If you have Florida Prepaid and/or Bright Futures

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Florida
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<p>My son is a freshman with Florida Prepaid tuition and dorm, and 100% Bright Futures. I'd like to tell you about our experiences, so you know what to expect next year.</p>

<p>PREPAID TUITION: Tuition this year is $107.00 per credit hour. Only $82.00 of that amount is actual tuition, and $25.00 is for various university fees. Prepaid Tuition covers only the $82.00 tuition, and it does not cover the fees. So if you take 15 credits in a semester, you have to pay the $25.00 fees for each credit yourself. In other words, for 15 credits, you'll be responsible for about $375.00 in fees, that Prepaid does not cover. I think I read that next year's tuition is going to be $111.00 per credit hour, so you may have to pay a little more for fees, etc.</p>

<p>PREPAID DORM: Florida Prepaid Dorm covered my son's dorm rent at 100% because he's staying in Broward, which is one of the dorms covered by the Prepaid plan. If you stay at Hume or one of the other modern, more expensive dorms, you'll have to pay the difference in cost. It's a couple of hundred dollars per semester, and it's outlined on UF's Housing website.</p>

<p>BRIGHT FUTURES: My son has 100% Bright Futures, and the scholarship does cover TUITION AND FEES. Since he had Prepaid Tuition and Dorm, he was allowed to use his Bright Futures money to pay for his meal plan. If you don't have Prepaid Dorm, you can use your Bright Futures money to pay for your dorm.</p>

<p>Bright Futures reimburses you only for the number of credits you take. The literature says that you'll receive $1850.00 for tuition per semester, but if you only take 12 credits, you'll receive 12 X $111.00. And that's great if you're using it to pay for your tuition, but if you have Prepaid Tuition and you intend to use your Bright Futures to pay for your dorm or meal plan, you may come up short if you take only 12 credits.</p>

<p>75% BRIGHT FUTURES: Works the same way, and you get reimbursed 75% of your tuition and fees.</p>

<p>100% BRIGHT FUTURES - $300 FOR BOOKS: It's a great help, but books are very expensive. For first semester, the $300 only covered two of his courses, which averaged more than $150.00 per course for books. This semester's books were a lot less expensive, and it covered almost all of his courses.</p>

<p>IF YOU DON'T SPEND YOUR SCHOLARSHIP: If you have Prepaid Tuition, and you're not going to live in a dorm or buy a meal plan, UF will deposit your Bright Futures scholarship money into your bank account. You'll have to fill out an Electronic Transfer (ET) form online, so they have your bank information. It takes a few weeks after the semester starts before they deposit your surplus Bright Futures money into your account, but once it's there, it's yours to spend on groceries, rent, or whatever else you need.</p>

<p>AT PREVIEW, a Wachovia representative told us:</p>

<p>1) Wachovia is UF's official bank. (It is, but all that means is that Wachovia has a branch and a few ATM machines on campus.)</p>

<p>2) UF will only do Electronic Transfers to Wachovia accounts (Not true).</p>

<p>3) My son HAD TO open up his new Wachovia account with this representative at Preview, and if he opened up his new account at our Wachovia branch at home, it wouldn't be connected to UF. (Not true, of course. The guy just wanted his commission.)</p>

<p>4) This helped us..... I'm listed on my son's Wachovia account so I can check his balance from our home Wachovia and deposit more $$$ when he needs it. (Wachovia said anyone can deposit money into the account, but they wouldn't tell me the balance if my name wasn't on the account.)</p>

<p>I hope this info helps, so you don't have any surprises next semester.
g8trmom</p>

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<p>FLORIDA PREPAID CLARIFICATION -- if you purchased the LOCAL FEE PLAN, they cover the other $25 fees per credit.</p>

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<p>You're right, Cybermom, but they didn't offer the Prepaid Fee Plan when we bought my son's Prepaid Plans in 1989. Now that we know better, we're buying the fee plan for my 13 year-old daughter. It won't be as much of a bargain, but it'll help. Everything about this process will be a LOT easier the second time around :-)</p>

<p>And BTW, I erred (above) when I talked about UF transferring extra funds to your bank account. It's called EFT, Electronic Funds Transfer, and not 'ET'.
g8trmom</p>

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<p>g8trmom -</p>

<p>Great post! My son's a junior at UF and I wish someone had explained things as clearly for us 3 years ago. It took me a long time to figure out how UF came up with the amounts they were billing us. If I'd had your post to refer to, I would have been able to figure it out. Thanks!</p>

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<p>They did not have LOCAL FEE PLAN when my kids were infants in 1990 and 1992 either, but they added it when they were about prekindergarten age, and we were notified and given the opportunity to add it then. I would advise any parents with younger kids to check and see if you have the LOCAL FEE PLAN and if not, add it while your kids are young enough.</p>

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<p>Maybe one of you guys will be able to answer my fees question.</p>

<p>I qualify for 100% bright futures and I just filled out my FAFSA and it said expected family contribution to be about $323 (we're low income). Let's give a value the government gives in aid, we'll call it X.</p>

<p>I paid $200 for tuition, $200 for summer housing and $200 for fall/spring housing. Now, assuming bright futures paid for my tuition, X can be used towards housing/meal plan, etc right? In other words, financial aid covers what bright futures did not or am i mistaken?</p>

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<p>Yes, anything extra left over from FAFSA financial aid will go towards housing, food, etc. Since you are low income, your housing (or anything else) will probably be covered by grants that you will receive through FAFSA.</p>

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<p>You might also get offered loans, not only grants.</p>

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<p>Thanks, Patsmom. It can be very confusing, and I feel the same way you do. I've typed up a timeline of everything we did for my son's application, and this should be much less stressful when my daughter applies in five years. Lots of things may change, but at least we won't be completely in the dark.</p>

<p>Also, I forgot to talk about something else, the PAYMENT DEFERMENTS.</p>

<p>If you are receiving any kind of scholarships, your deadline for paying for tuition, housing, meal plans, etc., is not 10 days after the start of classes each semester, like it is for everyone else. UF gives you a lot more time to pay up, because they wait until your scholarship money arrives. Then they apply it to your bills, and bill you for whatever else you owe. Fall semester's deadline for Bright Futures recipients was in the middle of November, because it took so long for the state to send UF the scholarship money.</p>

<p>In the meantime, when you order your MEAL PLAN on the website, they give you the option to Defer Payment if you are a scholarship recipient. Same thing at the BOOKSTORE, if you are receiving the $300 for books. The bookstore knows who is receiving the book money, and you just show your ID when you get to the register.</p>

<p>My son has Prepaid Tuition, and the $200.00 deposit we sent in after my son was accepted ED was applied to another debt on his account. During October and early November, his balance on ISIS kept being lowered, as UF would apply the scholarships and Prepaid funds. I didn't pay the final few hundred dollars until I called the office and made sure everything was accounted for.</p>

<p>And like I said before, if you have an overage after everything is paid for, UF will transfer the extra money (EFT) to your personal bank account. For Summer B semester, UF transferred $1.52 to son's Wachovia account. Not exactly a night out on the town, but at least it shows the system works.</p>

<p>Good luck to all of you!
g8trmom</p>

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<p>And make SURE your child signs the authorization for you, the parent, to inquire about the bills. When you call the Office of Financial Services, they won't talk to you unless that authorization is in the system. Billing at UF is very confusing, IMO, and you will be almost certainly have questions at first.</p>

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<p>That's right, Patsmom, I forgot about that. It's some kind of a release that the students sign, allowing the parents to call and inquire about their bills. It was first given out at Preview, and we missed it somehow. My son walked to the Finance Office in Criser Hall after school started, and signed it then.</p>

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<p>With Bright Futures, would we really need loans for UF?</p>

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<p>UbiquityEssence, the simple answer is yes. You cant go to UF with BF alone. BF basically only pays for you classes (~$2000 per semester). If you live on-campus (~$4000 for the year) and meal plan (~$2200 for the year).</p>

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<p>Should I start applying for loans now? And then choose which loans I would need for the fall?</p>

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<p>no no here's what you do. you applied for BF and you apply for FAFSA. when your applying for gov fin aid, you put in UF's school code.</p>

<p>once its completed, UF will receive your info. from there, theyll offer you a financial package. in that package (with bright futures discounted) they'll offer grants, loans, work study, etc.</p>

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<p>Ruo, Do you know when they actually give you information on your financial aid package? Do you think it will be before May 1st?</p>

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<p>Just a thought skip the meal plan if you can. Get a refrigerator and do groceries. While it has it advantages you will get food that is cooked and it is convenient. It has disadvantages. The food you are going to see at preview or the layout of food that they will show you at preview is not anything like what you will experience all year. The first two weeks they will have nice food as well hoping that people will sign for meal contracts. After that they drop off. Not only do they drop-off but you get bored of the same food everyday. Then even if you are on campus and you live in lakeside or the Murphree area just choose not to go because of the walk that you have to make to one of the two dinning halls. You find that the flex bucks given with the meals plans are gone in the first month of the semester. And you want to experiment with it your first semester your freshman year they make you pay. Once you sign that contract for fall semester you are obligated to have a contract the semester after that and they take the money directly from your financial aid. And if your financial aid is not enough to cover dorms tuition and the meal plan for the second semester they will just put a hold on your classes tell you pay for the meal plan. So to sum it is nothing sweet. Having said that my freshman year I got the unlimited and it sort of worked I spend way to much money on food because I would go to eat of campus a lot.</p>

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<p>^^ Seconded.</p>

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<p>ooh okay. thanks so much for the info! i completed FASFA & BF in Jan. When will my aid status from UF come out?</p>

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<p>i would say middle of march.</p>