I was boarding a flight when I received my initial UF acceptance email.
I was shocked, confused and honestly quite disappointed. The email read as if I was receiving an apology and a pity acceptance.
My mind raced with one question: What is PaCE?
As I finished reading my admissions email, I was told to put my phone away as the flight prepared for takeoff. I was left to contemplate a whirlwind of emotions stuck between a half-sleeping woman who wouldn’t let me take a peek out the window, and a businessman who couldn’t have looked more pissed about reading the newspaper and drinking a bloody mary.
Originally, I didn’t know what to think. This offer wasn’t what I was expecting — my grades and test scores were borderline UF’s average admissions. I was prepared for a yes or no, but I was thrown a curveball.
I knew at that point, I would never partake in the typical freshman year college experience.
Why not?
Because I’m one of the 3,000 students who received an acceptance letter into UF’s new PaCE (Pathway to Campus Enrollment) Program.
Via: admissions.ufl.edu
The program requires me to take 60 credits online (deducting my AP credits and Dual Enrollment credits leaves me with 41 credits waiting to be taken virtually) and is actually a pretty good deal. But at the time of my acceptance, I didn’t know that or much else about the program.
I was terrified college would be a total disaster if I attended this program, but I knew deep down that I didn’t want to go to any of my back up schools. I was and still am dedicated to journalism and no other school could match UF’s journalism program. If I wanted to make something out of my aspirations, I knew what I had to do: Tackle this PaCE program head on.
At first, everything seemed underdeveloped. My mom and I had to become professional investigators in order to gather as much information as we could about the program.
“How much would it cost?” “Could we live on campus?” “Do we get student football tickets?” “How soon can I transfer over?” “Why was I put into this program?”
The information was difficult for us to find because the program was so new. PaCE was created about one month before we got our letters. No one knew anything. Parents tried calling UF, and many UF employees had never even heard of the program. That was really reassuring.
Including myself, only around 250 of the 3,000 students accepted the offer. Even though our numbers were small, the PaCE kids formed a little community. We have a student-made Facebook group set up, and we’re constantly talking to each other, asking questions and even setting up get-togethers.
Via: deviantart
To my surprise, UF’s online classes are not nearly as bad as I had originally expected. The classes are well structured, the organization of due dates are clear and the communication flows easily between teacher and student.
I really enjoy my online lectures because they are easy to pause or rewind in case I miss any information. I don’t have to worry about dozing off in class and being able to wake up at any time and do classwork in pajamas (or anything else) is also a pretty cool perk.
PaCE students are allowed to use most of UF’s services, but we have to purchase recreational center passes, bus passes and meal plans separately. The only sporting event we currently can’t purchase student tickets for is football, but that’s most likely going to change as of next school year. PaCE kids can always move up to Gainesville and live in off-campus housing, but we can’t live in the UF on-campus dorms until we transition. We’re also allowed to join clubs and Greek life based on the organization’s own discretion.
All of UF’s faculty members who I’ve contacted have been extremely helpful and kind. A chat with Evangeline Cummings, the new UF Online Director, shed some light on how faculty views the fledgling program.
“Our online program is just as rigorous as our on campus one, so we feel good about the path we’re on. So, I think we should continue. At the same time this is new, so with anything new, we want to learn as we go,” Cummings said.
Via: Unsplash
She loves the innovation of the program and how it allowed admission to additional students. With that, Cummings is also aware of the problems and questions from PaCE students and parents and is open to hearing their experiences and learning from them.
“There is a lot of skepticism and, frankly, misunderstanding and concern about the online experience and that’s something I’m really committed to continue improving here at the University of Florida,” Cummings said
Cummings already has plans and ideas to help improve the program in years to come by launching an official community program for PaCE and other online students and creating a program where students can explore mentor opportunities with UF alumni from across the country.
To find out admissions role in the PaCE program decisions, Andrea Felder , the Director of Freshman and International admissions who leads the first year enrollment process at the University of Florida, gave me some insight.She first found out about the program last fall, before PaCE even had a name. While admissions knew that PaCE was going to be an option for incoming freshmen, the applications had already gone live. It was too late to inform prospective students about the program.
The admissions office over accepts students, knowing that not every accepted person will attend UF. However, admissions didn’t look for any separate or specific qualifications for PaCE students — the selected students might have met admissions requirements, but just came a tad short in comparison with the traditionally accepted students.
“Given the general competitive nature, [acceptance] was not a lottery system. So, we didn’t just choose random students to be in this program. But students who we would not have otherwise been able to offer admissions, we offered the PaCE program,” Felder said.
She did indicate that certain majors may have played a role in who got accepted into PaCE and who were declined.
Prospective freshmen indicate which major they are interested in, and admissions tried to accept PaCE students whose chosen major could be offered through UF Online as well as have space in “upper division” courses.
Next year, there will be a slight change in the PaCE admissions process. Students with lab intensive majors such as biology or chemistry shouldn’t be expecting an admission for PaCE. They’ll either be in or out of UF. This is because labs and other factors are difficult to accommodate through online courses.
This year, the top five majors (in order) are Business Administration, Animal Sciences, Microbiology and Cell Science, Journalism and Computer Science.
Turns out, the PaCE program will work in my favor.
I’ll earn the same degree as any other UF undergraduate but for less cost. This semester I only had to pay $2,066.88 for 16 credits and $161.80 for all my books — compare that to the yearly average of $20,590 for traditional UF students.
While online classes may seem like a pain and it might not fall in line with what most people consider the “right” freshmen experience, it gave myself and other PaCE students a chance to be a Gator.
Featured photo courtesy of: Unsplash
