@SMC0226 – you are not alone. It’s the one “gotcha” associated with this program. It really is too good to be true (if it weren’t, lots of other states would offer something similar), and everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop. Most people think it’s unsustainable for the long term, and the $64,000 (or $129,000!) question is “how does it end”? When OU cut back a very generous NMF scholarship, it grandfathered in current students. That would definitely be the humane thing to do (and in my opinion, the most likely scenario), but as noted above, the state’s and the school’s explicit refusal to commit to that has to be taken into account.
Other theories floated on CC to control costs going forward would be to limit the value of the scholarship to something less than full COA, or to limit the number of scholarships available to each school. Again, there is no way to know how, if at all, it might be limited in the future, and excluding OOS students is certainly a possibility since they had been excluded for many years before last year.
On the one hand, your timing is great now, assuming the scholarship is available for the next few years, and is then eliminated while grandfathering in current recipients. On the other hand, 4 years from now, assuming it is still being funded and is fully up and running with 4 classes of students receiving benefits, everyone would be more comfortable with the state’s commitment to the program after seeing it continue for several years with the funding increasing each year to keep pace with its expanding utilization.
Unfortunately, there is no guarantee for now, so I would approach it as I suggested above, and make whatever decision makes the most sense for your family and your student. UF is a great school, but there are literally hundreds of great schools that are very capable of delivering a high quality education in an environment in which your NMF will thrive.
@NJDad00, you make an interesting point that the program could end, and I agree with you that the state would get a serious black eye if it cut the program without seeing it through to graduation for the students who already have the scholarship.
Although you have been discussing the scholarship for OOS kids, those of us who are in-state with children getting the Benacquisto are subject to the same risk that the program could be voted down. However, the scholarship has been been in existence since 2014, although it originally had a different name. Accordingly, the state must be fully aware that there is a continuing and growing expense as new people are added. I think that the legislature and the governor fully understood the program and its expense.
If suddenly several thousand OOS NMF applies to UF, I believe that the state would move to limit the number of OOS students, not eliminate the scholarship. I don’t see the day that the state would cut off the scholarship to someone already receiving the scholarship. I am a former mayor of a Florida city and I know a lot of the current legislators. The Benacquisto Scholarship is an act of nobility, not a bait and switch tactic.
Our lives are full of risk. A meteor could hit us on the head or a nuclear war could start tomorrow. And I’d put the chance that the State of Florida would tarnish its reputation with the act of terminating the Benacquisto Scholarship to those who were enticed to attend its flagship university at about the same level of risk.
@SMC0226 You might want to see if @mountainmomof3 has anything to add. I think her son was choosing between Alabama and UF. I remember she had a reassuring email conversation with either UF admissions or financial aid about the Benacquisto. (I can’t find the exact post at the moment but I kind of think it was over on the UF CC board.)
My NMF son was also offered the Sunshine Scholarship, so that makes us feel that we could fall back on that if Benacquisto went away. But I really think now is the chance to jump on this deal. They will probably have to make changes in the future because of OOS numbers, but I expect some sort of grandfathering if that happens. Both UF and the state of FL want OOS kids to choose FL.
@oldandwise – all of your points regarding risk are valid, but you ignore the biggest difference between IS and OOS – IS are voters and, more importantly taxpayers (although I am aware there is no income tax, IS are subject to other taxes that OOS families are not, and they fund the programs). If I was worried about any future changes to a program I was directly benefiting from, I would be much less comfortable OOS than IS, particularly because the program has a history being exclusively for the benefit of IS prior to last year.
By the way, no one has ever suggested it’s a bait and switch tactic. It would not be in anyone’s interest in the FL government to engage in that. But the fact is, things change, legislative priorities changes, funding availability changes, and nobody knows how these changes would impact the program, specifically with respect to OOS recipients.
If those in power shared your belief about the program, it would cost them zero dollars to address the issue in writing with respect to anyone entering the program, since they would NEVER abandon OOS students due to the state’s aversion to black eyes. Their refusal to do so simply cannot be ignored for the more risk averse among us.
Abandoning current students midway through certainly would be a black eye for Florida, but it would not be the first, nor the last, and, given all the issues Florida is facing, OOS scholarship recipients would not be at the top of many people’s list in the state!
Bottom line, it’s an issue that doesn’t exist with any other widely available scholarship, it has been intentionally created by the legislature, and it has not been addressed, either by the legislature or UF, after being raised by concerned parents. Assuming they would never do the one thing they are refusing to guarantee in writing that they will not do is simply not prudent for those who are not comfortable with risk. The choices are not UF on Benacquisto or manual labor (to borrow a line from Seinfeld – not that there’s anything wrong with that!); there are plenty of other options for NMFs that involve four year university degrees and don’t involve worrying about funding being allocated by an OOS legislature every year.
@Mamareeb – I cannot speak for @mountainmomof3, but I also had a reassuring conversation with UF staff last year, and I did not find it very reassuring. The gist was that that they were aware of the concern, and that they had lobbying influence in Tallahassee and would vigorously advocate on behalf of their students if any changes to the program were proposed that would negatively impact current students.
Comforting as those words were, they fell short of a written assurance that my child’s funding would not be pulled before he received his degree, since that is ultimately at the discretion of the legislature. UF’s decision not to offer such a program in the past (unlike other Florida universities), and refusal to commit institutional funds to replace state funds, if necessary, was taken at face value by me, and weighed more heavily than comforting words, that, admittedly, make sense but have no legal weight.
Of course, different families will come to different conclusions, and, don’t get me wrong, I do believe that students entering this year are more likely than not to receive full funding for their entire undergraduate experience. I’m just not sure I would be willing to place a potentially $100,000+ bet on that more likely than not outcome, since it really is far from guaranteed.
Chiming in - my conversation with admissions was basically:
They feel confident in future funding (I imagine in part given increased funding this year.)
In the past, when the state has decreased/eliminated programs current students were grandfathered in
In the event of a funding loss, they would work with students (whatever that means?)
I was further reassured because my son received the $20,000/year Gator Nation award.
I have researched it and truly feel the benefits of UF outweigh the risk of losing funding and basically left it up to my son to decide. He had three NMF schools to choose from:
UCF: loved it but didn’t have the traditional campus feel he wanted
Alabama: not as prestigious and not quite a full ride
Florida: most prestigious and respected for his chosen field.
In the end, he chose Alabama as his NMF option purely on fit and his interactions with the engineering department and honors college.
He still has another school in he running (non-NMF) that he will visit for a scholarship competition. Hoping to have an absolute final decision soon.
Good luck to everyone working thru the UF OOS Benacquisto funding issues. I personally think as many families as possible should press UF on the funding issue should state funding go away. Maybe they will come up with a more guaranteed plan B.
@mountainmomof3 – Congratulations on the Gator Nation award, and on the Alabama decision!!! I know it’s been a long and stressful road for you and your DS. Good luck on your one remaining scholarship option.
With respect to a UF Plan B, nobody should hold their breath. UF made a decision years ago not to chase NMFs with big money, and it hasn’t suffered at all as its prestige and perceived desirability has only increased.
They will definitely work with the state to advocate on behalf of their students, but they clearly have no interest in funding OOS NMF scholarships. I’m sure they would do “something” if the program suddenly ended and students were left stranded, but that “something” would be something short of a dollar for dollar replacement since they are not matching the offers of other Florida schools to put such an assurance in writing.
I’m equally sure that if the program were to disappear, they would replace it with what they had two years ago, i.e., nothing, so I really think it would be a waste of time to lobby them for a guaranteed Plan B. I’m reasonably certain that if you said to them, “But UCF, Alabama, UTD, etc. have guarantees,” they would respond by telling you how much better UF is than those schools (no comment on whether that’s actually true beyond USNWR rankings, but that’s not my point!), and then encourage you to go to the other schools if you want a guarantee.
Based on the rankings, no other “peer” school to UF even has a comparable, widely available scholarship, let alone a guarantee, so they feel no need to offer one. The scholarship is a real blessing for as long as it lasts, but the catch is UF will never offer a guarantee and the state apparently also has no interest in doing so, so you just have to go in with your eyes wide open and decide whether the probably small risk of being stranded (with potentially very expensive consequences) is worth the reward.
Thank you for your input @mountainmomof3 , we are also considering Alabama as an option as well along with others. And I agree with you @NJDad00 - reassuring conversations are great but I really think I’d need to see something in writing. We will be appealing for something more solid from UF and see what they say but it does not sound promising based on your experiences. I do agree that more families need to pressure them for a more guaranteed Plan B.
I have no idea how the state legislative process works, but is it too late to appeal to senators to get an addendum or something written into the law? I know they are starting their legislative session this week. Looks like the Senator who originally sponsored the bill SB4, Bill Galvano, is now the Senate President. It just seems like if the goal is to attract the high stats kids like, say, Alabama, there needs to be something we can count on.
@SMC0226 – I like the way you are thinking, but you need to realize that all state legislative processes are a messy set of compromises to achieve a result. As you know by now, what is unique about this program is that it is funded by state taxpayers but benefits high achieving, OOS students, most of whom do not have demonstrated financial need.
This is a real political hot potato in pretty much every state, because it involves diverting funding from K-12 and from IS students, typically with financial need, so would be generally unpopular with voters, and is likely why it doesn’t exist in any other state and probably won’t exist in Florida in its current form, if at all, in a few years.
I am pretty sure that the lack of a guarantee written into the law was not designed to screw anyone over, but rather, to avoid tying the hands of future legislatures, and that such an addendum could probably never pass given who benefits (OOS) and who could be hurt in the future by such a guarantee (IS taxpayers and voters). The answer to your real question is yes, it is waaaay too late get an addendum to the current law this year. We are now at the end of the budget process just to allocate funding for next year for the existing law. An amendment to the law could take months if not years (with hearings, committees, conferences, amendments, etc.), but, as noted above, the lack of a guarantee was probably not an oversight, so there will be no interest in amending the law to include one now.
The logic would be that any future changes should be left for future legislatures, who could choose to grandfather in current participants (or not), and the benefit of giving assurance to OOS (and attracting a few who would not attend UF without a guarantee) now does not outweigh the potential cost of not being able to fund a future priority due to being required to honor a guarantee to all OOS scholarship recipients at all Florida schools (remember that a few schools have chosen to make such a guarantee with their own funds).
It really depends on your other ‘sure thing’ options. Do you have other schools offering full COA? If so, go with those sure things.
You have to understand that the Benacquisto is an outside scholarship. UF has no control over it and just accepts the funds as full COA. Same with Bright Futures money. UF (or other schools) can’t overrule any BF decisions if the student doesn’t take enough credits or fails some and loses BF, and UF can’t reinstate the BF award. I also doubt that UF/UCF/FSU spend a lot of time in Tallahassee lobbying for the state budget to include BF or Benacquisto programs. They are more worried about their own budgets.
When BF was first started, it paid close to full tuition. Then it became less and less of the full amount until it was about half. Then they raised the scores/gpa to qualify and BF now serves an increasingly white and middle class group (as is ACT 29+, gpa 3.5+, foreign language taking, community service performing high school population that get BF). I thought the program would be eliminated in favor of a program which better served financially needy students. Nope. In fact, BF funding was increased to once again cover full tuition and they added in a book stipend. Count
There is also a program to provide 40% of instate tuition to residents who attend private schools. The first year my daughter was in school the funding fell short and each student was short $33 (of the $2500). In all the other years my daughter used it, the program was fully funded and in fact was raised to $3000 and then $3500 as instate tuition rose.
So do I think Benacquisto will be funded? I have no idea but don’t think the individual schools will provide you a guarantee unless they have their own merit programs to cover it. I think it would depend on why the legislature wanted the program in the first place
But Florida does have a new governor. Who knows what programs he’ll support.
@tvn2018-tx , I’m curious what the 2018-19 numbers will looks like for UF and FSU. While OOS Benacquisto was not well known last year, I bet it still had some effect. I wish NMSC published the next financial statement sooner than October.
@Gator88NE – I have followed your posts over the past year or so with great interest and respect, as I think you really know what you are talking about, but I think you are being very conservative in your projection. Full pay private school COA is way higher than in was in 2004, and UF is way higher ranked than it was back then.
OU had over 300 NMSs in its freshman class two years ago, and UF is way more highly regarded, and the Benacquisto is way more generous than the OU scholarship was. I think if UF could pull in 231 kids from Florida, it could potentially pull in at least as many from the other 49 states combined, although I also think by the time it gets there the program as it stands today will be over. Let’s see, but I wouldn’t be shocked if UF pulls in over 300 this year. Based on the “buzz” just on CC, I think it has already taken on a life of its own,and the one thing keeping it from exploding is the lack of a UF guarantee!!!
@NJDad00 Just sharing the numbers. Another difference between 2005 and today, is that UF used to activity marketed the program. Today they don’t. UF doesn’t make an effort to market/sale itself to NM Scholars. If they did, they could easily increase the numbers.
Not directly related, but this year, UF only had about a 2% to 3% increase in application. The previous year, the increase was 17% to 18% (switching to the Coalition App).
If you UF moves up again in the rankings, which, with the increases in state funding, faculty and graduation rates, it’s likely to do, then we may see another bump in OOS applications.
@Gator88NE – you are, of course, correct about the lack of marketing, but that did not prevent 231 kids from finding them last year. (Note: @DesertCactusDad is correct; the 231 is from last Fall, and includes OOS.) Kind of the way water finds the crack in a structure, I think parents are pretty good about finding full COA opportunities for the kids between high school guidance offices, word of mouth, the Internet, etc. We’ll see, but I predict that the UF number will either hit or exceed your prediction this current year, now that the word has been out since last Summer, and only grow from there until the legislature cries “Uncle”!
Not sure if it was in this thread or another, but someone mentioned a concern about paying for summer classes as an OOS student, since Benacquisto does not cover summer classes. FSU has confirmed for me that it will not charge my OOS Benacquisto recipient son OOS tuition rates if he takes summer classes. He will be charged in state tuition. I don’t know how UF, UCF or other Benacquisto schools are handling that.
