Florida Incentive Scholarship revisited

There has been some discussion that the institutional scholarship may have been eliminated as a qualifier for the Florida Incentive (National Merit) Scholarship for 2015-16. Does anyone have any definitive information on this?

Hi Cshecmia, I posted this link on the other thread, too. It seems to include the institutional scholarship ONLY for 2014 finalists, but it is not really all that clear. I hope others can look it over and see what they think.

http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/5444/urlt/200281.pdf

Thank you for this. I’m waiting to hear back from FLDOE but not holding my breath. This FIS process has been the least transparent of anything in the whole college cycle.

I’m very interested in what you learn from the FLDOE, thank you for contacting them. I agree, this FIS process is way more complicated than it probably needs to be. It is causing me tons of stress at an already very stressful time! UF is my son’s top choice, but it is very hard to ignore the guaranteed 4-year free ride at UCF. I’m also concerned that UF isn’t even going to consider my son for any merit aid because they assume he will get the FIS.

I didn’t think anything could be more stressful than the college application process, but the decision making/financial aid process is worse!!

I understand. We liked UCF very much and if we didn’t have Florida Prepaid and Bright Futures, our S would seriously be considering it. Let’s stay in touch.

I am also wondering about this. My son is thinking of UF and we hope he can get the incentive scholarship.

I heard back from the OSFA. It is true that the institutional scholarship has been disqualified for 2015 and after. It is my understanding that UF will be offering a college sponsored merit scholarship in light of this. Nerve wracking but good news, none the less.

Read my post in the UF thread!!

Running there now.

I also spoke with OSFA on the change. Under the new rule, students MUST be awarded a college sponsored scholarship through National Merit and not all colleges and universities in Florida are eligible to do this. It is a real catch 22; schools aren’t eligible to award scholarships unless at least three students name them as a top choice, but students won’t name colleges which can’t award the scholarships. Maddening.

That’s crazy.

But if you ARE named corporate scholar or a NMSC $2500 scholar you would still qualify for any school in Florida , correct?? It is only 6 schools in Florida that now participate in NMSC right?

They did indeed change the awarding of this scholarship. The update says, “Please note, while there are many institutions in Florida that meet the eligibility criteria, only 6 institutions participate with the National Merit Scholarship Corporation as a College-Sponsor for the 2015-16 academic year: Florida State University, New College of Florida, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of Miami, and University of South Florida. To be considered for college sponsorship, you would need to choose one of these 6 institutions as your first choice when responding to the NMSC. Once the NMSC has mailed out an offer, you will not be able to change your designation.”

My son got his financial aid letter from New College but it was based on the old criteria, so they have to revamp it, and may not be able to do so until after the decision deadline of May 1. And I do not know if the legislature has fully funded the scholarships for 2015-2016. It does not seem like the most reliable sort of scholarship!

Boone 2015, does your previous comment mean that if a school does not have at least 3 National Merit Finalists naming them as their first-choice school, that school can’t give the FIS even if they are sponsor colleges? I’m sure it’s not an issue with UF or UCF, but New College is so small, I know their NM finalist numbers fluctuate year to year, and each freshman class is only about 200.

UMiami giving conflicting info and I can’t get anything in writing. One FA person told me that my son will receive the full COA (highest COA at a Fl public University), another told me that private schools get $7-12,000 only for FIS.

I believe the second FA is correct. I read on the DOE site that the award is the COA for a public FL school after Bright Futures. But UM may be adding to that with their own funds to make it a full COA award. It’s frustrating not to see it in writing yet. We have the same issue.

Wouldn’t that be around $17,000? I think FSU has the highest COA and that’s over 20,000. Highest level of BF around 4,000? Where is UM getting $7-12,000?

Here are a couple of links I was sent by the OSFA (I think most of you have seen them already). I also posted this in the UF thread. Did you guys notice that the student must remain at the school they start at as freshmen in order to get the FIS? I wonder why? That is kind of scary to think a student that is unhappy at his/her school can’t transfer unless they want to lose the FIS! My son is pretty much committed to going to UF, but I’ll tell you, the guarantee at UCF looks better every day!

On 2/25/15, the administrative rule was updated to close the window of opportunity to award the scholarship to certain students.

Rule will go into effect 4/1/15. (See fact sheet online at: http://www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org/SSFAD/factsheets/FIS.pdf

and the mini-fact sheet online at:

http://www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org/SSFAD/PDF/FIS_2015_Update.pdf.)

I’m confused! My daughter will likely be a National Merit Finalist, and I understand that in order to receive the FIS award, she must get a National Merit College Sponsored Scholarship. So…if UF does not automatically award these scholarships, wouldn’t you put UM as your first choice since their website states that National Merit Finalists that list UM as their first choice will receive a minimum 16,000 presidential scholarship. I can’t imagine it’s binding? So…my thought is list UM as the first choice, get their college sponsored scholarship which would qualify her for the FIS scholarship that she could use at UF. Am I missing something???

UF does automatically award the scholarships.