Money Matters

The start of a fall semester at FSU is always one of the most exciting times of the year, but it can also cause confusion, particularly related to the financial aspects of attending a university. The Office of Financial Aid and Student Business Services have teamed up to answer some of the most common questions that we hear this time of year, and we’ve included some links to other resources that might help you during this transition. If you have questions that we didn’t take care of at orientation, or that aren’t answered below, reach out to us!

 

Office of Financial Aid	Student Business Services
Ph: 850.644.0539 Em: ofacs@admin.fsu.edu	Ph: 850.644.9452 Em: studentbusiness@fsu.edu
Contact us for: FAFSA Questions Loans, Grants, Bright Futures Eligibility Verification	Contact us for: Tuition deadlines and payments Florida Prepaid Private Scholarships

BRIGHT FUTURES

Q1: How much will Bright Futures cover this fall?

Bright Futures eligible students will either have the Academic Scholarship, which pays $213.55 per credit hour, or the Medallion Scholarship, which pays $160.16 per credit hour. The phrase per credit hour means that you will multiply the number of hours that your student is enrolled in by the rate above. An Academic Scholarship recipient taking 15 hours will receive $3,203.25 + $300, while a Medallion Scholarship recipient taking 15 hours will receive $2,402.40.

Q2: Does Bright Futures have to be repaid to FSU if courses are dropped?

By law, a student must earn any amount of Bright Futures that is disbursed to them. A student earns their Bright Futures by maintaining enrollment in the courses for which they received the scholarship. If a student drops a course for which they received Bright Futures the University will bill the student for the amount of Bright Futures that needs to be returned to the State Department of Education. If a student drops all of their courses or withdrawals, the full value of the Bright Futures award, less the book award for Academic Scholars, will need to be returned to the State. It’s important to keep this in mind when decided to drop classes after Bright Futures has already been disbursed.

Q3: If I have Bright Futures AND Florida Prepaid, how does that work?

Student Business Services bills your Florida Prepaid plan automatically, and you should already see a billing on your MyFSU account now. Since that portion of your tuition has already been covered by Florida Prepaid, Bright Futures will pay any remaining fees once it disburses. Since FSU treats Bright Futures “same as cash” it can pay any outstanding charges on your account (parking citations, housing, dining, etc.) and if you are left with a credit balance at the end, that amount is refunded to you.

Read more about Bright Futures:

• https://financialaid.fsu.edu/types-aid/scholarships/state-scholarships
• https://studentbusiness.fsu.edu/bright-futures-and-florida-prepaid
• http://www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org/ssfad/bf/

 

FLORIDA PREPAID

Q1: Why doesn’t Florida Prepaid cover all of the fees on my account?

Florida Prepaid is a complex program made up of several types of plan that you could have purchased for your student. For simplicity, we’ll break these plans down into four types:

Plan Type	Description	Amount Paid Per Credit Hour
Standard Tuition	A plan designed to pay the base tuition outlined by Florida Statutes, not including any additional local or university fees.	$115.08
Local Tuition	A plan designed to cover the additional local fees charged by a university for services such as athletics, student activities, and health.	$34.73
Differential Tuition	A plan designed to cover the Differential Tuition Fee enacted in 2008.	$49.59
Housing	A plan designed to cover the cost of living on campus in a residence hall.	Variable

 

Almost all Florida Prepaid plan holders have a Standard Tuition plan, but you’ve likely only purchased the Local Tuition or Differential Tuition plans as separate items through the Florida Prepaid program. Standard undergraduate tuition is $215.55/hr, which includes base tuition, local tuition, differential tuition, and a category of fees specific to FSU which no prepaid plan will cover (including Transportation Access, Technology, and Student Affairs Facilities Use fees). This means that the Standard Tuition plan covers roughly 53% of a student’s tuition, while a bundled standard and local plan covers 70%, and a bundled standard, local, and differential plan covers 92%.

If you purchased your standard tuition or local tuition plan prior to 2008, you receive a waiver which covers the differential tuition fee on your account.

Q2: How do I stop FSU from billing Florida Prepaid automatically?

You can request that we reduce our billing, or that we stop billing altogether, by completing a Florida Prepaid Billing Change Form found on our website: https://studentbusiness.fsu.edu/forms.

Read more about Florida Prepaid:

• https://studentbusiness.fsu.edu/florida-prepaid
• https://www.myfloridaprepaid.com/

 

PAYING TUITION

Q1: When is tuition due?

Tuition is always due by the end of the second week of the semester. For Fall 2019, tuition will be due on Friday, September 6th.

Q2: Why are some of my classes more expensive than others?

FSU offers a wide variety of classes, many of which require additional funding to support. You’ll see additional costs most often in courses with a laboratory component, wherein the student may pay an additional fee to support the cost for materials used in the lab. You may also see additional costs attached to online courses, and those additional fees support online course development, additional digital content and support hours, and in some cases the cost of proctored exam sites.

Q3: Do I need to receive my financial aid and then pay my tuition, or does FSU handle that?

When your financial aid disburses on August 20th, September 5th, or any time thereafter, we automatically deduct any fees owed to the University before we send any refunds to you. There are some instances wherein we aren’t allowed, by law, to deduct charges from your financial aid, but those tend to involve federal awards and you’ll be notified by email to your my.fsu.edu account if we encounter an issue with your disbursement.

Read more about payments and tuition:

• https://studentbusiness.fsu.edu/payments
• https://studentbusiness.fsu.edu/tuition-fees
• https://studentbusiness.fsu.edu/financial-aid

 

VIEWING MY STUDENT’S ACCOUNT

Q1: How do I gain access to view aspects of my student’s account?

Gaining access to a student’s account starts with the student! Once you’ve been provisioned access to your student’s account you’ll be able to login to the MyFSU system to view important information, make payments, and more! You can find detailed instructions for setting up delegated access here: https://sc.my.fsu.edu/students/how/assign-delegated-access-third-party.

Q2: Can I be a delegate for more than one student / can a student have more than one delegate?

Yes, to both questions! You can be the delegate for an unlimited number of students, and a student can have an unlimited number of delegates.

Q3: Where can I learn more about FERPA and how the University protects my student’s privacy?

You can find more information about the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act here: https://registrar.fsu.edu/records/ferpa/.

You can find more information about how the University protects student privacy here: https://its.fsu.edu/ispo/policy/information-security.