When Hope Marshall tells clients she is a college student in Gainesville, many assume she means at the University of Florida.
Marshall, a local hairstylist of 13 years, works near UF and often talks with students in her chair. The topic of college courses, professors and exams comes up frequently, and as a student herself, she has thoughts of her own to add.
But when she mentions she attends Santa Fe College, the tone shifts.
“Generally they say, ‘Oh, you’re at SF?’ and then ask if I’m transferring to UF,” Marshall said.
“It’s hard to articulate in words, but there’s definitely a shift that occurs. It makes me feel like I’m a step below their academic achievements.”
Marshall is not transferring. She is pursuing her nursing degree at Santa Fe, where both her mother and brother also studied. For her, the college is not a waiting room or stepping stone to UF; it is her direct path to long-awaited career goals and financial stability.
In Gainesville, where UF shapes much of the city’s college culture, some Santa Fe students are left feeling overlooked or that their achievements only really matter if these lead to UF. This tension reflects a long-standing and complicated relationship between the two institutions and their students; both share the same city, but not always the same social status.
In UF’s shadow
Santa Fe serves a diverse student body, with equally diverse goals, from earning associate degrees, entering career programs, collecting certifications, or even obtaining things like real estate licenses or police training.
Yet, many students say the college is more often reduced to a single stereotype: a backup plan for students who didn’t get into UF.
Marshall said that assumption entirely misses the point. She decided to pursue higher education after personally witnessing the financial instability in the beauty industry. One moment in particular stuck with her: an older hairdresser she hired broke down crying in her office because she could not afford her electricity bill.
“It shook me to my core,” Marshall said. “That can’t be me at that age. I can’t let that be my future.”
Enrolling at Santa Fe to pursue nursing, a long-held dream, is something she takes pride in, and that opens doors for her, not a backup to another school.
“I look at attending Santa Fe as a bridge between myself and the rest of my life having financial stability and a consistent career,” she said. The fact that I am enrolled and attending while working and having two additional children already is something that I am proud of.”
The transfer assumption
For many students, the SF to UF pathway is real. In fact, UF officials emphasize that it is an intentional and highly respected route.
“Earning an AA degree from a state college such as Santa Fe and then transferring to UF is an excellent and very common pathway toward completion of a bachelor’s degree,” said Sara Mock, the director of transfer student admissions and transitions for UF’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS).
UF enrolled 2,229 new transfer students in fall 2025, compared with 7,619 freshmen, meaning transfers made up about 23% of the incoming class. Additionally, Santa Fe College reports UF accepts more of its transfers than any other Florida College System school, with more than 70% of Santa Fe A.A. graduates transferring to the university.
According to Mock, transfer students make up nearly 10% of CLAS undergraduates, making them a “very important and significant part of our student body.”
UF even facilitates this pathway through initiatives like the “Going Gator” program, which guarantees admission for Santa Fe students into 19 specific CLAS majors, but only if they meet strict program guidelines.
Still, students say the transfer path often comes with social stigma. In public Reddit discussions, users identifying as SF students or UF transfers describe feeling judged or looked at as “almost UF students”.
Other comments frequently mention a sense of “imposter syndrome” after arriving at UF without the same two years of on-campus experience as their peers, while noting that Gainesville student life feels “UF-centric,” making it easy to feel isolated at Santa Fe.
Those comments reflect what Marshall sees in person: an assumption that Santa Fe students are simply waiting for their UF acceptance papers.
“They are usually shocked when I explain that you can, in fact, receive a degree in nursing from Santa Fe, and that I do not intend or desire a transfer,” Marshall said.
Stigma made visible
This SF stigma often appears more often online, where social media users benefit from the anonymity of their phone screens. But it can grow beyond that.
On the Instagram page uf2030gators, a popular public account used for incoming UF students to socialize, meet new friends, find roommates, and even sign up for clubs, disparaging comments are not too uncommon.
One post in particular, made by a current Santa Fe freshman intending to transfer to UF after earning her AA, went in this negative direction.
In the caption, she introduces herself, her hometown, her major, and some activities she enjoys. “I love hanging out with friends, meeting new people, having a fun night out,” she wrote. “I’m looking for roommates… and would love to make some new friends!”
One commenter who responded to her post, however, was less accepting.
“Stick to posting on the Santa Fe incoming class accounts instead of polluting our feeds,” the comment read. “More likely than not, you’re probably not even gonna end up getting in, really strange to be posting here.”
This comment was left by a public account associated with a UF student, directly linked to their full name and major. Some students appear comfortable expressing these views publicly, suggesting the stigma is not limited to anonymous online spaces.
Another student who previously attended UF and later enrolled at Santa Fe for prerequisites said UF’s selectivity creates a false sense of superiority.
“I viewed down on Santa Fe slightly when I was at UF. I just thought I was smarter than them at the time,” the student wrote. “But now being on the inside, it’s really not the case at all.”
The student said Santa Fe surprised him with attentive professors, particularly in STEM courses, noting he “enjoyed my time learning at Santa Fe considerably more than at UF.”
More than “almost UF”
Part of the misconception surrounding Santa Fe transfers comes from misunderstanding how UF actually evaluates transfer applicants.
Mock said transfer admission is not an automatic guarantee. Junior transfers apply directly to specific majors, each with its own highly competitive criteria.
“Some students do not realize that they must complete specific major-related prerequisite courses prior to applying to transfer,” Mock said. “It is important for applicants to plan ahead and complete their prerequisite courses early enough to build a competitive application.”
But not all students intend to transfer. Rather than a stepping stone to a larger university, Santa Fe, for many, is a stepping stone to a professional career and a better life.
“I am proud as hell to attend SF,” Marshall said. “I enrolled at Santa Fe to work toward the career that I always wanted.”
For some students, Santa Fe is a structured route to UF. For working parents and career changers like Marshall, it is the destination.
“If you see an older student, there’s a reason that they are there,” Marshall said. “They are trying to better their circumstances, but took a longer road to get there.”
What these students share is not a failure to get somewhere else, but the effort to get somewhere at all.