 "Photo: Erin Drew")
Almost half of all freshman college students will either drop out before obtaining a degree or complete their college education elsewhere, according to American College Testing (ACT). Eric Santos, 26, of Orlando, is a former UCF student who is now part of that statistic.
Santos, like many college students, went from high school to college with just a short summer in between. He started out at UCF with strong grades that slipped during his second semester.
“It was the typical freshman thing where you don’t take it seriously,” Santos said. “I was a stupid 19-year-old who spends to much time at home with his friends instead of studying.”
He said he did everything he could to pay for school and a long list of bills including taking out Stafford loans and opening credit cards. Eventually he found it hard to pay those bills without working full time.
“I ended up not going back because I started working,” Santos said.
Santos’ love for learning did not stop after a few failed courses. He attended school at Valencia Community College while continuing to work full time.
Santos excelled in his courses and impressed many of his professors at VCC.
“Let me ensure that I am not ‘an easy teacher’ and even bright students need to work hard to earn a B in my physics class,” wrote Valencia professor of physics Irina Struganova in a recommendation letter for Santos.
With working full time and achieving academic success at VCC, Struganova has noticed improvements in Santos.
“I strongly believe that Eric is a different person now and kindly ask you to give him a second chance and to re-admit him to UCF,” Struganova said.
His performance at VCC impressed his professors so much that some knew nothing about his previous classes at UCF until it was time for him to apply for readmission with the College of Engineering.
“Had Eric not told me of his circumstances, I would never have guessed that such a hard working, dedicated student could have earned such a low GPA while at UCF,” wrote Valencia professor of mathematics Sidra Van De Car in a recommendation letter.
Santos finished VCC and applied for readmission to UCF. In a letter dated May 18, UCF denied Santos readmission stating, “Any disqualified student whose UCF grade point deficiency is equal to or greater than 15 grade points is not eligible for readmission.”
The UCF undergraduate catalog states that for readmission purposes, “grade point deficiency” is defined as the number of UCF credit hours earned with a B grade that a student needs to raise their UCF grade point average to a 2.0. If those hours (or points) are equal to 15 or more, a student is a not eligible for readmission. Santos would need to take more than five classes to raise his UCF GPA to a 2.0 and therefore he is not eligible for readmission.
“Basically it’s the amount of hours it takes to get B grades,” said Paul Edlen, coordinator of academic support services in the College of Engineering.
Although Santos successfully finished his associates degree at VCC, his UCF grades are still haunting his academic career.
“I expected my entire academic career to be looked at opposed to just four classes at UCF,” Santos said.
Santos began to put together his appeal package after recieving the letter of rejection. Santos met with Edlen regarding a required letter of departmental support for the student.
“We review each students grades and look for certain factors. Is a student in a good situation to come back and be successful at UCF?” Edlen said.
Santos met with Edlen but was denied a letter offering support from the College of Engineering.
“When I met with Paul I had my letters of recommendation with me, and he didn’t even look at them,” Santos said.
When asked specifically about Santos’ application Edlen said, “Everything would be related to his grades.”
When asked about the role internships, work experience and letters of recommendation play in the College of Engineering’s decision, Edlen said, “Work experience can only account for so much.”
Edlen suggested applying to a different school, Santos said.
“In some cases we might make suggestions to improve the case,” Edlen said. “If we don’t feel that there are options for the student we would recommend considering a different institution.”
The engineering program is not a limited access field at UCF. A student in good standing can claim it as their major at any time. There is also no cap on students being readmitted to the program.
“We don't have a target number we readmit, Edlen said. “In one semester we might readmit twice as many based on the applicants at that time.”
Santos decided instead to move forward with the appeal process without the letter from Edlen. He is hoping that his transcripts and letters of recommendation will convince the Admissions and Standards Committee to give him a second chance.
Santos and his girlfriend, UCF Business Administration alumna Laura Diaz, 23, said they were surprised by UCF’s readmission process.
“It never crossed my mind that it would be this complicated and discouraging,” Diaz said. “It doesn’t set the school in a good light to discourage the community.”
Santos and Diaz hope the Admissions and Standards Committee grants his request for readmission to UCF.
“Why not do the thing that I think is most important and educate the people that want to be educated?” Diaz said.
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Jerriann Sullivan