<p>Ok, thanks. We filed the 2011-2012 FAFSA in January. If you don’t mind me asking, why did you have a “choice”? I thought you had to fill out a FAFSA every year. Just wondering.</p>
<p>The deadline to file a FAFSA for 2010-2011 wasn’t here yet (it’s June 30, 2011 for '10-11). So that would explain having a choice of which year to pick to file for, either '10-11 or '11-12. </p>
<p>If you filed for 2011-12, then you will be fine in meeting the requirements for Bright Futures, assuming that there were no errors on the FAFSA, of course.</p>
<p>FSUmom777: if one attends school with no federal aid or loans, one does not need to fill out a fafsa. Some schools do require it for merit aid and in-house merit scholarships but most do not. Bright Futures never required FAFSA before.</p>
<p>My kids have been going to state U’s on Florida Prepaid, Bright Futures, outside scholarships, and we have never had to file until now. So when we went online to file, we had the “choice” of filing for 2010-2011 (summer term falls under this) or 2011-2012. Of course we did 2011-2012. But the choice was there because we had never filed before. Next year, and each year until we are done, there will not longer be “a choice,” since the prior year will already be on file.</p>
<p>fsumom7777- We hadn’t previously filed the Fafsa because we don’t qualify for federal aid and are not interested in loans. The changes to the Bright Futures Scholarship forced us to do so.</p>
<p>Thanks for the FAFSA info.</p>
<p>I really appreciate the alert about this. Although I did fill one out this year, I was thinking that I wouldn’t bother next year since we don’t qualify for aid. Now I’ll be sure to keep doing it.</p>
<p>In addition to this change, the “100 percent” scholarship now only pays $101 dollars per credit hour (decrease from $126 last Fall), and the “75 percent” scholarship now only pays $76 dollars per credit hour.</p>
<p>Pretty soon, there’s going to be nothing left at all. Thank goodness I’m out in two years.</p>
<p>Actually Bright Futures paid $125 and $94 for 2010-2011. Now that we have to fill out the FAFSA for 2011-2012, I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes totally need-based for 2012-2013. </p>
<p>I fear that this is the beginning of the end for merit-based Bright Futures scholarships. I don’t understand this at all, since federal aid is available for low income students. The middle class is really going to be left out of any financial help in the future. </p>
<p>The qualifications for the medallion scholarship should have been raised years ago as the costs began to rise drastically, since a 970/1600 SAT score is ridiculously low for a test where each section’s lowest score is 200. Doesn’t that mean you are starting out with a score of 400/1600? I wonder how much money will be to be saved by raising the minimum scores by 10 points to 980 this year, or next year’s minimum of 1020, or 2013-2014’s 1050 minimum score? Will that make enough of a difference to keep the award merit-based? Will they even wait to see if that alone will allow Bright Futures to be the reward it was originally set up to be? Or will the FAFSA requirement lead to an irreversible change before the data is analyzed?</p>
<p>Who knows what next year will bring. It appears that no one really looks at ANY data until the time comes each year when the legislature has to vote on the issue. Then they scramble and look at data and make changes. I suspect no one will be studying the issue until next May, and then we will see…</p>
<p>I do not think it will go totally need based by next year. And for that change, I think they will have to grandfather in current students, and give families enough notice to make plans. I think voters will make it clear that they will not be happy if that happens with little to no notice. </p>
<p>Without BF, high school students should strongly consider taking more DE classes and less AP classes. My D2 graduated HS with her AA, and wow, what a savings that adds up to be, especially with U’s tuition going up 15% a year. Families need to understand that DE classes are free, and books are provided free of charge for the duration of the class. It is the best kept secret around. Even if a student goes to a LAC or OOS U, a good bit of the classes will be given credit, especially for things like freshman English, general ed and humanities requirements. An AA will still get you a year off of an OOS or LAC education and 2 years off of an instate U. Or you can still stay 3-4 years and get a double major, or do a 5 year BS/Masters program in 3 more years.</p>
<p>FSU’s Professor Hu is doing a study of Florida’s Bright Futures Program right now.</p>
<p>Link: [Florida</a> State News and Events](<a href=“http://www.fsu.edu/news/2011/06/22/bright.futures/]Florida”>Florida State News and Events)</p>
<p>THIS IS GREAT NEWS. Thankfully, this is a 3 year study. I am so glad they are spending money to make (hopefully) GOOD decisions and not just political ones.</p>
<p>Edited to add, I just realized this is a federally funded study. I worry that the state could turn their noses at the results…I wish it was funded with BF money. The results would likely be taken more seriously by the politicians.</p>
<p>OOPS! I used the high school graduating years instead of entering college years in my above post. </p>
<p>For the Medallion Scholarship, students starting college in 2012-2013 the minimum SAT score will be 980, 2013-2014 will be 1020 and 2014-2015 the SAT requirement will be raised to 1050. For the Academic Scholarship the minimum SAT score goes up from 1270 to 1280 in 2013-2014, and to 1290 in 2014-2015.</p>
<p>I’m glad to see the FSU education professor is doing this Bright Futures study. It is federally funded, which makes things kind of interesting because Bright Futures is a state funded program. The Bright Futures program will always be a political football in Florida; the FSU study may influence Florida legislators some in the future, but ultimately they’ll do what they feel is politically expedient for themselves. Bright Futures is getting watered down to next to nothing and combined with rising college costs, it will become less and less significant each coming year.</p>
<p>I think a bigger issue in Florida’s future is how much the state will support higher education financially in the future. Too many of the current Florida legislators I think are of a mindset that the state should fund Florida public universities as little as possible. Even my own U.S. congressman, who is a tea bagger, feels the federal government shouldn’t even be involved in education; he feels the feds should pretty much only fund the U.S. military to defend the country and that the states and local governments should be responsible for education. I think his philosophy on funding education has drifted into the thinking of many of Florida’s current conservative legislators who want to push the funding of Florida’s public universities on to the backs of the college students and their families and ease the load on the state’s pocket. Florida legislators should focus on increasing the state’s revenue to help fund Florida public universities instead of constantly cutting back funding to the cash strapped public universities.</p>
<p>[FSU</a> professor to study: Is Bright Futures working? - St. Petersburg Times](<a href=“http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/fsu-professor-to-study-is-bright-futures-working/1177582]FSU”>http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/fsu-professor-to-study-is-bright-futures-working/1177582)</p>