What the Top Florida Schools Are Really Looking For

You’ve got the GPA. The Bright Futures-eligible SAT. The AP classes, volunteer hours, and maybe even a job. In Florida, that makes you a strong student. But it doesn’t automatically make you a strong applicant.

Because when it comes to college admissions—especially at selective Florida schools like University of Florida, FSU, and University of Miami—it’s not just about what you’ve done. It’s about how you tell the story.

And here’s the truth: a lot of Florida students haven’t been taught how to do that.

How Do You Get Into Top Colleges in Florida? The Essay

Here’s UF’s supplemental prompt for this year:

“Please provide more details on your most meaningful commitment outside of the classroom… and explain why it was meaningful.”

Simple? Yes. Easy? Not at all.

Because UF doesn’t want a list of your tasks. They want to know what moved you. What shaped you. What changed you. They want voice. They want clarity. They want something like this:

“Spending my childhood catching, washing, and breaking up fights among strays, I’ve realized dogs like routine. But I’ve known Bozkurt for seven years and couldn’t tell you what her next move will be…
Bozkurt and I both live in harmony, respecting each other's lifestyles… Appreciating people’s individuality is how I bond with them.”

That’s from a real UF essay. It’s weird, wise, and totally unforgettable. Not because the student “volunteered with animals”—a hundred other applicants wrote about that—but because she used the experience to explain how she sees the world.

She wasn’t showing off. She was showing up.

Why This Is So Hard for Even Strong Florida Students

Here’s the gap no one talks about: many Florida schools prepare students to be efficient. To test well. To meet standards. But not necessarily to reflect deeply or write with personality. Many high schools every where struggle with it.

By senior year, many students are great at summarizing their accomplishments. But when asked to describe what truly mattered to them—and why—they draw a blank. Or worse, they write something so polished and generic that it gets skimmed, not remembered.

This is what student who was accepted to UF wrote in her essay about working at her father's family restaurant, where he worked for 36 years:

“He hated the consistency I loved. I adored working there because I could be with him. He despised it because it took him from me.”

That’s not just writing. That’s perspective. That’s emotional fluency. That’s the kind of storytelling that makes an admissions reader stop mid-skim and say, “Oh wow.”

And that level of depth? It rarely comes from writing a first draft alone at midnight.

So What Do Florida Colleges Actually Want?

Let’s decode:

• UF wants students who can reflect—not just describe. They’ve already seen your résumé. They’re asking: “Can you make sense of it?”

• FSU is growing more selective and is known for valuing students who can think independently and connect to a campus community. They’re looking beyond test scores.

• UM has a supplement focused on “your unique experiences and challenges”—but what they’re really assessing is how you process what’s shaped you.

All three schools are looking for authenticity. Not perfection. Not performance. Just you, on the page, saying something that actually matters.

Why This Matters (and How Coaching Helps)

This isn’t about “getting help” because you’re not a strong writer. It’s about recognizing that good writing is a process. And storytelling is a skill most students haven’t practiced in school.

Working with a coach doesn’t mean outsourcing your voice. It means getting help finding it—and sharpening it until your application reflects the person behind the transcript.

Because when it comes down to it, UF won’t admit you because you worked at a restaurant or helped animals.

They’ll admit you because you made those things mean something.

If you're a Florida student (or parent of one) and you're feeling stuck: it’s not because you don’t have a story. It’s because no one’s helped you tell it.

That’s fixable. And that’s what Top Dog loves doing most.