@momfromfla I didn’t see anything that said it had to be signed?
@fbhsmom My son got an email this afternoon from UF with an attachment for accepting the National Merit Scholarship from UF. It said the Benacquisto wouldn’t be awarded until the state funding had been comfirmed. The form said it needed to be signed and returned by June 1st.
Just to clarify, my D is on the waitlist at Vanderbilt and if she doesn’t get in by May 31st she will put her first choice as UF. As long as she puts UF by May 31st she will get the full scholarship?
I “think” from the reading of the letter I signed and returned last year that this agreement is for NMF’s only who didn’t make the final cut and need the UF college sponsorship to qualify for FIS. I’m not sure.
@greeny8 If your daughter is getting no benefit from putting Vanderbilt (or another school) as her first choice, then there may be no penalty to switching UF to #1 now and making sure the scholarship is setup.
Vandy does have a small NMF scholarship so they probably don’t want to switch yet. My daughter was waitlisted there too, but with FIS I don’t think she would accept it even if she gets in at this point. @momfromfla when do they expect it to be funded?? I thought it already was!
@fbhsmom yes you are correct, vandy gives 5,000 per year to NMF so in case she gets in and decides to attend that small amount is better than nothing since we would be full pay. But I just wanted to make sure I can do it after May 1st up until May 31st, otherwise I’d switch her now.
@fbhsmom I think the legislature already approved the funding, so I’m not sure why the letter said that. Maybe they approved it, but the money isn’t available yet.
So if I already got a corporate scholarship, I don’t need to sign and return the UF scholarship letter? Should I decline it and send it back anyway?
Do not even need to send it back as long as you are certain you are a corporate recipient. NM should tell UF that anyhow. I would email Jessica Roth just to have it documented.
Yes money is approved as of March 25th! I promise!!
BTW: With Joe Negron as Senate president you can be fairly confident higher education funding will be a priority and that means keeping smart kids in the state of Florida! Read:http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2016/04/joe-negron-shifts-florida-senates-focus-to-higher-education-with-listening-tour.html
"As Florida continues to recover from the recent recession, the Senate has supported the establishment and continued increase of performance funding to reward universities that link affordable, rigorous education programs with private sector employment. We also established stringent criteria for preeminent universities whose research expenditures and academic standards, particularly for graduate study, have earned well-respected national rankings. We set aside significant funding for emerging preeminent universities to support Florida institutions that are working to achieve preeminent status. Our state has also awarded more than 700 Benacquisto Scholarships to National Merit Scholars who have chosen to study in Florida.
“These recent budget and policy enhancements certainly reflect the Senate’s strong commitment to ensuring Florida’s State University System has the resources to graduate students who are equipped to compete and lead in a global economy. However, if Florida is going to be home to several national elite destination universities, we still have much work to do.”
That is certainly a much more encouraging stance than Rick Scott, the Governor of Florida has taken in the past. Let’s hope the new more progressive thinking prevails.
@saismom - I have a quick question that may have already been answered and if so, I apologize in advance. If you have Florida prepaid, we were told to opt out of it. We have prepaid for tuition only. If we don’t opt out, will my D get the Benaquisto tuition funds back as a direct deposit? Or will the state subtract her prepaid amount from the Benaquisto award like they do with Bright Futures and the $500 NMF award?
@madredos : I replied to your PM! Call me!
Has anyone’s Benacquisto showed up on their Awards and Disbursements since the last round of NMF awards went out? (the week of 5/9) We were told that it typically would take about a week after receiving the NMF award, but it has been way longer than that and it’s still not there. I emailed SFA today, but was just curious if anyone else was in the same boat.
The Benacquisto award has not shown up on my daughter’s account either. The predicted National Merit Scholarship from UF has been on her account for a few weeks now.
@beachmouse Same here. I left a message for SFA and also emailed, waiting for a reply. Will update here once we hear back. I also talked to OSFA at the state and they said that determining eligibility and posting that is up to the school and to stay on top of the school Financial Aid office to ensure that they post it.
I don’t have the benacquisto or the NMS on my daughters account. Where would the NMS be?