was so absolutely impressed and incredibly proud of him.

Cameron, Doug and I sat down today and talked more about Cameron's college decision.  He had no desire to go to Purdue, so that was instantly out of the question.  Wisconsin and Michigan were too expensive and were taking too long to render a decision, so they also were off the table.  Instead the three of us focused solely on the pros and cons of Indiana vs Florida.  The first one having the strongest business school and the second being overall ranked quite a bit higher #5 out of all public colleges compared to IU's 72nd ranking.  Familiarity went to IU without question, but locality to Doug and I went to Florida as Gainesville was only 40 minutes away from Ocala.  Overall, it was a great discussion.  Cameron listened to what we had to say, added insight on his own and ended with he'd "think it over."  The nice part for Doug and I was that we knew that whichever he chose, both would provide him with a wonderful education.