These Florida colleges have the state's lowest admission rates. Some might surprise you.

Andrew Marra, Palm Beach Post

Everyone knows some colleges are harder to get into than others. But some of the schools that turn away the most students may come as a surprise.

Sure, the fact that the two universities with the lowest admission rates in the state are the University of Miami and the University of Florida likely will not shock many.

Those schools' students have the highest SAT scores in Florida, after all, and this year U.S. News and World Report ranked them among the top 100 national universities in the country.

The University of Florida chorus stands on the university auditorium stage in Gainesville.
The University of Florida chorus stands on the university auditorium stage in Gainesville.

But some Florida schools with low admission rates are not so well-known.

Consider the school with the sixth lowest admission rate in 2021: DeVry University-Florida.

The Florida campus of the Illinois-based school enrolled fewer than 500 students that year, according to U.S. Department of Education records. That means students applying there were competing for far fewer seats than at major research universities.

More: Which Florida colleges and universities have the highest SAT scores?

For this and several other reasons, students are advised not to rely on admission rates alone to determine a university’s quality.

“Small schools tend to boast some of the most competitive acceptance rates simply because they have relatively fewer spaces available to offer,” says CollegeVine, a college-admissions advice website. “Some schools with similar academic statistics will appear much less competitive because they have lots of spaces to offer.”

Here are the Florida colleges and universities with the lowest admission rates in 2021

  1. University of Miami — 28%

  2. University of Florida — 30%

  3. Florida A&M University — 35%

  4. University of Central Florida — 36%

  5. Florida State University — 37%

  6. DeVry University-Florida — 41%

  7. Johnson University-Florida — 42%

  8. Trinity Baptist College — 43%

  9. Southeastern University — 45%

  10. Webber International University — 46%

  11. Trinity College of Florida — 47%

  12. Rollins College — 49%

  13. University of South Florida — 49%

  14. The University of West Florida — 53%

  15. Warner University — 53%

More: 3 Florida universities are among the nation’s 10 largest. Can you guess which?

Source: U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard

Andrew Marra is a reporter at The Palm Beach Post.

amarra@pbpost.com

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: UF, UM among Florida universities with lowest admission rates

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