Hi everyone,
So I have a question about the Benacquisto scholarship I have (now in my 2nd year at UF), specifically how long I’m eligible for funding, because I brought in a lot of AP credits and I’m not sure if they count for the rule that the Benacquisto award will fund “for the number of credits required to complete a degree” – I’m worried that since I have a lot of AP credits, I’ll hit that credit number before I actually complete my degree and lose funding. Idk if that’s a weird concern but it was just a possible loophole/issue that I noticed in the official rules of the scholarship. If any of you know about this, your input would be appreciated, but otherwise, who would I contact to ask this? Someone in charge of the scholarship (and who/how?), someone in the academic advising office, someone in the financial aid office (but probably not the people working the desk because they seem to have only limited knowledge from my past experience there…)
I’m just not sure where to go to essentially figure out whether I can afford to go here and finish my degree (I want to minor in addition to my major, which altogether would end up being about 120 credits total taken through the college and would be completed in a total of 4 years) before the state of FL re-evaluates my scholarship eligibility in like my 3rd year and says “oh, she hit 120 credits including her AP credits, she should be done with her degree, no more money for her!"
Sorry if this is confusing/too complex, I can explain more thoroughly if someone has relevant information and a possible answer, but mostly I’m hoping there is some official person who would have this info and how I can get it from them.
@Anglograce
From what I can tell, AP’s don’t count in the credit counting
https://student.ufl.edu/excesshours.html
" The following credits do not count toward the threshold: credits earned through an articulated accelerated mechanism such as AP, IB, AICE, or dual enrollment;"
Do you know if you’re allowed to minor or double major in anything when you’re under the Benaquisto scholarship?
@Anglograce
The Florida Department of Education offers various student financial assistance programs which are administered by the Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) in Tallahassee. This section includes descriptions of State of Florida scholarship programs offered by the Florida Department of Education.
Applications for and information about these and other programs offered by the The Florida Department of Education (FDOE) can be obtained from high school guidance offices and from the Florida Department of Education, Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA), 325 West Gaines Street, Suite 1314, Tallahassee, FL, 32399-0400; State Programs Toll Free Customer Service Line: 1 (888) 827-2004. You may e-mail the Office of Student Financial Assistance at: osfa@fldoe.org.
State of Florida grant and scholarship programs administered by OSFA are listed on their website.
This is an interesting question and I’m not quite sure if @FLtitan1217’s link/info can be applied to this topic.
Here it says that
“This program will provide funds for 100 percent of the number of credit hours
required to complete a baccalaureate degree program, or until completion of a
baccalaureate degree program, whichever comes first.”
http://www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org/SSFAD/factsheets/FIS.pdf
I’d say that you shouldn’t worry about it; I highly doubt you will be punished for taking AP classes.
This is the only case in which I could see them fairly taking away the Benacquisto funds: if you have reached the 120 credits needed (including AP credits) AND have had time to take the classes required for your major.
Let’s look at Chem engineering BS for an example. (Because that’s what I want to major in, and this applies to me as a 12th grader NMSF myself)
https://catalog.ufl.edu/ugrad/current/engineering/majors/chemical-engineering.aspx
134 credits needed. Max AP credits allowed to take in (45 i think). I very highly doubt that they would take the funding away once I have taken 89 credits in classes - after 6 just semesters - because the credits of the classes required for this degree surely exceed 89.
I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t cover two bachelor degrees, though, unless you could do it in under 5 years MAYBE?
I actually just counted and the number of credits from REQUIRED classes for the degree I was talking about is 100, exceeding 89. I am not going to bother calling; I don’t mind paying for just one semester of class… It’s a good deal as is and is likely not even an issue.