Seven months after the Florida Board of Governors announced it would discontinue the Latin American and Caribbean Scholarship, out-of-state students and applicants are facing financial uncertainty, forcing many to reconsider how — and where — they can afford higher education.
The scholarship offered in-state Florida tuition rates, rather than out-of-state rates, to students from 50 Latin American and Caribbean countries. It could save recipients about $98,000 across four years.
UF confirmed in March 2025 that current recipients will continue receiving the scholarship through graduation, but no new awards will be offered beginning Fall 2025.
The University of South Florida will not award new LAC scholarships, either. However, it will continue to work with all students to make them aware of scholarship and financial aid opportunities that may be available, according to university spokesperson Althea Johnson.
Some students who had already been awarded the aid said their scholarships were revoked, the university’s student newspaper reported.
USF did not provide a comment in regards to students losing their already awarded aid.
Three of the five students who spoke with The Alligator requested to remain anonymous for fear of losing current scholarships or opportunities for new aid. The Board of Governors is set to vote on repealing the scholarship during its Nov. 6 meeting at USF.
A bridge between Florida and Latin America
The Florida Legislature created the LAC Scholarship in 1997. Its repeal came as part of a broader rollback of policies offering nonresident tuition exemptions.
To receive the waiver, students must make satisfactory academic progress, a parameter that varies by university. They must also be enrolled on a full-time basis and receive at least $500 in total scholarships per semester. That money may come from the LAC Scholarship program itself or from other sources.
For decades, the program represented a bridge between Florida and its neighbors, reflecting the state’s role as an educational hub for Latin America and the Caribbean.
But on Sept. 11, 2024, a state public notice announced the program’s repeal, mandating all Florida universities to end it by the 2025-2026 academic year. No public explanation was offered at the time, and no board members replied to The Alligator’s request for comment in time for publication.
The end of the LAC program has left a financial void for both international and out-of-state students, who often depend on tuition exemptions to afford a Florida education.
Without the program, non-Florida residents are facing tuition costs nearly three times higher than those paid by Florida residents. At UF, in-state students pay about $6,400 per year, while out-of-state students pay about $31,000.
Opportunity disappears
“My heart dropped,” said a 20-year-old UF aerospace engineering sophomore from Trinidad and Tobago, after learning the scholarship was eliminated.
The student applied for the scholarship twice — once through essays her freshman year, then through departmental interviews — only to receive an email announcing her final meeting was canceled due to the scholarship’s discontinuation.
Now, the Trinbagonian student must continue paying out-of-state tuition at UF, after getting only inches close to the possibility of easing her family’s financial burden.
“It’s definitely a lot more money than I would have expected it to be,” she said of her current tuition rate, “but I already started. I might as well just finish. I don’t really have a choice.”
If she’d known she was pursuing unrealistic expectations for financial aid, she might not have enrolled at UF at all, the student said.
Gabriel Marchiori De Almeida, a 20-year-old USF computer science sophomore, had been hoping to receive the LAC Scholarship ever since he arrived at college in 2024. His friends home in Brazil and his peers at USF had spoken highly of the scholarship, which he thought could ease his family’s financial strain.
Like many international and out-of-state students, Marchiori De Almeida has seen his parents sacrifice their own well-being for his education’s sake. Because of his tuition, his family hasn’t been able to afford pain-relieving treatment for his mom, he said.
“Instead of being one of the main choices because it is affordable [while] having a great education, now it’s expensive, having great education,” he said.
One of his friends at USF, also from Brazil, is now considering transferring to a cheaper university, possibly back home.
“It’s definitely not a sanctuary now, not the place to reach your goal,” he said.
As of Fall 2025, Brazil ranks third for the country with the most international students at USF. Beyond individual hardship, Marchiori De Almeida said the loss of programs like LAC weakens educational and diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Brazil.
An anonymous 20-year-old UF computer science junior from Venezuela applied for and received the LAC scholarship this past year, around the same time its discontinuation was announced.
“I was somewhat left in the dark,” he said. “I would speak to advisers from either the International Center or general advising from the College of Engineering, and they were unable to provide me with an answer of whether it would be dispersed or not.”
In the end, although the LAC scholarship appeared on his financial bursar account, he only received part of it. He received the $500 per semester stipend included in the LAC scholarship, but his tuition was not reduced. As a result, he is paying out-of-state tuition.
He also noted the LAC was not structured around just international students. The merit-based award could also be granted to students with dual citizenship with the U.S. as long as they met the scholarship’s eligibility requirements.
“Already, there’s a variety of other factors that are tarnishing America’s image as a place for international students to go to,” he said, referring to governmental regulations imposed on international students, such as the “extra visa checks.”
The removal of the LAC scholarship is simply another element that adds to the existing problem, he added.
Losing momentum
“Earning the LAC scholarship was enormous,” said Leo Ortiz, a 20-year-old UF civil engineering sophomore from Ecuador. “To pay incredibly less than what I would be paying in any other of the universities that had accepted me was a huge factor.”
He’s grateful UF will continue to honor his merit, as he feared having to return to Ecuador after he initially learned about the scholarship’s discontinuation, he said. He credits the scholarship for helping him meet people and for close relationships at UF.
Still, he regrets that the Ecuadorian friends he had encouraged to apply to UF won’t get the same opportunity. Many of them, he added, are instead turning their attention to opportunities in Europe, where the cost of study is significantly lower compared to the U.S.
Average annual tuition fees at public institutions in many European countries are under $12,000, with several nations like Germany and Denmark maintaining free, or virtually free, tuition. By contrast, international students’ undergraduate tuition averages $31,000 at UF.
Therefore, according to Ortiz, the scholarship’s discontinuation will mean the loss of many top Latin American applicants who had intended to study at UF. The institution is known for its diversity and sizable Latin American community, with over 13,000 full-time students in Fall 2025.
“It saddens me deeply,” he said. “I am 100% certain that the pool of Latin American applicants will be significantly less this upcoming year.”
People across Latin America and the Caribbean, too, are expressing disappointment over the scholarship’s cancellation.
St. Maarten’s Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Melissa Gumbs, said in an April press briefing the LAC Scholarship discontinuation has made it increasingly difficult to maintain financial agreements between institutions and students.
At UF, current recipients are set to continue receiving benefits until graduation, but the long-term effects on Florida’s accessibility, diversity and global reputation remain uncertain.
Contact Ariana Badra at arianabadra@ufl.edu. Follow her on X @arianavbm.
Contact Vera Lucia Pappaterra at vpappaterra@alligator.org. Follow her on X @veralupap.
Ariana is a first-year journalism major and an El Caimán reporter for the Fall of 2025. In her free time, she enjoys reading, spending time with friends and scouring for new songs to play on repeat to an absurd degree.
Vera Lucia Pappaterra is The Alligator's Fall 2025 Caiman editor and a junior journalism and history student. She previously served as the enterprise race and equity reporter and the university general assignment reporter. In her free time, she enjoys being a menace on wheels (bike wheels).
