<p>You don't have to do anything to renew the scholarship. Your S's school will keep him on the roster of Byrd scholars and the government will keep sending the money. (fingers crossed that funding is approved!!!!)</p>
<p>I got it a couple of weeks ago... I'm in CT. I remember just having to sign my name on some form... Actually, when I got the letter, I had completely forgotten that I had applied, heh.</p>
<p>So that's what they meant when they said it all was pending on funding. My parents thought it hinged on my performance in college or something.</p>
<p>Did they send out all the award letters in New York City, please answer. Is it true that they don't send you anything if you don't get it?</p>
<p>anybody hear from florida yet? Do we at least get notified of whether we won it if nominated?</p>
<p>I know that Florida awards the scholarships based on GPA/ACT rankings down the list until the money runs out. So I am hoping I can get it with a 33 ACT and 3.98 UW.</p>
<p>I live in New York State and I received one a week or two ago. </p>
<p>Up until two years ago, I would have qualified for significant financial aid, but now I don't. That doesn't mean that paying for college is easy for us at all. Personally, I'm glad a few scholarships are based on merit only.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if funding has been approved by Congress yet?</p>
<p>Funding for 2007-2008 school year is approved, or else they would not have made the awards. Beyond that is anyone's guess.</p>
<p>"Congratulations! The Florida Deparment of Education, Office of Student FInancial Assistance (OSFA) has evaluate your application for Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship Program, and we are happy to inform you that you have met the requirements for this program. OSFA will forward the appropriate award to the institution you plan to attend for the 2007-08 academic year."</p>
<p>I got it! Letter came today. Does this mean I don't have to do anything else?</p>
<p>"Congratulations! The Florida Deparment of Education, Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) has evaluate your application for Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship Program, and we are happy to inform you that you have met the requirements for this program. OSFA will forward the appropriate award to the institution you plan to attend for the 2007-08 academic year."</p>
<p>My daughter got the form yesterday in the mail. She had forgotten all about applying. What a great surprise!</p>
<p>If I AT LEAST don't get a letter from them notifying me that I didn't win it, I will be ****ed. My school nominated 2 people, and I deserve to know what was decided. What kind of scholarship program doesn't even tell you you haven't won, because I haven't been sent ANYTHING!! This was the one scholarship I wanted!!</p>
<p>In Texas, they only notify the recipients. My daughter was rather embarrassed last year when one of the other nominees from her school asked her on Facebook if she had heard, and my daughter had to tell her the outcome.</p>
<p>well that is completely unjustified!</p>
<p>nothing in the mail for me today, and I hear the other nominee at my school with the same scores as me won it??!! I am fuming right now.</p>
<p>That's rough, DiGamma. It doesn't make it any easier that there's so little information on the internet about the scholarship. It says your location is Florida--if you want, you can call them. The bottom of my letter says that "if you have any questions, call our toll-free number at 1-888-827-2004".</p>
<p>Any other states heard from?</p>
<p>thanks for that number chandramoon, I still want to find out why I did not receive this.</p>
<p>My D was called down to the office before graduation and given an application and told Congratulations. After filling out and reading the application closely we realized she was just nominated and nothing was gauaranteed. The gudiance cons. insists its just a formality and one person from our school wins ever yeat. I personally called the org. and they told me nothing was gauaranteed and we would be notified mid July wither way. We are from Ma. Our guidance cons. is not very informed and I will be writing a letter to the super if my D does not recieve this scholarship. Guidance really should have better training in the whole process.</p>
<p>Well, after much searching on the Internet (why does anything having to do with the government have to be so complicated?), I found some encouraging news. Pres. Bush initially eliminated funding for Byrd Scholarships in his budget recommendation submitted in February for the FY 2008 which begins Oct. 1, 2007. It appears that the House and Senate appropriations committees both have added Byrd Scholarship funding back into their budget bill at about the previous appropriation ($41 million). Of course it's not a done deal until it gets through both houses and the conference committee and then Pres. Bush signs it, which can take months.</p>
<p>In this case, Byrd recipients should probably thank their lucky stars that the Dems regained control of Congress, since the powerful committee chairs are all chosen from the majority party, and they're loath to toe the Presidential line. I suspect that if Republicans controlled Congress, the President's recommendations would have carried much more weight. (Of course, it always helps that Byrd himself is chair of the House Appropriations Committee.)</p>
<p>If you want to wade through numbers, here are the House recommended appropriation figures - look at page 18 for Byrd:</p>
<p>And here's a press release from the Senate Appropriations Committee (page 5):</p>
<p>As far as notification to applicants, I guess that's up to your state. In Minnesota, the website originally said applicants would be notified by the end of the school year, which I took to mean by the beginning of June. Then that disappeared, to be replaced by a note that said as of April, no appropriation had been made and that applicants would be notified when it was. Now that has disappeared (along with the email address of the state contact) and no mention of notification is up there. Email to the contact went unanswered. Since the appropriation is NEVER made until at least October, I think it's cowardly for a state to use funding as an excuse not to notify applicants. Better to initially tell them who won and then say funding is contingent on the appropriation.</p>
<p>Snowmn, thanks so much for finding that information. Hopefully they will fund it this year, and every year for the next 4 years. :)</p>
<p>I contacted the Michigan Department of Education regarding funding of the Byrd for the 2007-2008 school year. It is already funded. The new federal budget referred to by Snowmn is for funding in the 2008-09 school year.</p>