What it Means When You’ve Been “Deferred”

You have submitted your application materials and find out your application has been deferred. What does that mean?

Definition of Deferred
Admission to UNF has become more and more competitive over the past five years. Consequently, we may choose to place students in a deferred status based on their academic profile. This status means that the student is neither admitted nor denied. They are instead placed in a deferred status with the recommendation that the student re-tests and/or submits updated high school transcripts. Four primary reasons a student’s application may be deferred:

Test Scores: Your GPA meets our academic profile for admission, but your SAT and/or ACT need improvement. Either your composite score is not quite competitive enough, or one or more of your subsection scores does not meet the required state minimum scores.

GPA: Your ACT/SAT scores are admissible, but your recalculated GPA is below our academic profile for admission.

Combination: Either your ACT/SAT scores and GPA do not meet our academic profile for admission, or the combination of your GPA and ACT/SAT scores is borderline and just one or the other needs to be raised.

Unit Deficient: Based on your transcript it appears you will not have enough credits of a certain subject and we have not been able to confirm if this in fact is the case. It also means that your grades and test scores have not been reviewed for admissibility.

What You Need to Do
First, contact the Office of Admissions to find out why you were deferred. Note that because of Federal Privacy Laws, we will not be able to tell you over the phone or via email what your GPA and test scores are.  We will however be able to tell you what we are looking for, and strategize with you about how you can become admissible.

Test Scores: For students who are deferred due to low test scores we suggest retaking the next available SAT and/or ACT test. We will let you know if it is a specific subsection that you need to increase or if we want to see an increase in your overall composite score. Remember, UNF uses super-scoring for both the ACT and the SAT, so you won’t be penalized if you retest and score lower in certain sections. We take the highest score from each subsection across multiple test dates.

GPA: If you were deferred due to a low GPA, you must send an updated high school transcript once your first semester senior year grades have posted.

Combination: Students who were deferred due to a combination of low GPA and low test scores should be prepared to both re-test and submit updated high school transcripts.

Unit Deficient:Please send an updated course schedule to the Office of Admissions. If we can verify that you will have the required number of credits for each subject, your application is cleared for review. This means that you could be admitted, denied, or deferred for one of the above reasons.

When Will You Find Out?
Your application will not be re-evaluated until we receive updated test scores and/or updated high school transcripts. Once you have submitted the updated information, we review deferred applications on a bi-weekly basis. You are encouraged to contact us once you think we should have received the updated information.

Final Thoughts
Remember, if you have applied early enough, you should have plenty of time to retest and/or raise your grades if needed. Be sure to contact the Office of Admissions with any questions:

University of North Florida
Office of Admissions
1 UNF Drive
Jacksonville, FL 32224
admissions@unf.edu