Just thinking out loud here - if one was to pursue a double major, and neither major was completed until the 10th semester, perhaps this would be how the Benacquisto would cover the double major?
That’s what I thought. However, upon a closer read, it seems to cover the completion of “a” bachelors degree, 120 credit hours, or 10 semesters, which ever of the three comes first.
https://www.floridastudentfinancialaidsg.org/PDF/factsheets/FIS.pdf
Now that my daughter is indeed going to apply to UCF (yay happy dance) …
I asked this question … if a student just happened to not have completed their BA/BS by just not happening to take a core class until their 9th or 10th semester … well, they can’t graduate until the 10th semester now can they?
In the meantime, they completed 2 majors …
Now another question, it was easy for me back 30 years ago to do a double major (plus a minor) … is it now much more difficult?
I asked this question … if a student just happened to not have completed their BA/BS by just not happening to take a core class until their 9th or 10th semester … well, they can’t graduate until the 10th semester now can they?
In the meantime, they completed 2 majors …
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Did UCF say they would pay beyond 120 credits? As the state scholarship reads it looks like you’d have to pay for anything over 120 credits in the 9th or 10th semester.
So, let’s say your student ends up with 112 credits over 8 semesters and need more time. The scholarship will allow you to take the other 8 if done within 10 semesters, but unless you file an extension for “a single” degree program that requires more, it will only pay for 120 credits.
https://www.floridastudentfinancialaidsg.org/PDF/factsheets/FIS.pdf
I likely didn’t word my post well. I did not ask and get an answer to anyone who has a valid answer … My statement should have been more rhetorical … as in “I ask this question…”
That said, if a student works well with their advisor, they can likely work it in such a way that they can complete a double and perhaps need to come out a little out of pocket in the 9th or 10th semester for anything beyond the 120 credits … if only for a couple of classes, would not be terribly expensive.
Oh, OK. I thought the school had a different answer. A double degree for a few extra credit hours of cost would totally be worth it, IMO.
Please don’t rule out UCF! I had a similar list to your D, wanting to stay in NE at an ivy league or top 25, but I chose UCF in the end because of the full ride scholarship that is even more than a full ride. Coming from someone who has lived in the northeast all her life, UCF is in no way a “southern” school (as in having a strong southern culture). Is your D is interested in medicine, the Burnett Medical Scholars program is hard to beat too. If you have any questions, feel free to DM me!
We went to the Director’s Forum last night and Luke answered quite a few of our questions. We are local in Orlando and my daughters are on the UCF campus all the time for the programming team as well as Dual Enrollment classes. We are familiar with the campus but had never been on an official tour. The Honors housing provided in the Towers is amazing and probably the nicest undergrad housing I’ve ever seen.
Anyhow, answers to questions relevant to this thread. There were a LOT of questions about what is covered by Benacquisto. Luke said that most NM students come in with a lot of credit from AP/IB/DE, typically 20-60 credits. These kids are still able to stay and study at UCF for 4 years and be covered by Benacquisto. There was a panel of 5 current NMF students and they all did different things. One is doing a dual major, another a major and two minors, another I think lightened his course load to allow for him to do a lot of research for a professor. In any case, only the one who did research had already finished his 4 years and is working on his MS during his 5th year. Luke said there was no problem with whatever the student wanted to do and he and advisers would take care of the students to figure out how to get this covered appropriately.
The student working on his Mechanical Engineering MS said that Benacquisto is not covering his MS. I believe he was Aerospace Engineering for his BS. He said that once you get your degree, that program ends. He wanted to continue research with his current professor so his professor helped him find funding. He works 10 hours as a TA and 10 hours doing research although he says it’s more like 30 hours of research. Since he’s working 20 hours/week for UCF, tuition was free. He mentioned some stipend and leftover money from Benacquisto and earnings from research over the summer, but his cost for his MS is approximately 1/2 his housing costs. He wanted to do more research for this same professor rather than going to work first and having work cover his MS.
All the students spoke very highly of Luke and how he takes care of these kids, either that Luke knew the answer or knew who would. One student said that he was trying to sign up for housing and the portal crashed and he was unable to. He called Luke very upset thinking he didn’t get the housing he wanted. Luke told him to get off the phone that that he would take care of the problem. Luke texted him 5 min later and told him to check online. The student said that on the portal, his preferred housing was fixed and he had gotten what he had wanted.
Sorry this was so long… We left pretty impressed by what UCF is offering these students. The event last night was well run and the speaker/lecturer was interesting.
@PPuggle thanks for sharing … that is all so nice to hear.
My daughter has finally applied to UCF, hoping she applied soon enough for acceptance and honors college placement.
We will need to weigh a lot of things come the first of the year.
We are arranging a visit in January after classes start up again after the 13th … Luke has been lovely to speak/email with thus far.
I often advocate for UKy, but may not be a perfect fit in this case.
OP has the state accurately tagged as partly midwestern, but mostly southern. That is how UKy would likely feel. Maybe not so much “southern” as just being small town, family-oriented, etc. Very safe, though, if that matters, with facilities unmatched anywhere.
Also, the continual reduction of merit money is a long term strategy to move nearly entirely to need-based aid. While anyone can be wildly successful with a UKy education, this strategy will likely reduce the number of high stats kids that OP’s daughter is probably used to being around. Comparing average ACT’s to UCF and UFL, the Florida schools may be a better fit, academically.
And people in the south don’t consider Florida to be part of the south, so no worries there.
Further, the opportunities in FL both during school and after graduation can’t be matched.
We live down the street from UCF. IT is NOT a Southern school and Orlando is not a Southern town. (I grew up in the Northeast). The UCF student body is very diverse. Their NMF package is very generous - like Alabama, but not in Alabama.
Giving an update and hoping for some input
So far accepted at UChicago, UCF, Temple, Fordham, St John’s, UTD, USC, ASU plus about 4 others that I am ignoring.
We have removed UTD, St John’s, ASU and a few others from further consideration (fit, and or cost)
Merit awards we are still considering so far:
Fordham: full tuition … leaves about 20K in direct costs (room board and fees)
Temple: Full tuition … leaves about 13.5K in direct costs
UCF: full COA
I have questions for some of the UCF folks on the board Calling @twoinanddone @PPuggle @FrozenMaineMom 
She is interested in history / English / PoliSci
She does NOT want online classes … wants seminar style (or even lecture hall plus seminar) in person classes
Can UCF be done with all “real” classes versus distance learning online classes?
Is housing guaranteed for BHC / NMF students for all 4 years … we are way out of state, it will be very difficult to navigate any housing hiccups.
We are really down to Temple vs UCF right now.
UChicago accepted her and offered 10K in merit scholarship … put us over the EFC and over their NPC … as I promised would happen, I got to have the conversation that she would not be attending there. Even if we had that kind of funding I don’t think 225K for undergrad is worth it.
Did not finally apply to American, GW and Brown … we are waiting to hear from Northeastern and Swarthmore.
I think you have to ask Luke at UCF your questions about guaranteed housing and online courses. There might be a one or two online course requirement as I think some Florida publics have that requirement, just like the 9 credit summer requirement. One of my kids took 2 online courses and actually liked the freedom of doing the work on her schedule. She wouldn’t have liked a lot of courses online, but 1-2 over 4 years was fine.
My daughter went to Fla Tech and she figured out off campus living even though I live 2000 miles away. Lived in the same house for 2 years and the house just transferred to the next group of lax players every year, even furniture and beds sort of became ‘house’ property and just left for the next group. Storing stuff for the summer was actually harder when she lived in the dorms. She never had a car but lots of her friends did so moving wasn’t that hard. She’s a minimalist, and that helped too (she had about 3 bins and 2 duffels of stuff).
Thanks, 1 or 2 online courses wouldn’t be an issue but if the majority of her major courses are online that would be a problem.
We will be visiting in February and I am certain everything will be answered … I just hate surprises … hate hate surprises.
(when I went to college everything I owned fit into a '82 Honda Civic hatchback, including my bike and total of 2 people, I kinda expect my D to be the same)
update … with some assistance from another poster, found how to search for classes that are face-to-face and in her prospective majors … looks like she will have very few if any online classes in her major.
This is a big deal for her so glad to have found out the information … seems like those that are majoring in business end up with a lot of classes in the major that are online only.
This is such an exciting and informative thread to follow! Congrats @CrackintoPieces on your daughter’s acceptances! I’m rooting for UCF versus Temple for her although I swear, if Luke ever leaves I think there would be a riot of cc parents storming the administration offices demanding they convince him to come back. Whatever that man is getting paid is probably not nearly enough based on the level of ambassadorship he provides for them!
Keep us posted; I’m on pins and needles!
I agree that Luke is absolutely amazing!
Answer on housing … guaranteed for NMFs if housing contract is submitted each year.
@CrackintoPieces - when we toured UCF they said that some kids keep the same room in Towers all 4 years. Towers housing seems fantastic
I hope your daughter is happy with her choices. It sounds like there’s been a sea change along the way. I think there’s a lot to like about UCF/BHC. My daughter is ready to commit to UCF if NMF comes through (which it hopefully will).
@drxxpresso
We are also almost there …
The rejection letters have been confirmed to have been sent out on Friday the 10th … from Chicago so since we are in NV I am guessing if we don’t receive one by Friday that we are in the clear. But man I have a tummy ache about it!
She has the confirming scores (1540 on SAT) but her transcript shows 4 Bs on it.
2 of them from Middle school when she took HS classes. One semester of Algebra in 6th grade, one semester of geometry she took in 7th grade. Why her school puts MS classes on HS transcript … don’t know.
The other 2 are one semester of CalcAB and one semester of French3 (she hated French)
I am hoping those aren’t enough bad to knock her out.
She has taken 10 AP classes so far and another 4 this year (I think it is 4 it might be 5) Has only taken 9 AP exams and all scored a 5.
As far as “sea change” … well yes and no. She and my DH really don’t believe NPCs they really believe there are some miracles to be found. Thus the still waiting on Northeastern and Swarthmore as if somehow they are going to give double what the NPC says … they both still think I stifle dreams.
But I am so proud of her in how she is thinking everything through and weighing options … she is a really good kid with a really awesome future in front of her. She is really beginning to see the advantages of what UCF has to offer not only monetarily but still clutches to the dream of the fancy NE LAC
@CrackintoPieces Congrats to your daughter. I think you already answered your questions but here’s my input. I don’t think many, if any, of the classes at UCF have to be online. NM students there get to register for classes well in advance of the other students that it shouldn’t be a problem getting the classes they want with the instructor they want. Plus, they can take the classes through the Honors College which have the added benefit of smaller class sizes. On campus housing is guaranteed for all NM students as well. Most of them choose to live in the Honors tower which are suites of two configurations where each student has their own room and either private or shared bath. Some I think opt for Neptune where they cluster out-of-state students. I’m not sure on that configuration. For the Honors tower, students have to sign up to stay year-round and technically, the fee for the summer isn’t covered by Benacquisto but students usually have enough money left in their accounts from Fall/Spring to cover the fee. Anyhow, with guaranteed housing, there was one NM student on the panel from December who said he literally stayed in the same room in the Tower all 4 years of college and never had to move out.
Hope this helps and good luck with your daughter’s decision. She heard back early. My girls are still waiting for most of ours and don’t expect to know some until late March/early April.