They give the full amount of the scholarship at the beginning of the semester. When I say beginning it actually was about 3 weeks in this year so don’t panic if there is a delay. When the scholarship money comes in they simply deduct Tuition and housing from the total and then deposit the rest in your account. Right now she has about $4,000 left from this semester. She has plenty for food which she shops for with roomies every week. She is very stingy though. My daughter is in Towers which has a full kitchen. She doesn’t use the meal plan. Books we had to pay for up front since money was delayed a little bit. Really can not complain about the money at all. It is a very generous scholarship.
Thanks @Phlipper …I do not know why I am even worrying about how the money is dispensed but it sounds like it all all gets figured out. I know Towers is more expensive than the other dorms and my daughter fell in love with the Towers when she toured at the end of the summer so I am sure that is what she will want if she does go there – how (and when) does the difference get paid to live there where it is more expensive? Do they bill you the difference or is your daughter just getting less put into her account to live off of for food? Are you saying she has $4000 to use on food,etc. after tuition and towers was paid? I was also glad to see you say (on another thread) that she seems to be fine on the weekends as an OOS student!
@FrozenMaineMom - Luke will spend a lot of time reviewing this info with you and has several print-outs that will explain it as well. But we were told that the scholarship amount comes out and then tuition, room (and board if chosen) are deducted. Whatever is left is your to budget as you see fit. So if you choose say “Neptune” as a housing option, you would end up with more left. If you choose no meal plan or the lower cost meal plan, the same thing. Whatever is left is for other expenses - up to the student to budget it all out.
One thing to remember, Towers is a calendar year commitment and the scholarship does NOT cover summer sessions. Luke told us it was around $2200 to pay for the summer at Towers and that would need to come from the student. I guess you could try to really budget the food, book, travel expenses to save enough money to cover it through the scholarship money? @Phlipper could probably speak to that more readily.
The NMF student that took us around stayed in Neptune the first year just to avoid the summer commitment but is now in Towers as she needs the summers to keep up with the credit hours from her double major (mechanical engineering and biomedical sciences).She does not have a meal plan so she can try to stretch her money further.
Not sure if my explanation will just confuse you more and hopefully others can chime in with a better explanation. But rest assured, Luke does a wonderful job breaking it all down and could probably even review it all over the phone. He did say that UCF waits till students are named NMF before sending out the scholarship package in writing so don’t look for it on the portal after acceptance.
How is the room and board portion of cost of attendance calculated? Is it the price of Towers 3? What level meal plan?
Also I thought I saw something somewhere about required summer credits?
They give her a lump sum as the estimated cost of attendance. I think for OOS students that is calculated at around $36,000 a year. Then they take out Tuition and housing and deposit the rest in her account. She didn’t choose a meal plan which she felt was not worth the amount it cost. (Dad disagreed but what can you do?). not having a meal plan does save a ton ! I think after housing and tuition and books were paid for she had around $5,500 left. She pays for food, transport and entertainment out of that. As @mountainmomof3 noted the only thing that will be different this year is putting some aside to pay for Towers and classes in the summer. Between the two overages for each semester there will be plenty for that. DD18 is really pretty good at that as opposed to her dad. She plans on moving into an apartment with some of her UCF Band friends next year which will make it even more thrifty.
@tabbychiro that is calculated by the Board of Governors of the State University system. There are some things, like Towers, that are a little more expensive and will eat into the scholarship but its well within the amount you need. Required summer credits depend on the major.
@Phlipper, thanks for the info. Son and I are going to visit next week for the Director’s Forum
Its almost not fair holding that this time of year. We went the first week of December last year and it was just gorgeous weather. We nearly knocked Luke down saying yes !
The Golden Knights = the hockey team from Las Vegas. UCF is just the Knights (whose mascot also happens to be golden). 