The Beaquisto program is a state program. Benaquisto will pay UF the amount of the award (with state funds, not with UF funds) and UF will give the student any amounts not used for billed UF costs (books, r&b if not living on campus).
@20GatorGirl , I understand where you are coming from, I was feeling the same way last year. And now my daughter is an OOS NMF attending UF and she received the OOS Benacquisto Scholarship (which as noted in other comments is from the state of Florida, and UF just waives the OOS costs). To answer your first question there is NO other application for her to submit to UF in order to get the OOS Benacquisto scholarship. Obviously she just has to complete her National Merit application to try and become a finalist. AT this time (meaning unless they change the legislation/bill in Florida which is hopefully highly unlikely to happen this year or next since they just passed the darn thing) there is no way a student who is a NMF (even if OOS) and is accepted into UF (or any of the other Florida colleges that are listed on the NMSC list) will not receive the OOS Benacquisto. Side note: I recommend that she go on the NMSC website ( osa.nationalmerit.org) after she is notified that she is a NMF and change her first choice to āUndecidedā, until at least late April, that way if she does not get into UF and she hopefully applied to other colleges that also award NMF type scholarships she can then change her preference on the NMSC website to that college by the NMSC deadline which is May 31, but do it at least a week or more before that date so you can check that itās been recorded by the NMSC (by just logging back in a few days after you did it to make sure itās on there). Because on March 1st NMSC sends itās first round of notifications to the colleges for students who have selected a first choice, and then you can not change it to a different college once a college is notified by NMSC that they were your first choice. here is a link to this info that Iām talking about: https://nationalmerit.imodules.com/s/1758/images/gid2/editor_documents/merit_r_i_leaflet.pdf?sessionid=42d98218-079e-4d48-972b-5e5ad778421a&cc=1&muid=AUTH_be734957-32fd-454d-94f2-4bb64df6d246&csid=434344 Any how, we did the āUndecidedā route until mid May, and that way my daughter had time to decide between several colleges that she applied to and was accepted into. Also I hope you are aware there are other colleges in Florida that provide the OOS Benacquisto Scholarship the same way UF does (via being a NMF), although as stated in other posts the Univ of Miami is a private college and the Benacquisto only covers up to the highest in-state cost of attendance at a public university.
Thanks GarpRules. Yes, we are aware of the other schools that offer OOS Benacquisto in FLā¦her #2 and #3 choices are Alabama and FL State. She is already accepted at UA, and they have recruited her heavily for Honors and other advanced programs ā which has been super tempting for her. I think she is leaning towards UF because of the feel she got from the campus ā more of a comfort level than anything. I am glad u explained how the 1st choice on the NMF works ā regarding āUndecided.ā Since UF does not release their decisions until 2/28/20 for Fall2020 (apparently it is 2 weeks later than in previous years)ā¦I kept thinking that she already needed to have selected her 1st choice with NMSC by 3/1/20 ā¦lol ā¦crazy fast turnaround! 
ā¦Regarding U of Miami and other private schools (not necessarily in FL), we investigated a few, and while it may sound a little lazy, considering all the hard work that she put in to get her ACT scores, NMSF, tons of extracurriculars, clubs and volunteer hours, Class VP, etc. etc. ā¦I think she was just happy to find some great schools (any of the 3 she would be happy with) that didnāt require her to compete further for additional scholarships with interviews, etc. Thanks again. We will likely change it to undecided to give her some extra time ā just in case!
Some universities with great NM scholarships allow students to earn a masterās degree during 4 years of study (likely for students arriving with lots of credits) but I am unclear how this works with the Benacquisto scholarship and from what I can tell the scholarship ends after completing the undergraduate degree. Can anyone confirm whether a student could have the scholarship pay for a masterās degree also?
FloridaMarcus Instate Benacquisto scholars have Bright Futures to pay for the tuition. OOS scholars do not. They use Bright Futures to pay for graduate classes while seeking their Undergraduate degree.
@FloridaMarcus Benacquisto only covers the undergrad degree and wonāt cover a masterās degree. We went to the Directorās Forum at UCF earlier this month and were told that most students enter the program with 20-60 credits already through AP, DE, etcā¦ The scholarship still covers up to 10 semesters of college but only until their degree is completed. The students on the panel still found ways to be on campus for 4 years however. One pursued a dual major, another a major and two minors, and one used the time to do more research.
Hello Team S21/D21 NMF! @mm5678 @Totoros @mmom99 @pickleberry7 @amsunshine @amnmsj @RockyPA @yearstogo come on over to the āNMF and Florida Benacquistoā thread and letās talk about what plans you guys and other likely NMF families are making for travel to Florida (if youāre OOS) or within the state if youāre already there. I just booked a flight into Miami on Saturday, April 4, 2020 for me and DS21. We will be visiting with family on Sunday and Iām also hoping to catch up with my bff from college whom I havenāt seen since I graduated in '91. Then we are booked for a regular tour of UM at 10am Monday, Apr. 6th. I reached out to the Southern California AO and she indicated sheād probably be able to meet us for an informal coffee that day. She also recommended we check out the Wynwood area of town as thatās where the students go off-campus these days (back in the day the hot place was Coconut Grove, so itās great she mentioned that to me). Then we are driving to Orlando for a Tuesday tour of UCF. I will be reaching out to Luke once I figure out his last name/contact info so if anyone has that, please post a response!
We will tour Gainesville the next day; DS21 is really excited about UF although Iām a little bummed that he might end up a Gator, lol. (Go Canes!!!)
Then we plan on flying up to Boston to take a look at MIT and Harvard. DS21 is extremely interested in playing football (ugh, sigh) and has already begun getting some interest from coaches. We will tentatively hit Princeton as the last school on our whirlwind spring break tour but since thatās a one in a million lottery for 10,000 perfect kids each year, itās going to be a very low-key visit (unless football happens).
Anyone up for joining us on our spring break adventures?
Unfortunately, we donāt foresee any trips for DD21 this year. DD20 hopes to visit one or more colleges in the spring if she gets selected for one of their scholarship interview events, so we are kind of in a holding pattern for that. Also, swim season kind of interferes with everythingā¦
āLukeā is Luke van Blaricom. You can find his contact info on this page: https://www.ucf.edu/admissions/undergraduate/national-merit/
Enjoy your tour of UCF!
@sherimba03 Iām looking forward to hearing about your FL experience. DD21 had pretty much ruled out the FL schools on first glance when I gave her the Fiske guide and had her read about colleges last summer. But now that she got her scores and is starting to think about money, I explained what a full ride meant and told her she should look again. As I mentioned in one of the other threads, we are looking at the AZ schools over spring break and touring our first honors programs. If she likes the idea of honors then I think sheāll be more interested in UCF and USF. Selfishly I am hoping UCF is a match because Iām a big Disney nerd and if she went there, Iād actually have the $$ for some nice trips! ?
@sherimba03 Sounds like an amazing trip you are planning and like @mm5678 said, looking forward to hearing all about it. Not sure if we are traveling ourselves over spring break. We visited Florida twice two years ago, when DS18 was accepted at 4 colleges there. DD21 came along and didnāt like Florida at all unfortunately. We are from Texas and she wants to go somewhere nice and cold, lol! At the time UMiami was the best fit for DS18, but it got rejected because of the campus food!
@mm5678 DDās little sister is lobbying SO hard for UCF for that same reason.
Are you looking at Barrett Honors at ASU? I really wanted DD20 to check out that program, but she says sheās sticking with the full-ride options.
@yy1012 this is the thread I was talking about.
The Burnett Honors College at UCF is like a tightly knit LAC tucked into a sprawling state university. Itās the best of both worlds. Plus, small class sizes, research opportunities, social events. Absolutely worth the time to learn more about.
Speaking of UCF and Burnett Honors College, my dd20 did not apply because she will be a business major and UF/FSU were better for that major, but my dd21 will be going into engineering. Sheās not sure, but narrowing it down between electrical, chemical and software engineering. She will be considering UF, UCF and USF. So far, it looks like UF has the best and broadest array of program opportunities for engineering, but I will be interested in hearing what you all learn about either of the other schools in terms of engineering, too, over the course of the next year
Does anyone know if the Benaquisto scholarship covers study abroad semesters?
My dd21 is interested in travel . . .
@mmom99 , it does not. But many of the FL schools have study abroad funding that Benacquisto recipients would be good candidates to receive. For example, FSUās Presidential Scholarship provides over $12,000 for summer abroad study.
@sherimba03 Thanks for including me in this thread!
Anyone on Benacquisto at Miami? I would love to know what other scholarships might be added there from the school and what a reasonable out of pocket we could expect? Our daughter has applied to Miami and is very interested in it.
@brentwoodmom , my son is not at Miami but he did receive scholarships there. Miami stacks other scholarships on top of Benacquisto, up to the full cost of attendance. Examples of scholarships that would stack are the $18,000-$22,000 awards Miami gives to some applicants upon admittance, the Singer full tuition scholarships that involve an interview weekend, and departmental scholarships (such as music).