@stepsen- are you talking about employees at U of F whose kids are eligible to apply for TE at other schools - the “outgoing” award? If so, that isn’t unusual- I know from a friend of mine that BU does it the same way. But highly competitive usually refers to hoe difficult it is to be awarded TE at another school , not for the parent to be eligible to be use it for their child. Schools are limited to how many “outgoing” students they can allow to apply for TE based on the numbers they accept- so a college with limited outgoing slots may award based on seniority of the employee - which I find pretty fair
Seconding what @myjanda said. TE requires a reasonable balance between exports and imports. If UF isn’t allowing very many kids out on TE, it means very few kids are coming to UF on TE. If UF’s TE scholarship isn’t great, then kids are likely taking other offers that are more generous, hence the limited number of slots to export. It’s very common for schools to prioritize based on seniority, and some schools will not allow 2 kids from the same family to use TE, or will subtract a certain amount of years of seniority for subsequent children.
Our host school had the opposite problem - for a few years it couldn’t accept any new imports since very few dependents were going out on TE. Everyone either went to the host school or typically chose on of the great - and reasonable inexpensive - state schools.
As was said above, the competition comes in when fighting for however many import slots are available. Some schools will offer TE to just about anyone, as they have faculty who want to send kids out. Others have very few import slots available since they don’t export a lot. It’s all supply and demand for the different schools - and how generous each TE scholarship is.
I didn’t/don’t see any downside in trying for TE if it’s available. We did not end up using TE but it was an option eventually at a couple of schools and a couple of schools awarded my D higher Merit and ignored TE in those cases. The effort to apply was minimal and my school charged a small application fee.
Yes…the problem is that, among faculty at UF the “perception” is that it is “easy” to get TE. I think all entities should make the entire “process” more transparent. We were really hoping this would be an option for our daughter. To find out, at this late date, that is not, is beyond disappointing. Had it been clear that the outgoing spots were limited and awarded based on seniority, we would not have pinned any hope to TE…as my husband only has 11 yrs service.
MAandMEmom - we are at an institution that also has CIC. Have not used for DD, but definitely looking at these options for DS. I did not use either TE or CIC for my DD16, but I am starting to look at schools now (even though it’s really early) for DS.
The number of CIC schools are far fewer in number and there seems to be some TE and CIC overlap. Not too clear on the CIC rules but I know its 100% tuition while TE has so many that award the minimum. I have a S19 and we are visting TE schools in our area that have civil engineering as a place to begin the process.
@MAandMEmom I have one child currently using CIC. The award is full tuition, but each school on the list is required to accept only 3 new exchange spots each year. Some schools may not have 3 applications and others may have so many that the acceptance rate for exchange is in the single digits. Apply early as some schools will make their decisions in December and ask for acceptance by Jan/Feb. Since this isn’t fin aid but an employment benefit, the May 1 rule doesn’t apply. Not that you can’t accept and offer and then drop if you get off a wait list elsewhere, but you can’t accept multiple offers and then wait.
Haven’t been on College Confidential in a long while. Came on to see if there’s any discussion on if TE would become taxable income under the GOP tax plan. That would be a big deal to us 
As far as the discussion above goes, I think TE is the best deal for solid but not top tier students who would not be getting top merit awards. Both my kids fell into this category, and both got TE at RIT.