This fall, for the first time, hundreds of high-achieving students living outside of Florida will only have to pay in-state tuition and fees to attend college, saving thousands of dollars.
It’s all thanks to a new Florida law, which went into effect in August, that allows them to pay lower prices as a result of their grandparents living in Florida. The plan has proven so popular that most, if not all, universities say they have already filled all of their assigned seats for next year. So anyone who applies now may have to be on a waiting list.
They should take into account that:
- At Florida State University in Tallahassee, the school used up all of its 55 grandparent waivers, “and we have an active waiting list of more than 100 students,” according to spokesman Bill Welock.
- The University of Florida has been assigned 60 waivers, all of which have been granted, and there are 143 on the waiting list.
- The University of Central Florida in Orlando has allocated all of its 49 grandparent waivers for the incoming freshman class, and there is also a waiting list of five students, according to a spokeswoman.
“Take advantage of that,” Gov. Ron DeSantis urged at a news conference Tuesday.
House Bill 1261, passed by the Legislature last year, is called the “grandparent tuition waiver,” intended to attract high-achieving students to the Sunshine State.
A “grandparent” is defined as a person who has a legal relationship to a student’s parent as the natural or adoptive parent or legal guardian of the student’s parent. Fee waivers are capped statewide at 350 students per year, according to the bill.
It can generate thousands of dollars in savings for out-of-state students. For example, in-state tuition for the University of Florida is 6,380, when out-of-state students would normally have to add an additional $22,278 for tuition and fees. At the University of South Florida in Tampa, in-state tuition and fees are $6,410 and out-of-state fees are $17,324.
The bill allows out-of-state students who score at or above the 89th percentile on the ACT or SAT to enroll as full-time students at Florida universities and pay lower in-state tuition.
That translates to a combined SAT score of 1330 or higher; or an ACT composite score of 29, according to the University of South Florida at Tampa, which reported an allocation of 34 grandparent exemptions for the incoming freshman class of 2022-23.
Chris Sprowls, the speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, touted the opportunity Tuesday.
“If you’re a student in another state and you’re a high-achieving student, we want you to come, but we especially want you to come and be affordable if you have a grandparent who is Floridian.”
Lisa J. Huriash can be contacted at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com o 954-572-2008 o Twitter @LisaHuriash
