Higher Education Opportunity for Children of TEAMS Employees

Info and Resources

• HEO Policy
• FAQ
• Tutorial
• HEO Status Verification
• Report Grades (GPA)
• Sample Payment Chart
• 2023 Recipients

About the HEO

The University of Florida’s Higher Education Opportunity (HEO) provides children of full-time TEAMS employees with the opportunity of tuition assistance for an undergraduate education at the University of Florida. The Higher Education Opportunity (HEO) program has expanded to provide the HEO scholarship to 150 applicants each year. Each year, UF Human Resources will choose at random from a pool of eligible applicants 150 children of TEAMS employees to participate in this program. For each child selected, the university will pay the in-state matriculation fees, less any Bright Futures scholarship award, for a maximum of 132 credit hours toward an undergraduate degree at the University of Florida or a public community or state college in the event the child is not admitted to the University of Florida. Please visit the HEO policy page for more information about program eligibility and coverage.

Drawing Information

To be eligible to be entered into the pool, the child must meet the following conditions:

1. The child must be the natural, adopted, step, foster, or any other child for which legal guardianship can be documented, of a full-time TEAMS employee.
2. The child will continue to be eligible for the program through the end of the calendar year in which the child turns 26 years of age.

The program is not limited to incoming freshmen only. Parents of students who would like to transfer to UF may submit their child’s name for consideration for the HEO as well.

To be placed in the scholarship drawing each academic year, each of the following must be completed at the close of business by the established HEO drawing application deadline, November 1.

1. Each eligible fulltime TEAMS employee may submit one child’s name into the drawing.
2. The child of the TEAMS employee must apply for admission to the University of Florida, Office of Admissions.

Please note: A requirement of this benefit is that all eligible students must apply to the University of Florida Office of Admissions, by the deadline established for the freshman application—if they are not already a student at UF. Students who have entered their high school senior year and students applying as freshman or transfer students, must apply to the University of Florida Office of Admissions by the HEO drawing application deadline, November 1.

Regardless of where the child is currently attending or where the child wants to attend, the child must apply for admission to the University of Florida by the HEO deadline to be considered.

Please visit the procedures page for additional drawing information.

All UF admissions-related inquires (including eligibility) should be directed to and confirmed by the Office of Admissions. The following students are eligible to apply for admission to UF (and therefore required to do so for the HEO benefit):

• Students with 11 semester hours or less (earned following high school graduation)
• Students with 60 semester hours or more (earned following high school graduation)

Students who are not eligible to apply for admission must provide documentation of ineligibility (e.g., transcripts verifying credit hours earned after high school graduation) to UFHR.

Once UFHR has confirmed the eligibility of those requesting to be in the HEO, the pool will be forwarded to UF’s Director of Admissions. The Higher Education Opportunity (HEO) program has expanded to provide the HEO scholarship to 150 applicants each year. In the event greater than 150 are confirmed eligible, to ensure fairness, the 150 names will be selected at a public drawing to take place each spring.

Those children among the 150 selected must meet the admissions requirements of the University of Florida to be admitted to UF.

Those children among the 150 who do not meet admissions requirements to the University of Florida and receive a high school diploma before the beginning of the academic year and wish to participate in the Higher Education Opportunity program must enroll at a public college or community college in Florida.

In either case, this program will cover the in-state matriculation fees, less any Bright Futures scholarship award, for up to 12 credits per semester during the academic year and for up to 6 credits per 12-week summer semester at the University of Florida or a public college or community college in Florida. For students participating in the UF Innovation Academy (IA) undergraduate program, the HEO will cover the in-state matriculation fees, less any Bright Futures scholarship award, for up to 12 credits per spring and summer semester and to up to 6 credit hours per fall semester.

This program only covers in-state matriculation fees (the actual instruction portion of tuition fees). Non-covered fees include housing, books, activities, transportation, health, services, athletic fees, late registration, late payment, materials, lab fees, supplies, etc.

Please note that the Bright Futures scholarship impacts the HEO scholarship. The full amount of the Bright Futures scholarship award will be subtracted from the amount the student can receive from the HEO

If your child is, or you expect your child to be, a Bright Futures scholar, please visit the HEO policy page, Financial Obligations section and FAQ.

To maintain eligibility in the program each semester:

• The child’s legal guardian must be a full-time TEAMS employee on the first day of classes for each new semester.
• The child’s cumulative GPA must be 2.75 or higher.
• If the child is attending a public community or state college, they must provide UFHR with a current official transcript showing all courses attempted and grades received.

The child must complete the HEO Status Verification web form every semester to receive funds from the HEO. The form will be requested before the start of each semester. Children may contact the program coordinator to update their contact information, as needed, to ensure they are receiving email correspondence from us that contains reminders and important information about the HEO.

For questions regarding the HEO Scholarship, please feel free to contact the program coordinator at heo@admin.ufl.edu or 352-273-0149.