<p>For those of you who get Bright Futures, but do not file a FAFSA as you are not eligible for federal aid, FILE A FAFSA ASAP. </p>
<p>The new changes for BF effective 2011-2012 is that NO FUNDS WILL BE DISTRIBUTED unless there is a FAFSA on file for the school you want the funds distributed to.</p>
<p>In addition to a cut in credit hour funding, there is this new requirement. And they are not publicizing it. My guess is that they are hoping to distribute less funds as some families will not bother to file, some will not thing the filing is worth the money, and some will not know to file in time......</p>
[quote]
SB2150 Students are now required to submit a complete, error-free FAFSA for Bright Futures, Florida Resident Access Grant, and Access to Better Learning and Education Grant, initial and renewal eligibility any time prior to disbursement. No FAFSA = No $
<p>HAHA yes, fafsa.com looks legit, and you can spend quite a bit of time filling out the info and give VERY SENSITIVE INFO, until the ends when it asks for your credit card info and you realize it is a private site who will file for you FOR A FEE.</p>
<p>This is often the first site you reach when you search/google for FAFSA as well. VERY TRICKY.</p>
<p>Yes, many private U’s and Lac’s require a FAFSA for any aid, including merit. This is a first for BF. I believe they are doing it to cut down disbursements AND to use the info for future use to see how many students are getting merit aid that do not have financial need. They will eventually turn the program from a merit program to one that is awarded based on merit and need. If they want to keep talented students in-state, they need to ramp up the grade/score requirements even more that the current plans rather than turn this into a need based award.</p>
<p>Yeah, my hubby did that. I made him ask for the money back though and they did. I knew it was free.</p>
<p>As for making the scores higher, I don’t agree. I agree they needed to on the recent raise in requirements but not much more. Florida schools are 35th in the nation and that wouldn’t be fair.</p>
<p>West Virginia’s Promise program does require FAFSA despite not being income based. I don’t think the GA Hope program does, though can link through FAFSA.</p>
<p>Maybe they are trying to prevent students whose parents haven’t been filing taxes (when they should have been) from getting this merit award.</p>
<p>Since it doesn’t look like the results of the FAFSA (EFC results) affects whether the child gets BF, it still is a merit award…especially since it’s not competitive.</p>
<p>^^^
No…competitive means that only “some” kids with certain stats would get funding. It means that they look over a pool of applicants with certain minimum stats and decide to only give X students the scholarship (which if FAFSA is req’d, it could be argued that “need” was somehow taken into acct.)</p>
<p>When a school publishes **assured **merit scholarships and they have - say - 3 levels depending on stats - then that is NOT competitive as long as EVERY student with the stats gets the scholarship. </p>
<p>My kids’ school has assured scholarships for certain stats…those with ACT 32+ get the full tuition scholarship…as long as they apply by the deadline and have at least a 3.5 GPA. That’s not competitive since all that qualify will get it. It is assured. </p>
<p>It’s not like BF is quietly saying: " well, we need to reduce the number of BF awards by 20%, so we’re requiring FAFSA to determine who really doesn’t “need” the money and then we’ll make our awards. "</p>
<p>I’m suspecting that they are requiring FAFSA because they’ve had some issues with either non-citizens/non-residents getting the money or some other similar reason.</p>
<p>So if we filed the FAFSA in January and then filed for Bright Futures in Jan or Feb. Does anything need to be done?</p>
<p>I got the email from the Bright Futures that says FAFSA is required but it doesn’t tell me if I need to take any kind of action. Does anybody know?</p>
<p>If you filed in January you are fine. Incoming freshman likely filed FAFSA. But upperclassman who are not eligible for federal aid may not have filed since they were seniors in high school. And the BF emails might be going to an old/inactive email. </p>
<p>For FSU, just go on Blackboard and then Secure Apps then Financial aid and it will tell you if you have a FAFSA on file for 2011-2012. If you do you are fine. For other schools, just sign in and go to the financial aid info. You will likely show if FAFSA is on file. If not, you might just need to add the school to your FAFSA online.</p>