22k per year to Miami or another private school when you could fund 3 UF/FSU/UCF/USF students? This seems like a misallocation. The state is just funding wherever any OOS NMF wants to go, who isn’t even a resident of Florida. Sending a NMF to Miami with a 20k scholarship doesn’t even impact the stature of the state’s public schools (UF, FSU, UCF) as Miami is private. Not to mention, the average student at Miami, who doesn’t receive a nice financial aid package or merit scholarship, is bound to be on the more affluent side. Coral Gables/Miami is a very expensive city.
@AimingTop50 I agree with you. I didn’t realize it was 3.5 WEIGHTED. I mistakenly thought you had to have a 3.5 unweighted in high school. That is a joke. I also think they should raise the minimum ACT score for academic scholar from 29 to 31 or 32, but I understand they want to keep the cutoff score around the 90th percentile.
Anyone know the difference between:
Nationally Representative Sample Percentile and SAT User Percentile – National.
The percentiles are a noticeable difference: 1290 vs 1340 for 90th percentile.
Except that Florida puts in no effort into recruiting OOS students. Despite registering, being a legacy and taking two official visits over a 12 month span, our NMF kids received no marketing material from UF, and only a brochure or two from USF, UCF and FGCU. Our local college fair, which attracts reps from 300 colleges nationwide, has never been attended by UF, and to my knowledge they have never done a recruiting event in our area even though our state sends more kids OOS for college than any state other than California. I don’t think you will see that much of an OOS surge, at least in the first year.
It will take a few years for the word to get out, but I’m sure OOS NMFs may chose Florida over other NMF-heavy schools such as Oklahoma and Alabama. It’s a pretty sweet deal, even better than Alabama’s. But Alabama does do a much better job at rolling out the red (crimson?) carpet for high-achieving prospective students. I don’t know if UF needs to do that, owing to their already tough-to-get-in rep.
If the state is supplying the schools with this new funding, I would be very surprised if the schools didn’t ramp up the marketing propaganda. Maybe not UF as they are already fairly selective, but certainly the lower ranked publics. There would most definitely be a huge increase in OOS NMF applicants.
With a kid who is a likely NMF and who is also OOS, I admit I am concerned about the annual funding of this scholarship. It seems like it’s up to the annual whim of the current administration - both the FLA Congress and the Governor’s office. I’m not sure that those who are looking for the big $ for NMF will be willing to roll that dice unless the scholarship is guaranteed for all 4 years. Just my random thoughts.
Yes, there is the risk that the state could pull the rug out from under this program, leaving OOS NMFs at the mercy of the budget legislation every year. In-state seems safe, but OOS being twice as much it seems riskier.
Completely agree with @Zinhead I’m a likely NMF, and I only just recently found out about the Benacquisto. Strange.
Looking at the pre-Benacquisto NMF Annual Report from 2013 shows the following totals for NMF’s in Florida:
UF: 20
UCF: 60
Miami: 36
FSU: 22
USF: 7
New College: 4
At the time, UCF had their own NMF merit program in place that was pretty successful. After Benacquisto, here are the number of NMF’s at each school in 2016.
UF: 158
UCF: 77
Miami: 57
FSU: 15
USF: 12
New College: 7
All of the schools got more NMF’s, but UF, which had previously ignored the NMF program, grabbed the lion’s share of the additional attendees. With the new legislation, expect UF to continue to get the most benefit from the law. I might be wrong about the impact on UF.
Based on UF’s past success enrolling OOS NMF (back in the early 2000’s UF offered a generous package), it’s easy to see UF becoming the #1 school for enrolled NMF’s.
However, even as many as 200 OOS NMF, would only make up less than 3% of UF’s incoming class of freshman.
I agree that Benacquisto will impact UF much more than all other FL schools. Benacquisto only covers 1/3 of UMiami COA, and UM is the only FL school that can compete with UF.
If OOS Benacquisto is passed, UF will be the highest ranked school (I think) giving full rides to NMF. So yes, it only makes sense that UF could be the #1 school for enrolled NMF. Solid academic school with one of the best rated student life and a full ride?? Hard to turn down.
No response from our senator on bright futures.
MayBe soon??? I’ll let you know.
what are the chances the Governor puts a fork in all this with a line-item veto?
has he indicated before whether he’s in favor of the Bright Futures stipend increases?
Here’s an article from WUSF (a National Public Radio station owned by the University of South Florida) that was published just an hour ago:
http://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/lawmakers-reach-agreement-higher-ed-changes#stream/0
Here are the highlights:
“The increase will cover full tuition and fees for the top-performing Bright Futures students, known as “academic scholars.” It will also provide them with $300 per semester to cover books and will allow them to attend summer classes.”
“It includes a $121 million boost in the Florida “student assistance grants,” the largest state needs-based aid program.”
“The agreement on higher-education issues also will expand the state’s Benacquisto scholarships, which pay full tuition and costs for National Merit scholars, to include out-of-state students.”
“Universities and colleges also are expected to see major policy changes under a related bill (SB 374) that is part of the budget negotiations. The bill would require universities to offer block tuition, where students pay a flat fee per semester rather than a credit-hour charge, by the fall of 2018.”
It does appear that Bright Futures will be increased to 100% and Benacquisto scholarship will include out of state students.
It is unlikely that Scott will line item veto when he is eyeing a Senate race. I think this is basically a done deal.
This all sounds great, and I hope madredos is right that the governor wouldn’t dare veto it due to his potential Senate run. Will this Bright Futures increase start this year? My stepson starts at UF this fall. Hoping this will cover him.
@dlf2000 He will be covered. Make sure to fill out the (online) application and submit your volunteer hours to the HS GC.
So, the question is, as we wait on pins and needles, will that BF increase include sophomores and up? A 180 million increase seems like a lot for just incoming freshmen.
According to Florida Shines 110,000 total students received Bright Futures scholarships in 2015-2016, see PDF of annual scholarship recipients. For 2017-2018, 46000 are projected to be Academic Bright Futures scholarship award winners.
"The increase in need-based aid, which would also help the university system, is important to the 28 state colleges because their students will not benefit much from the Senate’s plan to expand the Bright Futures merit-scholarship program. The Senate budget would cover full tuition and fees for the top Bright Futures students, known as “academic scholars,” as well as provide $300 for textbooks for two semesters and cover summer tuition.But out of 46,000 Bright Futures academic scholars projected in the next academic year, only 5 percent of them will be enrolled at a state college. "(article dated 4-10-17).
If you do the math the entire 46000 students x 3000 in increased aid each year for Bright Futures Academic Scholars is approximately 140 million. This would indicate that all Bright Futures Academic Scholars would be covered not just the small number of Fall 2017 incoming Freshman.
I hope this helps.
https://www.wuft.org/news/2017/04/10/low-income-students-could-get-more-aid/
http://www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org/ssfad/PDF/BFstats/BFReportsD.pdf