Florida Incentive Scholarship

I spoke with Mr Max Mauny and he said UF is joining NMSC again - this is very very recent (this week) so students can can choose UF as their college through NMSC now! And they will give the $500 per year for all finalists who sign up UF as their school and so FIS will go into effect. He added that even if the FIS law is changed at a later date we can expect the State to grandfather it and the students who have started on the FIS could expect to be funded till the end of their bachelors degree (4 year or 5 year degree program).

Wow that’s the best news yet!!! So happy!!

@Cshecmia
yes! happy here also! =D>

@mominflorida you made my day, week, month, year, etc. Thanks so much for letting us know. Will your son attend?

This is fantastic news!!! Thanks to all who have contributed to the discussion! Did anyone have their child name UF as the first choice on NMSC before the first “deadline” of March 1? I sure didn’t, because I had no idea UF was participating again until this thread! I hope we have until the end of April, and I hope that Mr. Mauny is correct that all finalists will qualify for FIS at UF! I can’t take much more of this “rollercoaster” as @Cshecmia said!

I doubt anyone named UF #1 bc they just rejoined NMSC this Monday, I believe. Max Mauney (hope we are on a first name basis by now) said we have until May 1. Congrats to all.

@Cshecmia
my daughter - debating between Uflorida and Umiami now and weighing these factors
UF -
cost of attendance thru fis
sibling attends now and another sibling attended - but in business & engineering schools resp - good experiences
visited and liked it a lot - psych program & research, moot court & law internship possiblilies
honors hopeful
UM -
25k presidential+FIS+FRAG= 51k at least, so max 12k efc
admitted into da vinci program - for interdisciplinary studies and really likes that
visited and liked it a lot also!
hoping for admission into dual degree program in law

We need to talk @mominflorida, my S is choosing btwn the same 2 schools.

@Cshecmia yes! I messaged you.

Before you get all giddy about UM, have you thought about how your son or daughter plans to stay on campus housing for the years after the dorm? Try to find affordable housing around UM vs UF. Unfortunately, our only scholarships due to mid EFC from UM was a total of $33K and with schooling at $53K (in 2013) UF was a slam dunk. I understand with Bright Futures, and reasonable tuition, UF has little room for merit scholarships, but we find multiple scholarships available within the system after two years of attendance.

I’m hardly “giddy” about anything after sending four kids to college. Did that $33k consist of a presidential plus FIS? We live 5 minutes away from UM and are familiar with the housing situation. Anything constructive to add to the discussion?

I’m a UF student currently on the Florida Incentive Scholarship program. To be eligible for the award, you will have to receive some award directly from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, such as the $2500 award or a corporate sponsored scholarship. Notification about these types of awards should come in early April. If you are considering attending UF, you should avoid designating a school that offers its own National Merit Scholarship, such as Auburn, because then you won’t be considered for these types of awards. If you don’t receive such an award, you have up to the May 1st to switch your designated school to one that does offer an award (I applied to Arizona in April and was accepted in about a week, if you have not applied to such a school already).
As for the future of the program, Gov. Scott’s education budget defunds it immediately, while the House and Senate proposals continue to both fund students on it as of now and offer it for next year. My guess is that it survives.

UF has just come back to the NMSC and is a participating school so if the class of 2019 indicated UF as first choice and calls NM to make certain they are aware, that list gets sent to UF and they will designate the student a UF NM Scholar and they will be eligible fort the FIS. This is very recent news and was verified by the UF office of financial aid.

@saismom, do you mean we have to call the National Merit folks? I was thinking that my son just needed to designate UF as his first choice and UF would automatically get the list. Also, I received a couple of links from the person at OSFA regarding the FIS:

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 called NMSC and talked to Brian and here is my understanding. You will not automatically qualify for a UF Merit Award if you are a finalist. I assume UF could choose to sponsor all finalists but they are not required to.

According to this:
http://edr.state.fl.us/content/conferences/financialaid/OSFAMeritIncentHandout.pdf

UF will sponsor “about 70” NMSC finalists to give college sponsored awards to which qualify you for the FIS. However this is not automatic and UF chooses among the roster of those who put UF as their 1st selection. The next NMSC roster gets sent to UF on April 10th and every two weeks after.

UF theoretically doesn’t have to make these decisions before May 1st which makes things quite complicated to say the least. I’m sure they understand the implications of these decisions so let’s hope they clarify the situation.

According to the numbers, there are 330 NMSC finalists in Florida who didn’t make the cut. UF will sponsor 70 of the ones that choose UF as their top selection.

Well, do you feel lucky?

Wow, great thread about this “phantom” scholarship. I will be checking out these links. My son was a NM finalist and since he was accepted EA to FSU. specified it as his #1 school (he has also applied and been accepted to UF and several OOS schools.) So, assuming our fearless leaders in Tallahassee don’t mess FIS up, he should be fine, right?

Should he decide to change, he has until May to pick a different school for NM? And, if in-state, for the FIS?

BTW I read somewhere about a challenge to the FIS as being discriminatory (according to the anti-testing crowd) but I believe the Feds found no problem. Have any of you heard about this?

Thanks for all the great info.

I hadn’t heard about it. It was a challenge to Bright Futures, I wouldn’t worry about it…

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article4430296.html

So, my son just checked his financial aid award. He is a National Merit Scholar in Florida and he was awarded ( it read as “predicted” award) the Florida Incentive Scholarship, the Florida Academic Scholarship (pending final transcript) and a UF merit scholarship. This totaled the full cost of attendance with $1260 allowance for computer/cell phone; $1100 for transportation, $700 for clothing maintenance, $1300 for books and supplies, $270 for personal, $5420 for housing, full tuition and fees ($6310) and meal plan ($4230). This totals $20,590. We were thrilled to see this as I was afraid we might not hear until close to May 1st. My son did put UF as his first choice school with the NMSC about a month ago. He did not receive a corporate or NMSC $2500 award so I am so happy that UF plans to award him a National Merit Scholarship. He really liked as was accepted to Georgia Tech, but with this offer he has decided to choose UF. Just thought I would update those waiting on the FIS.

Congrats! Got ours too! Light at the end of the tunnel!

Congrats to you and your family as well. I did feel such an amazing sense of relief!