Program Cost & Fees

*This program does NOT count towards tuition reimbursement programs like Florida Prepaid*

The amount of personal spending money required for the program varies. Participants should not bring large amounts of cash to the program.  Instead, families should arrange for students to have a debit, prepaid card, or credit card. Students should budget for the following:

• Souvenirs from the UF bookstore and fieldtrips
• Transportation: cost for travel to and from Gainesville are the responsibility of the students and their families.
• Dorm equipment: bedding, toiletries 

About Financial Aid/ Scholarships

Limited financial aid may be available for students. Financial Aid Applications will be sent if the student is accepted into the program. Students are encouraged to apply regardless of ability to pay.  

The ability to pay is not considered in the program selection process, but students may have the non-refundable deposit waived if the request for financial aid is submitted with the application.

The number of need-based scholarships vary year-to-year, and we cannot predict how many awards will be granted each year; however, we try very hard to help students with a strong financial need attend our program.  Students are encouraged to also secure their own funding.  Students have had success in receiving fully funded scholarships from local businesses, corporations, service and community organizations, and personal donations.

About Applying

Applicants must create an account in our online application portal in order to apply for any student programs offered by UF CPET. The online application portal is www.ufcpet.smapply.us.  All components are submitted using the online application process unless noted.  After all the below components of the application are completed, student must log into their account and SUBMIT their application. We strongly warn against last-minute submissions due to frequent technical hurdles that can easily make an application late, leading to rejection.

Students currently in the 8th or 9th grade, and have not taken high school biology 1, are eligible for Gator JumpStart.  There are no exceptions to the grade policy. 

The Gator JumpStart Application consists of:

• User Information: Provide applicant and parent/guardian contact information.
• Application Form: Provide additional information such as student involvement and responding to 2 prompts. 
• Teacher Endorsement Form:  One Online Teacher Endorsement Forms from a teacher or mentor. 
  • Endorsers are asked to evaluate the student’s maturity and collaborative learning capacity. Applicants should think carefully about which teachers know the student the best and will be able to evaluate according to the criteria.
  • Endorsers will receive an automated request from noreply@smapply.io once a student has requested an endorsement in their online application. However, we recommend that students contact their teacher prior to filling out the online request.
• Application Fee:  The link to pay the Application Fee is available on the application in the fee payment step.  Students who qualify may request an Application Fee Waiver. 
• *Task Approval Process: In the application portal, students are required to acknowledge the requirement of each of these “offline” portions by clicking “submit for approval”. The CPET office will log receipt of each requirement.  After the requirement is logged, students will need to complete the section by clicking “complete” in the on-line portal.  After all portions are complete, students can then submit their full application.

Notifications

Gator Jumpstart has a rolling admission process which means applications will continue to be reviewed until the program is filled. We start reviewing applications in April. 

Students will receive automated emails from noreply@smapply.io to the E-mail Address provided on the application confirming his or her application in complete. 

Once the first round of applications is received, they are reviewed by our Selection Committee.  This review process can take 3 or more weeks, so please be patient.  Each member of our committee carefully reads each application, transcript, and teacher endorsement we receive.  This process takes time.  Frequent calls can slow this process.  Once we have reached a decision, we will send out an email through our online application portal. 

Participant Selection: Notification of Selection will be made via email to the student email address provided on the application. Failure to respond to email in a timely manner may result in the student being placed on the wait list.

• Students invited to participate are required to respond to the invitation within 14 days of the email being sent.  
• Students invited to attend, but not ready to commit to may defer his or her invitation.

The student may be placed on a waitlist if not invited during the first time their application is reviewed.

• This is an active waitlist, and applications will continue to be reviewed until the program is filled.  Students must confirm their place on the waitlist to continue being considered.  The waitlist is not ranked.

If you are not selected for the program, we wish you luck on your future endeavors. We do not provide or give comments or feedback on applications

The UCPET staff abide by FERPA and University application standards and therefore do not discuss applications, applicant data (individual or aggregated), nor selection with students or parents.  Once an application is submitted, students may view and download, but not edit, their application through the online portal.

*Please note that applicants, not their parents, receive all correspondence from our office.  It is the student’s responsibility to provide a working email address and check that email address regularly for communication from UF CPET.  Failure to respond to email in a timely manner may result in the student being placed on the wait list. At any time, applicants and parent “collaborators” may check on acceptance status in the on-line portal. *