Are there out of state or private colleges/universities that may match the Florida Bright Futures scholarship? My student may not want to attend college in Florida but is eligible for the Bright Futures scholarship. Financially, this is difficult to pass up as we aren’t aware of any other low cost options that would give him admission to a top 100 school for the cost of room and board. Is anyone aware of colleges that will match Bight Futures with a similar merit award?? His stats: 30 ACT and a 3.86 unweighted GPA - he has a part time job and many volunteer hours, clubs, and a few local honors/awards. Thanks.
Other schools aren’t going to match BF, but many have their own scholarships like, as mentioned above, Alabama, Auburn, Miss State, NM, Miami of Ohio. He can’t take BF out of state but can use it at a private school in Florida too. He’d get the ~$6500 for BF plus the EASE resident grant of about $3500. Many of the private schools also have additional merit which they will stack with BF and EASE.
I don’t think you’ll get to full tuition and only have to pay room and board, but still a nice chunk of money.
Having been through this with my son who graduates HS this year - I’m just going to give you a flat out no. It’s hard to beat free tuition especially when merit aid is an almost definite on top of that. My son also wanted to go out of FL but we went and toured all the major colleges in-state and he found a couple he liked. There are some really terrific niches depending on what they want to major in. Also, check out what Burnett Honors College at UCF has to offer…it’s impressive. We have drilled it into my son that it makes more sense for him to keep the college savings we have for him to use in graduate school - when it really matters where you go.