So I understand that Florida Prepaid goes first. Does that mean if you take 15 credits rather than 12 you will get more bright futures money deposited into your account? How much extra would 3 credits be worth?
You get the same amount of money per credit regardless of how many credits you take. So, you would get 25% more money if you took 15 credits than if you took 12.
The actual amount depends on when you purchased the Pre Paid plan and which fees it covers or exempts you from. The top level Bright Futures pays the full $212.XX per credit hour + $300 for books during the Fall and Spring semesters. No books money in Summer.
Hope that helps you.
So basically taking 3 extra credits gets you $636 if you have full BF. Thanks!
I must not be understanding what you mean by ādeposited in your accountā.
Do you mean deposited by BF into your Bursarās account at UF. Or deposited into your bank account that is linked to the Bursarās account that excess funds are deposited into after netting out all fees and scholarships?
Sorry, yes I mean excess funds. At least I think I do. My daughter will have full bright futures next year and Prepaid with dorms (1 year) and fees. Iām not really sure how all of this works. I am just so excited that we have full BF and prepaid and great schools here. Sometimes I forget how lucky we are here in FL! When I see wat my friends up north are paying for college, I thank my lucky stars!
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Ok, that is what I thought you meant.
So the answer is no, the difference between 12 and 15 hours will most likely not be the full $212.71 x 3 = $638.13. Unless your Prepaid pays 100% of all fees. You need to check this because a lot of people get surprised that Prepaid does not cover 100%. (what happened was that new fees were created by the universities over the years since many of us purchased the plans and in some cases those fees are not covered)
In my case, Pre Paid pays for some of the fees that make up the $212.71 per credit hour, exempts me from some of the fees (I think it is called the Tuition Differential Fee), and I have to pay out of pocket for some of the fees. In total, I have to pay about $51.50 per credit out out of my pocket.
So, what happens is, the Bursarās office applies all of the Prepaid Credits and exemptions, then BF pays the full $212.71. So, the $51.50 not covered by PP comes out of the BF money and I get the deposit of $212.71 - 51.50 = $161.21 per credit hour into the linked bank account.
But, there is more. There are usually some additional fees beyond the $212.71 that hit each semester. Distance learning fees, laboratory fees and whatever else they come up with. It is usually not more than $25 per class and often 0.
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I could not agree with you more on the cost savings. We purchased the pre-paid when she was a toddler, before they made some of those plan changes. And now coupled with the Bright Futures, which she will get the full award for, I too am struggling to figure out what costs I will be left with each year. Throw in the merit scholarship she will get if she ends up at school B, and all the AP/IB credits she has earned, she could probably even cover her Masters if she chooses to go that far. Thoughts @flprepaidmom?
I have no idea! My D got $7500 per year for UCF. We would totally come out ahead if she went there, but of course she isnāt interested. She also may want to be in a sorority and we still have housing to pay for after freshman year. The bright futures will pay for a portion of rent for soph through senior year. Depending on price of housing we may have to pay around $4000 for rent, and extra fees, plus food etcā¦ Just a guess
@GulfCoastDad one of my sons is a Freshman and has PP + BF + Merit from UF. He is living on campus and has a meal plan. After Tuition + Fees + Dorm + Books + Meal Plan - PP - BF - Scholy are all netted out, he got about $2400 deposited in his bank account each semester. Heāll never touch the 529 for undergrad.
I will say that living off campus is a bit more expensive. I have another kid that is in his 3rd year at UF and has lived off campus for 2 years. The main issue is that all of the apartment complexes require signing a 12 month lease. So, you end up paying more in total. Food off campus should be less than a meal plan, but in my experience it does not offset the rent increase. You can figure $700-800 per month rent for a decent apartment, but for 12 months. By contrast, a standard dorm is about $2,700 per semester. So, if the student is only there in Spring and Fall, Dorm is about $3-4k less costā¦
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Not sure where my head has been but clearly somewhere in the Florida sand. I didnāt know UF gave some merit outā¦but maybe itās NM scholar merit? If not, was it explained by UF what the merit was being awarded for?
@123Mom123 - Here is the link about the UF Merit scholarships.
Thank you!!! That is helpful to read. 
In addition to what GulfCoastDad provided, here is a link to that last Admissions Annual Report. This will give you an idea of how many scholarships are given by UF. In this particular year they offered about 350 scholarships to In State and about 350 to Out of State students. This is in addition the National Merit Finalist which are handled separately.
I had no idea they awarded so many.
(Makes my Sās preference to attend OOS even harder pill to swallow. He will have BF and FPP which is already an amazing bargain.)
Will be interesting to see how everything unfolds in weeks ahead.
NMF get full ride from UF (tuition, room and board, fees, books), so I think itās different story.
Different story from what? Itās already been noted from posters above that NM is different award.
They actually get the Benacquisto from the state (not from UF) and if they get that, they do not get BF.
You can āsaveā your prepaid for grad school if you donāt want to use for undergrad if you want. You just have to let your schoolās finance department know if you donāt want to use it and they will apply just the BF and bill you (or use scholarships) for the remaining fees.
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I didnāt think that it was that many considering they accept over 14,000. It is about 5% of those accepted. But, I guess if you thought it was 0, it may seem like a lotā¦
Well given that Florida tuition is so cheap to begin with Iām surprised that yes, there are any merit scholarships awarded. I donāt imagine there are too many state schools with cheaper tuition than Florida.
Cheap college tuition is one thing Florida gets right. 
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I wonder if they offer the merit scholarships to others later on in the Spring if someone declines to go.