Have some questions about FL in-state tuition eligibility:
Family is looking to relocate to FL in May-June - daughter is currently applying to colleges now. She’s applied to 2 schools outside of Florida but in Florida: FSU, UF, MIAMI, UCF and Florida Tech.
I figured in-state tuition wouldn’t be possible until we’ve resided in Florida for 12 months and would then need to show proof: driver license, home ownership, etc.
We’re not moving just for the purpose of in-state, it is for job purposes, hence why she applied to so many in FL.
Someone on a previous post stated that if you enroll as an OOS, it may be impossible to ever receive in-state regardless if you are a true resident.
She was accepted to CORNELL’S Curie Academy (week-long women engineering seminar/camp) last summer and that has confirmed her desire to study engineering and apply to CORNELL. She received a application fee waiver as a result.
SAT scores: 700 reading, 710 math, 640 writing
SAT subject tests will be taken in Oct
Her top choices right now are:
Cornell
Virginia Tech (oldest daughter attended there)
NC State
Georgia Tech
University of Florida
We are ideally looking for a school that could offer close to a full-ride (with financial aid, scholarship), last resort would be the D of E loans which can be maxed out to $12,500 a year
Considering community college for the year until in-state tuition is eligible…last option
The above info is very strange. It appears that you want lots of merit, but applied to many schools that give little or none.
Then you mention attending a CC for first year while waiting for in-state. Do you realize that if she goes to a CC for a year, she’ll have little or NO merit opportunities? Merit, especially the good-sized ones are for incoming freshman only.
All of your DD’s nice merit opportunities will disappear if she goes to a CC for year first.
Your DD may need to take a gap year, get residency and/or apply to a list of schools that will get you what you want.
As for loans…your DD can get:
$5500 as a freshman…she can’t get $12,500.
If you have bad credit, then she can get $9500 as a freshman…but only if your credit is bad.
@mom2collegekids Try to be a bit more encouraging in your posts, you’ve responded to me before and you are very negative. This site should be used to offer ENCOURAGING guidance to confused parents/students, not demoralize their efforts.
Mom2CK is just trying to save you alot of time, drama, and money.
You got good info on the FL residency issue. Here’s another link from the Board of Governors of the State University System of Florida: http://www.flbog.edu/forstudents/ati/resrequirements.php . If I were moving to Florida I would get my car title changed, register to vote, etc. asap. I had to put in a bunch of that info when my son applied to several universities in Florida. It’s a pain but worth it.
Florida state universities can be a pretty good value (depending on the situation) but it seems like they don’t give quite as much merit $$ as some other state schools. High achieving Florida students tend to utilize Bright Futures. Did your daughter get the scholarship at FSU? My DS got the $9600 one if I remember correctly. I think they have an OOS waiver for certain stats (doesn’t apply to us because we are in state).
Wishing you luck and clarity in this process. And welcome to Florida if you do make the move!
Why not see if the Florida A&M full ride for 3.5 unweighted GPA and 1900 SAT is still available? Then you will not have to worry about Florida residency (except for the summers). Florida A&M engineering is the same as Florida State engineering, so this is an arbitrage opportunity.
Be sure to consider the cost of the mandatory summer session at Florida public universities. This is required even for students who could graduate in 8 or fewer semesters without summer courses.
You absolutely need to read the residency requirements for EACH separate FL university. It is easier to gain instate status at some than others.
That your daughter is applying there with a HS diploma from another state, means she will need to deal,wth the residency change issue.just make sure that you get everything in writing…it is very possible that instate status won’t be applicable until you have resided there for 12 months. And read the fine print because at some schools, if you enter as a non-resident it is VERY hard to get tht status changed in subsequent years.
And at some places…you cannot establish residency while attending college on FL.
Hokie- you realize that the folks who are trying to help you are volunteers, right? it’s not like there is some big CC slush fund that pays parents with financial aid expertise to help the newbies.
Some of us have read dozens of posts from families who have relocated (or the kid has relocated) and a year later discover that the financing plan did not materialize for a variety of reasons. The two biggest-
A-Failure to discuss the situation with each of the colleges in question. Not to rely on information from a website (this one or any other); not to rely on your sister-in-law’s pastor who was transferred to Georgia but you are pretty sure that Alabama and Georgia have the same policies; not to rely on what your kid’s guidance counselor tells you. Pick up the phone and call.
B- Failure to realize that enrolling in college- community college, for-credit online university, or an actual college, means that your kid in most instances is no longer a Freshman when applying in the new domicile. This means that the merit scholarships that your kid thinks he or she is going to get are not likely to materialize. They are for Freshman- new college students- not for transfers. The fact that you don’t consider your kid a transfer because he/she only took X credits not y credits… that’s for the registrar at the new university to determine. A lot of people don’t realize this. Especially if your kid is just “biding time” taking a course or two before the move it is easy to make this mistake but it has big financial consequences.
It’s a shame you don’t like the tone some posters take when trying to help- but given that we are all trying to save you thousands of dollars with absolutely no upside personally- maybe you should think about that. And if we are not adequately encouraging it’s because we’ve seen so many folks get burned by making assumptions that don’t play out in real life.
Read the post by the kid who thinks that if he/she moves out of mom/step-dad’s house he no longer has to list step-dad’s higher income on his FAFSA.
Your daughter might be better off taking a gap year and starting at a Florida school as an instate resident after you have lived here a year.
For the two private schools, Florida Tech and Miami, she will/would get a $3000 FRAG grant if a resident for at least a year. You do have to submit a form listing (and attaching a copy) of proof that you are a resident and when that began (rent agreement, car registration, similar things). She could also be eligible for need based financial aid from the state, but only if a resident for a year. UCF has several scholarships for residents, as do a lot of the ‘directional’ schools (North Fl, West, South)
UF, UCF and FSU all have community colleges that are adjacent to the universities and share some facilities, including dorms. I do not know if those CCs have a different residency requirement, but do know the credits transfer easily.
I think full ride scholarships are very rare at any Florida school (not as familiar with Miami as the others). Florida school’s COA are low, and there is some FA available, but rarely have I heard of a non-sports scholarships that covers everything. Many students (including my daughter) have several small grants and awards and stack them up to cover costs.
FSU would be a good bet, hopefully your daughter applied before the Jan. 13 deadline. My OOS daughter was offered the OOS tuition waiver and the $9600($2400/yr) freshman scholarship with similar stats. Since we probably will not have to pay the nearly $2K health fee because we have decent health insurance already, FSU would cost us roughly 16K for the first year, probably a lot less than our State U, which is expensive even for IS. Also, because the OOS waiver is indexed with the tuition, increases in tuition in years 2-4 will be covered by the waiver and we will only have to deal with covering R+B increases(or moving off campus).
Yes, the lack of a quote button like on other forums makes it easier to make quoting mistakes.
However, FSU, whose engineering is the same as that of FAMU (they have a joint College of Engineering), is on the list. Why not get the same engineering education for essentially free if (as it appears) that the main criterion for the prospective engineering student is affordable cost in Florida?
^^Tallahassee as a whole might be a good fit or not so good. I know students who love it and those who wouldn’t even consider any of the schools there.