<p>From a post Tampa Nole listed on another board:</p>
<p>This is what FSU decided a few years ago. I e-mailed Larry Abele about this topic last year, and this is what he said:</p>
<p>"Merit scholar students are highly recruited by many universities and receive many offer of scholarships. Our admissions/enrollment group has debated the value of recruiting these students. The question is: do we commit scholarship funds to Merit scholars on a non-need basis or do we recruit some very good students who have need? (Only a very small percentage of Merit scholars have need.) On average, it is about the same cost to recruit two very good students for each Merit scholar. You should also know that not all Merit scholars are "equal" since the criteria are state specific.</p>
<p>In the late 1990s we recruited Merit scholars and we ranked first in the state and very high nationally. Did this make us a better university? Not really, as the difference between a very good student and a Merit scholar is not that great. After considerable discussion we decided to focus on recruiting a very good class with both strong high school performance and standardized test scores and to commit funds on more of a need basis.</p>
<p>Our goal is to provide our students with a rich educational experience that includes academics as well as extracurricular activities such as service learning, leadership skills and many cultural experiences. The evidence is that we are successful and always working to improve. To cite just two examples, this past year we established a leadership center for our students and an office of National Fellowships and Awards to assist our students in their applications for such national awards as Fulbrights and Goldwater scholarships.</p>
<p>A university is far more than a single statistic and I am proud of the commitment of everyone here to creating an environment of success for our students."</p>
<p>Great job, Tampa Nole, for the information!</p>
<p>well, if you get the national merit scholarship, they take the university away, and if you get a cororate national merit, they take away the diffrence, so it kinda sucks. oh well, i still have bright futures and national merit, almost enough to cover it all...</p>
<p>Ok I was going to try and edit my earlier response, but that wasnt working, so here we go again. After being at FSU for almost a semester, they actually have pretty good scholarships for national merit. However, I think it depends on how much you bother the financial aid office. Somehow even though they said they were going to take away the difference of my corporate scholarship from the school one, they only took away a little bit. So just for national merit FSU is giving me 8000 a year. However, I talked to someone who lives downstairs from me who's also national merit, and they're giving him considerably less. As everyone says, call financial aid, make sure you get all the aid you can, in this case, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.</p>
<p>The University scholarship requires that your son must take 28 credits in the Fall and Spring semesters as well as maintain a cumulative 3.0 GPA. Make sure he takes the proper credit load to keep the $$$$.</p>
<p>Bright Futures only requires a minimum of 6 credits per semester and the Summer GPA counts towards the renewal qualification. Also, Bright Futures can be reinstated if the GPA rises at a later time. Of course, for health insurance coverage purposes you would not want your student to take less than 12 credits per semester.</p>
<p>Well there is no name on the letter as far as the scholarship $$$. So I have no idea what it is called. Just $9600 for the four years, son already has 17 credit hours with credit for AICE/AP test. Hoping that he can get many of the GenEds out with these credits and not have to load up to heavy with the Engineering courses.</p>
<p>Son's best bud now has to be accepted also, they want to room together.</p>
<p>Here it is...it's quite nice. My daughter received this as well. :) It really helps. </p>
<p>University Scholarship* for Freshmen
A $9,600 scholarship distributed over four years. Recipients are selected from the best freshman students admitted to the University based upon high school grades and test scores.</p>
<p>By the way...if you received one of those offers of a University scholarship, your son would probably need to accept it right away (assuming he's selected Florida State) as they get snapped up pretty fast.</p>
<p>From what we learned - it's first come, first served with those offers. I recall my daughter selected FSU over UF and express mailed the response back to Admissions the same day.</p>
<p>You can go to a URL link provided in the letter and accept, reserve or decline the scholarship before the deadline in order to receive the money. </p>
<p>During orientation, they suggest that your son set up a free student Suntrust bank account connected to their FSUID. After the drop/add period is over for the semester, they will automatically put any extra funds into his bank account. If he doesn't set up a Suntrust account, they will send him a check.</p>
<p>National Merit/Achievement Scholarship: $6,000 per year; renewable for four years; based on select number of finalist who name FSU as their first choice institution. National Hispanic Scholarship: $6,000 per year; renewable for four years; awarded to a select number of scholars. University Scholarship for Freshmen: $9,600 over 4 years; based on high school grades and test scores. Incentive Scholarship: $8,000 over 4 years; based on high school grades and test scores. 21st Century Scholarship for Freshmen: $4,200 over 4 years; based on grades and test scores.</p>
<p>Son has applied to 2 service academies. I know that is his first choice, but FSU is very high on his list. SAs are dart game they pick you or they don't. </p>
<p>I'm not sure what he should do about this offer. Might have him email them about the offer. I thought that offers were good until March 1st. Remember reading something from NCAC about that when my Daughter received scholarship offers a few years back. She also turn down UF Honors college to go out of state.</p>