<p>UF Trustee's approved the plan today for block tuition/fees charges. Tuition will be a flat rate for up to 18 hours. No prorating for less hours, and charges for hours over 18. This will be implemented for 2012-2013. The block rate will be based on an amount approximately equal to a 15 hour load. But with the proposed 15% increase in tuition each year for the next few years, it is estimated that the block charge will be $3400 a term minimum.</p>
<p>Bright Futures AND Florida Prepaid will reimburse only for the hours actually taken.</p>
<p>Currently the average student load is 14.1 hours.</p>
<p>I feel for students who take less than 15 hours/semester, as my son did because he worked full time while attending UCF. But for my d, who’s a second year student at UF, it won’t make any difference. As a chemE student with a minor, she already takes more than 15 hours/semester.</p>
<p>Very happy about this, it’s such a good plan. The only possible downside would be somebody who has a family; but UF isn’t a commuter school so I imagine that’s a small minority.</p>
<p>I can’t see it effecting acceptances. It’ll help to fix some of the budget cuts that have been necessary.</p>
<p>Not happy about this at all. I’m sure there will be a decline in GPA with the increase in hours per semester that will occur from students trying to get their money’s worth. Full time student won’t really be 12-15hrs, more likely 15-18.</p>
<p>Where did the information regarding FL Prepaid not covering this, come from? I called and spoke with someone from UF just a few weeks ago and I was assured that any student who had purchased the plan years ago, was covered. After all, not every major has the same workload or level of difficulty, therefore, an engineering student taking only 12 credits per semester is not unheard of.</p>
<p>From everything I have read, students with prepaid contracts before the fall of when the block tuition is implemented will pay only for credit hours taken.</p>
<p>This sentence taken from the block tuition Fact Sheet on UF’s website supports that there will be no impact for students with prepaid contracts.</p>
<p>UF will honor Prepaid Tuition contracts in effect prior to Fall 2011 by billing these students for required tuition and fees on a per-credit-hour basis.</p>
<p>That is correct. Prepaid students will not be able to take 18 hours for a block fee of 15 hours. They will be billed by the hour so that Prepaid pays only for hours taken.</p>
<p>I spoke to a friend who was previously an education major and said education majors had to volunteer some 50+ hours on top of 12 or so credits a semester. How do they intend to accomplish that if they take 15+? The answer is very likely that they can’t, and will have to end up paying more.</p>
<p>And what about students that have credits coming in from high school that have the ability choose to take 12 credits a semester so they can be more active in student organizations?</p>
<p>The list goes on and on.</p>
<p>As I spend more and more time as a student I am, especially after this announcement, less and less satisfied about the way this school is run and regulated.</p>
<p>Well gpowsang, the fact of the matter is UF’s current situation is a direct result of downward pressure over the years to keep tuition low to limit the amount of money Bright Futures costs. It could increase 15% a year for a decade and still be below the 2010 average tuition rate of its peers. UF has been - and will continue to be - a bargain, even after the changes. I just wish they had raised the requirements for the scholarship rather than make everyone share the pain equally.</p>
<p>The only people I feel bad for are the ones who turned down other schools based on a mostly free education that is becoming less so.</p>
<p>I also don’t get how people are crying foul about only having to take 15 hours. 15 hours is the amount of hours you, on average, would have to take to graduate in 4 years. Most people I knew took 12 hours because that was the minimum for Bright Futures, not because their classes were particularly difficult or time consuming.</p>
<p>15 hours is very hard, especially if you are attempting to be involved. However, if you don’t want to take 15 hours… just pay more (actually the same). </p>
<p>This is going to have many mixed results, thank god im getting out of here (god willing) by 2012 (according to the Mayans I may not graduate!!)</p>