@18yrcollegemin Yes, other schools with generous OOS merit aids generally use university funds. The big one that comes to mind is Alabama, with full OOS tuition for those with at least a 32 and a 3.5. But this offer is funded by the school’s football coffers, not state money.
I don’t want to get ahead of myself now, but how could the state pick up the tab of 40k a year or so for OOS students when it can’t even pay the rest of the tuition for its residents?
I will post the reply from my senator if/when I hear back…lol
@18yrcollegemin I can appreciate your concern about OOS Benacquisto (don’t ask my why they are doing it), but there is a significant increase in this years budget for PK-12 funding. The house went along with the senate’s plan to increase higher education funding, while the senate, in turn, went along with the houses plan to increase PK-12 funding.
To be honest, I don’t put too much weight on US New’s ranking (46th, worse than Mississippi and Louisiana?), as well as our #1 ranking in Higher Education.
@lcgusa UA funds it’s generous merit based scholarships primarily with tuition income, endowment, and gifts. The athletic department, in some years may give the university a few million dollars, but UA spends over $100 Million a year on merit based scholarships (close to $50M a year on need-based aid).
I’m not sure how the idea got out that it’s being funded by the athletic department (most have been that year they gave the university $5M).
Most of UA and UF’s Althletic department’s surplus income gets re-invested into the program (new sports facilities, new sports scholarships, salaries, etc.).
I read that NYT article on Alabamas drastic growth last fall (or was it 2015?) and the schools reputation as one with a premier football program and a heavy Greek scene, coupled with generous OOS scholarships, have compelled many kids from the NE and Midwest to come down south for four years. I don’t know the exact figures but I think OOS students make up most of the student body.
53 percent of UA students are OOS.
The stated purpose of the OOS NMF scholarships is to compete with the best public universities in the country and raise the academic profiles of Fla public universities. It may be debatable whether Fla can afford it or whether the money is better spend elsewhere, but I do not have any problem with the goal.
To each his own I suppose. It would take a few years to see whether this OOS Benacquisto scholarship paid dividends in raising the stature of Fl public universities, as well as breaking UF into the top ten of public U.S. public universities. But I’m sure there would be many eager OOS NMFs who wouldn’t bat an eyelid to take up this offer.
What exactly is the OOS Benacquisto scholarship? In-state tuition?
@Zinhead Full cost of attendance paid for by the state. So, in the case of an OOS National Merit finalist who wanted to go to UF from out of state, the state would pay the full amount of out of state tuition (28k per year), plus room and board, books, and any other miscellaneous expenses, for a total of around 43k per year.
"All your NMF’s are belong to us!"
We’ve been talking about the OOS Benacquisto and the increase in Bright Futures, but the new budget increases education funding in several other areas. Increases in PK-12 funding, increases in need-based aid programs, funding to recruit and retain faculty, Block based tuition, changes to the CC system, etc…
A key legislative initiative for UF was to reduce the student to faculty ratio, and it looks like it may get the funding to do just that…
@lcgusa , That is the way I read it as well. And the state is actually giving that money to the universities, correct? It is not a matter of the universities absorbing the costs. This is cold, hard cash to the universities. If so, the incentive for UF, FSU etc… is to admit and entice to attend as many OOS NMFs as possible so they can get that funding from the state. In 2015 UF had 158 NMF Scholars. Oklahoma, with one of the more generous NMF scholarship programs, had 270. I have to imagine UF could go at least that high, not to mention the other Fla schools. Now maybe the state will set a funding limit. In which case it will become more competitive for an OOS NMF to get in.
@vistajay The state gives the money to the university to pay the OOS NMFs bills, just like they do for in-state Benacquisto scholars, only in this case, it’s about twice as much owing to the OOS tuition rate. If this passes and is not repealed, I will predict UF admissions will become even more competitive, and the OOS student population will rise, as UF loves OOS students because of the higher tuition rate they pay.
OOS enrollment at most public Florida schools (FAMU seems to be exempt) are capped at 10 percent of total enrollment, and currently only 3 percent of UF students are OOS so there is room for that number to grow. Of course, UF may decide to voluntarily limit OOS admissions below 10 percent in order to avoid the wrath of angry alumni.
Looking at last year’s numbers, a total of 247 NMFs chose to attend one of the six eligible Benacquisto schools (i.e. UF, FSU, USF, UCF, New College and UM). Florida had 807 semifinalists. Typically, 15,000 of 16,000 semifinalists proceed to finalists. Assuming that ratio holds true for Florida, there would be 757 NMFs in FL. 247/757 = ~33% of those students eligible for Benacquisto stayed in FL and each received roughly $22k (renewable for four years) from the state.
Extending this to OOS would mean over 14K more students would now be eligible for a full-ride. With so many schools eliminating or reducing the NMF packages once offered, I’m sure there would be a dramatic uptick in the number of applications received for FL schools. Not even Bama or Oklahoma guarantee a full-ride anymore and UF/UM are both ranked significantly higher than either of those. The OOS package would be roughly $43K per year (for four years). For a state that doesn’t even have state income tax, I don’t see how this would ever be possible. I think it would quickly bring an end to the program even for in-state kids.
As someone who has lived in FL for over 30 years, paid the property, sales, gas, etc. taxes, and then paid for 4 kids to attend private schools because of the quality of the public schools, at least at first glance, I am highly opposed to this proposal. We looked at the possibility of my youngest attending the local public high school this year in what is supposed to be one of the better schools in one of the better school districts in the state. The HS has about 3400 students. They have one single 30 minute lunch period during which the administrator showing the school stated that only the kids receiving free/reduced lunches get to eat in the cafeteria because 1) no room and 2) not enough time to get everyone through the line. The remainder of the kids bring bag lunches and sit on the ground in the courtyard to eat or go without. When my oldest started first grade, the school he attended had around 825 students at a facility designed for 650. When we transferred him to a private school in fifth grade, the school had over 1500 students, the entire playground was covered over with portables so there was no recess, the first lunch period began at 9:10 and the last lunch period ended at 2:00. School was out at 2:10. There is simply no way the state suddenly found enough money to cover the needs of the PK-12 students in public schools as well as funding a full ride for any NMF kid that wants to attend college in the state.
Why would they pick up the very expensive tab for NMFs who have no connection to the state if they can’t even cover the tuition of in-state Florida Academic scholars who have gone to high school in the state and have chosen to stay in state and raise the academic profile of the state? And yes, let’s not even start about the overcrowded K12 schools.
@18yrcollegemin You wouldn’t receive a full ride to UM, you’d receive the cost of attendance to a state university, so around 20k. I still have yet to figure out if they would stack Benaquisto with a full tuition scholarship like Singer to cover the full COA at Miami.
I have a question about Bright Futures. Do you have to send your SAT scores to them via College Board or do you only have to check that you are okay with releasing your scores? Basically, what exactly does this mean “give
authorization for your test scores to be released.”
For your GPA you self report then “give authorization for your GPA information to be released by your high school”.
Is there a box to check on the FFAA to give authorization for both of these?
Thanks.
Here’s the website I am quoting
https://www.floridastudentfinancialaidsg.org/ua/SAWSTUA_Before_You_Begin.pdf
Is the only thing I need to do outside of filling out the FFAA submitting my SAT score to UF, so the State has my SAT score in its records?
Also, to add to the discussion of Benacquisto:
I think it will be interesting to see how OOS thing plays out. Especially if these kids receive 40k+ per year to cover the COA at UF. Would this mean they would also get 40k towards UM?
The proposed bill says that students at eligible independent schools (i.e. Miami) would receive the full COA of an in-state student at a public university. So, about $22k per year.
@18yrcollegemin @lcgusa I agree. I don’t know where this money is coming from. I think Bright Futures requirements needs to be upped dramatically. 3.5 weighted (out of 4.5 max) is a joke, I hate to say.
Miami could pocket the money, though. They have a weird thing with “tuition restricted” scholarships.