My daughter’s Benacquisto covers “up to 10 semesters” or “completion of a degree”.Since she is going to attempt a double major, we were under the impression it would be covered if she stays full time (at least 12 credits) and finishes the degrees simultaneously. Any thoughts? Aerospace is 128 credits.
@saismom Aero/Mechanical dual degrees or a double major with Aerospace and something else?
Either way, I think it’s going to cover the full 10 semesters, since both degrees are completed at the same time.You can always check with the SFA folks.
Did she roll in with a bunch of AP/IB/AICE/DE credits? those don’t count toward the credit limit.
Gator88, do you know if the SAT/ACT levels will be remaining the same to qualify, if the bill passes?
@Trisherella I don’t, but all of the “talk” has been around lowering the requirements to allow more students access. However, that’s likely for the lowest level award (FMS, which isn’t getting boasted to full tuition), and mostly from some democrats who want to make BF more “fair”.
I don’t think they will raise the requirements for FAS.
So so glad to say I was absolutely, completely wrong on the timing!! Fall 2017 for the beginning of 100% BF is incredible. My Gator son’s last year 
Oh, please, let this pass.
Any word on this? I thought the vote was on 3/7?
The legislative session started on 3/7, with Governer Scott giving his state of the state speech… the fight over the budget could delay any real news for a few weeks.
The Florida Senate passed the Bright Futures increase today, but it still has to get through the House. Here’s a short AP story. AP will be posting something longer later today.
House version which passed today. Both versions pay 100% to academic scholars. Some changes with Summer, etc but they are close. So still looking good!
http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=549574
I think that’s just the House committee’s version, not the whole House? In any event, for those who are OOS and watching this, I saw this at the end of the article:
“The House bill leaves out several programs in the Senate legislation, including a plan to reward top-performing graduate programs, a scholarship program for students from farm-worker families and a plan to expand a tuition-free program for national merit scholars to out-of-state students.”
@suzy100 Thanks. I guess we will see if OOS NMFs make it back into the final version agreed to by the House and Senate. I was always skeptical of their agreeing to fund such a generous program for OOS, though it would automatically raise the national profile of UF and other FL colleges. Even the Senate version seemed to assign a very low and unrealistic cost estimate to OOS NMF scholarships.
So if this bill passes, it will go into effect for the top-tier BF qualifiers in the fall semester of 2017?
@beachgirl12345 The new budget year begins July 1st, so the thinking is that it will be in effect for this Fall.
@Gator88NE and anyone else, what is the latest on this bill? The BF increase would be so wonderful!
The session ends May 5th. That’s all I have.
You can also keep track of it here
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2017/0002 (Senate Bill)
and
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2017/00003/?Tab=RelatedBills (House Bill)
“Failure Factories!”
That has a ring to it.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/20170429/state-lawmakers-reach-agreement-on-higher-education-changes
So assuming this goes through, will current students be grandfathered in? Or will it only be for students starting this coming year? Surely all students will be included, right?
WHOA! It looks like this includes OOS National Merit Finalists!