FSU Freshman Scholarship students - any flexibility to 15 credit hour rule?

From what I understand, to get the $1,200 Fall/Spring payout need to be taking 15 hrs. It’s fine, but UCF scholarship merit cash only requires 12 hours.

For a student taking 14 hours of challenging courses, they’d have to pad with an easy course that might mean nothing to them (waste of money and FSU resources) or take a real class that may need for graduation and end up with 17 hrs.

What if have to drop a class, maybe signed up for 17 and GPA was going to take a hit, over head in one course, drop down to 14… would you lose scholarship next term?

Couldn’t find much in google searches for real life issues with maintaining the scholarship or bending of the rules.

My child has the Freshman scholarship this year and the current rules were that you had to have a total of 30 credits between Fall and Spring semester, in any combination. So you could go 12/18, or 14/16, if you needed to. As long as you had 30 credits and a 3.0 cumulative gpa after spring semester the scholarship automatically renewed for the whole next year. I’m wondering if the requirement for a minimum 15 hours each semester is new this year? It’s worth asking admissions about. If you get an answer please let us know.

30 sounds right, they may be flexible in reality but same idea, seems fairly strict on hours, at least compared to other scholarships with min 24 per fall+spring. easier to lose scholarship at fsu if need to drop a course than at ucf. nice to have the option to take a course or two in the summer and not feel like every semester should be 15 (or 12+18 / 14+16).

University Freshman Scholarship

The Office of Admissions will automatically consider all accepted freshmen for our University Freshman Scholarship. A separate application is not required. Scholarships are competitive and awarded based on academic merit (combination of academic weighted grade point average AND test scores). The award is $2,400 per year distributed over four years, for a total of $9,600. Scholarship funds are limited, so students are encouraged to apply for admission by November 1 to be admitted in January for priority consideration. Scholarship awards will be made in January and continue until all available funds are exhausted. Scholarship recipients must take a minimum of 15 credit hours per semester and maintain a grade point average of 3.0 or higher at Florida State.

@OldLady21 when I inquired they seemed to Indicate that they are pretty strict on the rule of taking 15 hours in both the fall and spring semesters. However, they did say they will work with students on a case-by-case basis… Not sure what that means exactly or how you would get an exception. If a student takes 15 hours every semester for eight semesters, takes nine hours that are required in the summer, and comes in with AP or dual enrollment credits, then they will have far more than the 120 hours needed to graduate, so I am not sure I understand why they are so strict about it. It almost seems like for the money that will be paying for what amounts to basically extra hours it may not be worth it?!

My daughter is a Sophomore with the scholarship. Her adviser told her 15 hours per semester is required.