My Florida kid wants to go out of state but Florida Prepaid and Bright futures make it a no brainer to stay in FL. Lots well known places would give her merit but not enough to turn down FSU or UF. I recently came across URI which has 2 amazing full ride scholarships that she probably qualify to at least interview for. There has to be more out there. Why are they so hard to find? Simmons college in Boston also has a full ride scholarship. How do you find this stuff other then just happening upon it? There has to be a way to search that I’m missing!
The problem that you have is that UF makes a very high floor for her from a cost/quality perspective. There are a few out there, but they are all very difficult to get some examples are Vandy, Duke, USC, Washington & Lee, URichmond, etc. The main thing that you have to consider is everyone’s willingness to turn down the school if she gets accepted but doesn’t get one of the big awards. That is a much more likely senecio than actually getting the merit award.
It really, truly, is OK for you to tell her that she needs to stay in FL because her costs are covered. Within that offer though, she probably also could take a semester or two abroad, or in a domestic exchange to another part of the country. She also would have the option to spend her summers working and/or studying in another state, or finding co-ops for a semester or two in other places. And of course once she graduates, she’s free to go wherever she pleases. 
If a college has one or two full ride awards…I would not consider this a slam dunk…at all. Not even for an interview.
How much can you pay out of pocket annually? Are her grades and SAT or ACT scores such that she could qualify for auto merit at University of Alabama, Arizona, University of New Mexico, for example.
@thumper1 Honestly, if she wants to leave Florida she would have to get full tuition. Clearly, I don’t want her to leave Florida. Its a great deal for great schools. She has a 3.93UW before this semester, will probably end up 3.95, and a has a 1460. Will graduate with 10AP 4 AICE and 1 Dual Enrollemnt class. I do know about the ones you listed above. What I’m looking for are the obscure ones like URI and Simmons that aren’t easily found by searching. URI already told us that her stats would most likely put her in consideration set for the full scholarships. (They awarded 17 this year) The odds are she will end up in Florida unless something like that comes through.
Depending on major I’m not seeing how UF, FSU, or maybe UCF/USF aren’t a slam dunk. She has good stats but probably not high enough for full rides and most top 100 schools. She would get merit but probably not enough to make it competitive.
Sure, you can look at lower rated schools and that’s fine but there’s also surrounding yourself with cohorts that bring out the best. She needs to figure out what she really wants. Even going to school an hour away from the parents is far enough not to see them often. My S20 was merit hunting. I told him a bargain isn’t a bargain if you don’t enjoy or get the most out of the experience.
A lot of schools have some full tuition merit scholarships but getting them is the real challenge. I know that my son’s SUNY has some that are not well advertised , for example. A lot of the Catholic schools have hefty awards too. It’s a matter of finding those schools preferable to the Florida options and then seeing what they have in the way of full tuition awards.
This doesn’t answer your Q at all, but your comment about URI made me want to share the following.
If your D goes to a regional school, it’s much more likely that the potential employers interviewing on campus are going to be from that schools region. Does your D want to end up in RI or Boston after school? Not to say URI will be limiting at all, it’s just a Q of who are the majority of employers interviewing on-campus.
Another similar point is that college can be a great time for networking with classmates, and where will that network be? As an example, my nephew is a dentist who went to the state flagship undergrad, made a lot of friends, and works in one of the big cities in the state. They are looking into getting their own practice, and one of the positives is that they will probably have a good number of patients from their HS friends/acquaintances and college friends/acquaintances. I also know that there are a fair number of well to do families in my state who intentionally send their kids to the state flagship so they will make future business connections with their peers.
I agree with @happymomof1 about study abroad, domestic exchange, etc.
When you go to the search engine like google, make sure you search specifically what you’re looking for. For instance if you want scholoraships for her specific talents type " zxxx scholarships to college for musicians school " or " orchestra high school student in need of scholarships in DC" . Those were are a few examples, just make sure you are putting very specific details in your search engine and more opportunities should pop up. Also research in state scholarships from political representatives websites. They always give Grant’s. Hope this was helpful.
FL’s a big diverse state with a decent amount of variety even among it’s publics ranging from big publics like UF/FSU(/UCF/USF) to a tiny well-regarded LAC in NCF.
Where in FL do you live? Culturally, Miami is nothing like the panhandle or Jacksonville, for instance.
Ask her why she wants to go out of state. Is it for bragging rights amongst her friends? If it’s for a change of scenery, she most definitely can get that within FL. And yes, as other people have stated, she can head out of FL after college. Given life expectancy, she’ll likely have over half a century to live her life outside of FL if she wants to.
Good suggestions above on study-abroad and domestic exchanges (I know NCF participates in the National Student Exchange) too.
And yes, her stats should get her full-tuition some places (look at AL publics, NM publics, and maybe some UT publics). This site has not been updated for a long time so some info is definitely out of date, but still worth a look:
http://automaticfulltuition.yolasite.com/
FSU also has a first-year abroad program (but it isn’t cheap):
https://international.fsu.edu/FYA.aspx
I think she’s in a great position. Florida offers her great affordable choices. With those pretty much in the bag, let her apply away to whatever she wants with the cost stipulations on the table. Friends of ours were all set in SUNY and their DD got a better deal at Miami of Ohio which she loved after visiting. So why not?
Please keep in mind, that every state is going to have budget cuts. I think the deals at many public universities in the past may not be available. Make sure that she has affordable options.
Schools (k-12 and public colleges/universities) are going to take a huge hit. I know that NYC is taking an 8 billion hit as a short fall in state funding (so the State as a whole will take more). This is definitely going to be reflected in public school spending. K-12 is getting hit with 827 million in cuts , where services will be eliminated. CUNY is taking a big hit to program. Excelsior is not posted yet. Just waiting to see what state aid is going to look like (budget is due July 1).
Remember the goal of public universities is to first and foremost provide an affordable option for their taxpayer base. They know that OOS students drive income to their schools. It would be sad if State Universities gave full rides/ full tuition scholarships to OOS at the expense of adequately funding their in-state students.
OP: What does your daughter plan to study in college ?
@Publisher she is considering interior design but still undecided. Her aptitudes all point to engineering but she’s not interested. She would also be great in business, stats or computer science but who knows. She really has no idea.