As a lifelong Seminole supporter, senior Charles Miller was nervous about gaining admission to Florida State University due to the recent increase of competitiveness, but as he opened his acceptance letter, he felt all the anxiety regarding college applications — and his future — wash away.

“It was a huge stress-reliever,” he said. “It basically made anything I was worried about vanish, and [I was] glad that almost failing pre-calc didn’t matter.”

Although the University of Florida has long been acknowledged as the hardest Florida school to get into, this year, FSU’s acceptance rate decreased by 2 percent to 22 percent. UF’s acceptance rate is 23 percent, which it has been since 2020.

“I think it’s insane how difficult it has gotten to get in, but it’s also kind of cool,” Miller said. “It made getting in feel so much more rewarding.”

Senior Ethan Bergman, whose first choice was UF, said he regarded FSU as a “safety school,” meaning he believed he had a high likelihood of being admitted.

“I was very confident about getting into FSU but not as confident about UF,” Bergman said. “In my mind, FSU was my back-up option if I didn’t get into University of Florida”.

But due to elevated admission standards, senior Nicholas Schroeder said he had to take every precaution he could to ensure admission to FSU.

“The term ‘safety school’ is different for each student. For some students, even UF is a safety school,” he said. “For me, personally, I had applied to the school for summer term and early action, which significantly boosted my chances of getting in.”

Schroeder said college admissions have become a high-stakes battle for students nationwide, not just in Florida.

“FSU has absolutely become harder to get into in recent years,” he said.  “UF has become very competitive in the past four years, with about a 10 percent decrease in their acceptance rate. Sadly, FSU and UF aren’t the only schools becoming more competitive, and now more than ever, fewer students all around the country are able to go to their first-choice schools.”

Junior Ella Kissinger said this causes a problem for younger students who are worried for their future in regard to their college applications.

“I really want to get into FSU,” she said. “Their academics are good — plus, the campus is very pretty. The stat requirements are definitely worrying because they are pretty high, and I know a lot of people who didn’t get in this year. I know West Shore prepares you pretty well for college, so I’m hoping that will have some effect on the application process.”

Schroeder said West Shore students have been battling the UF acceptance rate for the past four years.

“I’m happy for the students who got in, and all of these students were very qualified; however, there are many other students that had similar statistics and were rejected,” he said, “Four years ago, many of these students would have been accepted. Additionally, the holistic approach used by UF admissions made the decisions much more confusing. Because of the many factors contributing to the decision, many students who were denied like myself were left questioning if they should have retaken the SAT or ACT, taken more [AP courses], volunteered more, worked with professional college admissions advisers or done some combination of these things.”