{"id":11808,"date":"2012-08-21T11:15:26","date_gmt":"2012-08-21T15:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=11808"},"modified":"2012-08-21T11:36:36","modified_gmt":"2012-08-21T15:36:36","slug":"everything-you-need-to-know-about-applying-for-bright-futures-scholarships-and-what-it-covers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/08\/21\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-applying-for-bright-futures-scholarships-and-what-it-covers\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything You Need To Know About Applying For Bright Futures Scholarships And What They Cover"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_11813\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 187px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/08\/21\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-applying-for-bright-futures-scholarships-and-what-it-covers\/badgebrightfutures-floridastudentfinancialaid-org-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-11813\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11813\" title=\"badgeBrightFutures floridastudentfinancialaid.org\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/files\/2012\/08\/badgeBrightFutures-floridastudentfinancialaid.org_1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"187\" height=\"262\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">floridastudentfinancialaid.org<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"> <\/p><\/div>\n<p>The value of Bright Futures scholarships has gone down in Florida as <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/06\/21\/fsu-president-puts-an-end-to-board-of-governors-tuition-haggling\/\">tuition has jumped<\/a>, but they\u2019re still a good deal.<\/p>\n<p>Requirements have changed, so let\u2019s take a look at what students need to do to receive a Bright Futures award and keep it each year they\u2019re in college.<\/p>\n<p>The program provides <a href=\"http:\/\/www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org\/SSFAD\/bf\/awardamt.htm\">three levels of scholarship awards<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Florida Academic Scholars (FAS) award \u2013 worth up to $100 per semester hour at a 4-year university<\/li>\n<li>Florida Medallion Scholars (FMS) award \u2013 worth up to $75 per semester hour at a 4-year university<\/li>\n<li>Florida Gold Seal Vocational Scholars (GSV) award &#8212; worth up to $75 per semester hour at a 4-year university for renewals <!--more--><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Additionally, the Academic Top Scholars (ATS) award is given to the Florida Academic Scholar (FAS) with the highest academic ranking in each county. The recipient receives a fixed cost per credit hour award worth up to $43 per semester hour at a 4-year university.<\/p>\n<p>The scholarships don&#8217;t cover a fixed percentage of tuition anymore.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Bright Futures <a href=\"http:\/\/www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org\/SSFAD\/PDF\/2011-12HSGradsNotice.pdf\">winners receive a fixed cost per credit hour<\/a> based on:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Scholarship award level \u2013 FAS, FMS, or GSV<\/li>\n<li>Type of post secondary institution they attend \u2013 4-year, 2-year, or career<\/li>\n<li>Credit type \u2013 semester, quarter or clock hours<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To apply for a scholarship, a student must fill out the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fafsa.ed.gov\/\">Free Application For Student Aid (FAFSA)<\/a>. The form is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org\/SSFAD\/bf\/newsrenew.htm\">required each year<\/a> the student wants to receive Bright Futures money.<\/p>\n<p>To be eligible for a scholarship, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org\/SSFAD\/factsheets\/BF.htm\">students must meet these requirements<\/a>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Be a Florida resident and a U.S. citizen or eligible non-citizen.<\/li>\n<li>Not be in default under any state or federal grant, loan, or scholarship program unless satisfactory arrangements have been made for repayment.<\/li>\n<li>Meet specific coursework and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org\/SSFAD\/bf\/newsrenew.htm\">minimum grade point average (GPA) and test score requirements<\/a> &#8212; includes 16 credits in specific core courses and community service hours.<\/li>\n<li>Submit the <em><\/em>FAFSA every year. The FAFSA does <em>not<\/em> have to indicate financial need. It must be processed error free prior to the student\u2019s first award disbursement of the academic year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The award amounts have changed over the years to keep up with the growing demand even as lottery revenue declined during the recession. The<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flalottery.com\/inet\/educationBrightFuture.do\"> Florida Lottery funds the scholarships.<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org\/SSFAD\/PDF\/BFstats\/BFReportsD.pdf\">1997-98<\/a>:\u00a0 42,319 scholarships worth a total of $69,566,969 were disbursed. The average cost per award was $1,644.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org\/SSFAD\/PDF\/BFstats\/BFReportsD.pdf\">2010-11<\/a>:\u00a0 179,076 scholarships worth a cost of $423,269,545 were disbursed.The average cost per award was $2,364.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org\/SSFAD\/bf\/pdf\/bffaq.pdf\">Fees aren&#8217;t covered anymore<\/a>. As of 2009-10, the FAS college-related expense allowance is no longer available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The value of Bright Futures scholarships has gone down in Florida as tuition has jumped, but they\u2019re still a good deal. Requirements have changed, so let\u2019s take a look at what students need to do to receive a Bright Futures award and keep it each year they\u2019re in college. The program provides three levels of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[1014,1104,72],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11808"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11808\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}