Florida Prepaid, what will we really get for private schools?

<p>I read through several threads, but still have questions.</p>

<p>We bought our Fl prepaid back in...I think it was 1999. We got the 2+2 and the fees plan. </p>

<p>D plans to go directly to a 4 yr college, so I am thinking the plan will help with 3 of those years (combining the 1st 2 yrs, meant to be for community college into one yr).</p>

<p>To those who are currently, or recent got Fl Prepaid payments toward a private or OOS school. How much did you get? I see some posts of 102 per credit hour. </p>

<p>Does having that fee plan affect what we will get?</p>

<p>We got 'grandfathered in' so that we don't have to pay some other fee that Florida came up with a few years ago, but I don't know if that helps us if D ends up going OOS or to a private school.</p>

<p>Just curious, since Florida changed all the community colleges to state colleges, and the comm colleges typically cost less, did that reduce the average that the state has to pay out for the private schools/OOS schools?</p>

<p>guessing you already saw this on the Fl prepaid website, it rings true to what I was told four years ago with the same question. The value of the plan can be applied to a private/OOS school</p>

<p>"The 4-Year Florida College Plan is designed to be used at a Florida College, but the amount covered by this plan can also be applied to other schools nationwide. "</p>

<p>shoboemom, I don’t know anything about the 2+2 or fees plans – I had the plain tuition plan. They paid my son’s private school somewhere in the neighborhood of $103 per credit hour each semester. That was in 2007-2011 so I’m sure the average credit hour cost has increased somewhat since then.</p>

<p>I found the following chart on Florida Gulf Coast U’s webpage that might help, though. I think the amounts are the same for all Florida schools.
[Office</a> of the Bursar](<a href=“http://www.fgcu.edu/Cashiers/fpcp.html]Office”>http://www.fgcu.edu/Cashiers/fpcp.html)
Hope that’s what you’re looking for.</p>

<p>patsmom are you saying the prepaid plan paid the private college $103 per credit? how many credits did that cover?</p>

<p>If I remember correctly, it covers 120 credits for the full 4 year tuition plan. </p>

<p>I just went back and checked my records. In S’s freshman year it paid only $82.15 per credit, increasing each year until his senior year when it was $102.12. Altogether it paid out just over $11,000 for the whole 4 years.</p>

<p>thanks patsmom–that would be $2750 per year, that seems less than actual Florida annual tuition?</p>

<p>Florida Prepaid pays an average per credit hour if you wish to transfer the benefits to an out-of-state college. Some Florida schools are cheaper than others so they take an average of the tuition costs from all of the state schools.</p>

<p>I purchased 4 years tuition, 2 years R&B in 1992. My son is now a Junior. We got $2608 for the first two semesters R&B, $2777 for the next two. His hours varied between 15-20 so the $ varied between $1623 - $$2295. They only reimburse for 120 hours.</p>

<p>Follow-up, in case anyone else is trying to figure this out. I did call the Fl prepaid office and got some numbers.</p>

<p>As of right now (Nov. 2013) using the 2+2 plan with the added fees plan would pay as follows:</p>

<p>for the 1st 2 years (first 60 credit hours) $103 per credit hour.
for the 2nd 2 yrs (2nd 60 credit hours) $158.01 per credit hour.</p>

<p>The breakdown on that 158 is 122.78 tuition, 35 local fees. I assume you only get the local fees portion of that if you signed up for the fees prepaid plan early on, or signed up later, when it was included. I don’t know if the 103 for the 1st 60 credit hours include a fees portion or not. That may be a university thing.
Of course, those numbers change every year.</p>

<p>@shoboemom- the local fees were an additional fee you had to pay for in a separate “local fees” plan. The grandfathered in fees for tuition plans purchased before 2005 ( I think) were the tuition differential fees for Florida. Everyone must pay those IF they purchased the plans after 2005 ( again not absolutely certain about that year). We actually purchased the local fees plan as well so I assume we will have more applied per credit hour when we use it for DD.</p>

<p>Since shoboemon’s plan was purchased in 1999, it would also pay the differential fee (around $35 to $40 a credit hour) if attending one of the 12 Florida Universities. Looks like they don’t “pay” it out if you go to an OOS or private school…good to know.</p>

<p>

They (person at Fl prepaid office) said that as long as we were paying at a Florida School using Fl prepaid, the school could not charge us the differential fee. I don’t know if that is dependent on when you purchased the program or not.</p>

<p>It is…if you got the plan (2005 or so and earlier) before they “cooked” up the “differential fee”, then the older plan gets grandfathered. After 2005, the tuition plan didn’t cover the differential fee (just like it didn’t cover local fee’s), and you had to buy a separate “differential fee” plan. Finally, they just rolled the differential fee, local fee and tuition into the “college or university” plans.</p>

<p>So the fact that we did purchase both the local fees and the 4 year university plan in 2001 means we should be good to go as well? We would not be subject to the differential fee but I wonder if the local fee plan can also be used if we take the plan out of state? I assume OOS universities and colleges have their own type of local fees to cover insurance etc…</p>

<p>Yes, if you use the plan in-state, you don’t have to worry about the differential fee (since you purchased the plan in 2001). </p>

<p>The local fee can be used if you go out of state (remember, you paid into the local fee plan, just like the tuition plan). In Shoboemom’s example (thanks for showing us your numbers!), the local fee plan is paying $35 per credit hour. The $35 can be used against normal tuition at OOS schools.</p>

<p>The following transfer form is used if you want to use your plan to pay for an OOS school.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.itppv.com/documents/pdf/prepaid/prepaid-transfer-form.pdf[/url]”>http://www.itppv.com/documents/pdf/prepaid/prepaid-transfer-form.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;