<p>Does anyone know what happened with bright futures? I heard that the florida legislature was working on it, but i didn't hear of anything drastic happening. When I looked at my estimated bright futures for 100% academic it was about $2100 a semester. They just updated my financial aid for fall on myucf and now the 100% academic is only about $1700 a semester. Any idea whats going on?</p>
<p>2009 Legislative Updates
See the Bright Futures Web site for updated information beginning July 1, 2009.</p>
<p>•Senate Bill 2600 - General Appropriations Act (GAA)
◦Specifies Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Program and Scholarships for Children and Spouses of Deceased or Disabled Veterans and Servicemembers award amounts per credit hour in the 2009-10 academic year.
•Senate Bill 1696 - Conforming Bill
◦Removes Bright Futures college-related expense awards for Florida Academic Scholars.
◦Requires institutions to refund the state for any Bright Futures award amount received for courses which were dropped or withdrawn after the drop and add period.
◦Amends Bright Futures Renewal Requirements:
■Requires students to submit a refund to their institution for any award amount received for course(s) which were dropped or withdrawn after the drop and add period.
■Allows students who lose their award due to not earning the required hours to restore the award in a subsequent academic year (available to students not meeting the hours requirement in the 2009-10 academic year and thereafter).
■Revises credit hour requirements for full-time students to earn 24 semester hours (or the equivalent) per academic year (and prorated for part-time enrollment).
■Prohibits the renewal of Florida Gold Seal Vocational awards to Florida Medallion awards.</p>
<p>There are now caps on how much they will pay depending on what type of award and university you are attending. My S got an email spelling out all the details. Sorry I didn’t keep the email. My S is getting the 75% scholarship and the Bright Future has a cap for a 4 year university of 95/hr at this level.</p>
<p>The FAS award (100%) now covers a fixed amount of $126 per semester hour. No book/expense award. This does NOT cover the entire tuition any more. It does not cover the tuition differential nor the 15% increase for the coming year. It pays a flat $126 per semester hour no matter what U you attend. If you drop a course, you have to pay the money back to BF via a refund to your school. You will not be awarded any more BF dollars until this balance is repaid. You have to take at least 24 semester hours a year to be considered full time, and BF pays for the actual semester hours based on the $126 per hour.</p>
<p>your bright futures is better than mine. i also have 100% and they’re giving me $1441</p>
<p>fluffers - Does it say “EST BF FL Medallion Sch” on your Financial Aid Award Summary? If so, that is 75%. I am suppose to have 100% also, but it has not updated yet, since I reached the requirements for 100% after my Fin Aid Award Summary was posted.</p>
<p>Dear Bright Futures Recipient:</p>
<p>By this time, you should have received a notification from the Florida Department of Education Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) regarding the changes to the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Program, which are a result of the 2009 Florida Legislative Session. These changes are effective beginning fall semester of the 2009-2010 academic year.</p>
<p>+Award amounts are based on the four-year university rates: </p>
<p>-Florida Academic Scholars Award - $126.00 per credit hour</p>
<p>-Florida Medallion Scholars Award - $ 95.00 per credit hour</p>
<p>-Florida Gold Seal Scholars Award - $ 95.00 per credit hour</p>
<p>-Academic Top Scholars Award - $ 54.00 per credit hour</p>
<p>+Florida Academic Scholars will no longer receive a college related expense allowance.</p>
<p>+Bright Futures awards will be recalculated (reduced) for courses that are dropped or withdrawn after the add/drop period has ended each semester. The award amount for all withdrawn/dropped classes must be repaid.</p>
<p>CHANGES IN RENEWAL REQUIREMENTS:</p>
<p>-Students with unpaid recalculated award amounts due to course(s) that were dropped or withdrawn will not be eligible to renew.</p>
<p>-Full-time students must earn 24 semester hours per academic year (part-time enrollment will be prorated accordingly).</p>
<p>-Allows students who lose their award due to hours to restore it.</p>
<p>-Prohibits the switching of Florida Gold Seal Vocational awards to Florida Medallion awards. </p>
<p>For more information about these changes, you may visit the Florida Department of Education Office of Student Financial Assistances Web site: [Florida</a> Student Scholarship and Grant Programs](<a href=“http://www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org/SSFAD/bf/newsrenew.htm]Florida”>http://www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org/SSFAD/bf/newsrenew.htm)
For other information about Bright Futures, please visit our Web site [Student</a> Financial Assistance, UCF : Official Web site of the Office of Student Financial Assistance at the University of Central Florida.](<a href=“http://finaid.ucf.edu%5DStudent”>http://finaid.ucf.edu) and follow this navigation, Types of Aid Scholarships - Bright Futures. </p>
<p>Sincerely,</p>
<p>Office of Student Financial Assistance</p>
<p>Since Bright Futures pays only $126 for the FAS (100%) and the price per credit hour was already at $133 last year, this means that even students w/ 100% have to pay some $$$ for their tuition, which is aggravating considering the cut of the academic allowance :(</p>
<p>^^^
I think we figured out – now each school is slightly different, I think – that BF 100% would pay about 91% this year of the tuition. Since the universities can raise tuition by 15% for the next four years, bringing it up to the national average, BF will decrease each year in what it will cover. So, they are no longer calling it 100% … they’re trying to get us all to call it Academic and Medallion, but no one can remember which is which so we all say, “the one that used to be 100% and so forth…”</p>
<p>zebes</p>
<p>knightforum,
so should still be getting the 100% right? i thought maybe it was my counselor’s fault for not updating my service hours. i hope they’ll update it soon. it’s stressing me out a bit.</p>
<p>Yea you should. I am waiting for the update too… if it doesn’t come soon I will email Bright Futures to see how long it will take.</p>
<p>i just checked on facts.org, and it says that i am eligible for the medallion, and not the academic. but i qualify for it. it also says that the current status evaluation date was 3/23/2009. i don’t know if that has anything to do with it or not though.</p>
<p>Facts.org says that I qualify for the academic.</p>
<p>I would contact your HS counselor to see if there was a mistake.</p>
<p>I have a general question about financial aid. Do you have to pay for the money out of your pocket (well, bank account) first, and then the money through bright futures, fl prepaid, Pegasus awards etc is put into your bank account? Cause I’ve read a couple of scholarships and stuff that say they’re distributed the first or second week of the semester and I wanted to have what that meant clarified. </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>well dance2nite u dont have to worry, i havent dealt with it myself but my older sister is already in college so i get more or less how it works. they calculate it like this, lets say ur semester will cost u $1,800. And your random Bright Futures award is supposed to give you $1,500. They will only charge you the difference because the school will later directly receive the BF payment so you would just pay $300 (assuming u dont have grants or any other scholarships). Sometimes, however, some recalculation was done because BF ended up giving my sister a little more than they said they would so they refunded a small amount of her money. However, this probably wont happen anymore since now they award a flat $126 per credit hour for wat used to be the 100% scholarship. </p>
<p>Now just to make sure I cover all the bases, lets say you also get a Pegasus scholarship plus some grants. basically it works like this, the university calculates how much aid ur getting that semester, and from it they subtract all debts that you owe the university. that includes tuition and housing (if u live on campus). If there is leftover money, its urs to keep (and probably spend on books or food). Same rule as the BF explanation above though, if your aid falls a little short though, you would only pay the difference thats expected. So I’m pretty sure that you will never have to pay money out of your own pocket and then get refunded when financial aid is distributed. HOWEVER, if you live off campus, they dont receive your money directly like oncampus housing since those apartments arent part of the university. At orientation though you will learn about short term advances which basically allow you to get money when you need it and then pay it back when you get your aid. You obviously just want to make sure to be responsible with that so you dont get into debt. Hope this helps and sorry for it being a little long!</p>
<p>Thank you! That helps a lot and makes me feel more relieved. Luckily, I have FL Prepaid for tuition (only). I plan on using BF and Pegasus for housing.</p>