Bright Futures doesn’t give full tuition at a private college, it gives the same amount it gives at a public college. THIS year only, the top BF award is paying full tuition plus a book allowance (about $6500 for the year). Next year it is scheduled to go back to the normal amount of $103/credit hour., so just over $3100 for most students. It’s nice, but it isn’t paying private school tuition.
The FRAG (resident grant) was increased to $3300 this year. The FRAG can only be used for tuition, so if you have a full tuition scholarship, the school would have to be willing to apply its money to something else (fees, r&b).
I agree what what I think that @NJRoadie was saying in one of the earlier posts (sorry, I skipped most of this thread): If you take on significant debt for undergrad, then you might graduate in a bit more than four years and find that you need to live at home with your parents for several years in order to afford to save on rent and pay off your debts. However, if you graduate in a bit more than four years with no debt at all, then you are free to take a job anywhere that there is a job available.
Having no debt for your Bachelor’s degree will be a HUGE advantage in two ways: You can get a job anywhere and therefore have a lot more job opportunities available to you, and you can live where you want.
CU Boulder is awesome, if you can afford it you should go! I couldn’t afford it so I stayed instate for UF.
Also, my bf has prepaid + bright futures FAS and gets about $3,000 back every semester. That may seem like a whole lot but if you’re financially dependent (paying 600$ in rent/utilities per month) plus paying for books, food, and then summer expenses (when you’re not getting paid for school) then it’s really not a lot of money. It’s his second semester and he had to take out an unsubsidized $2,000 loan already. Also, keep in mind that there are several prepaid plans…I’m pretty sure my bf had a lower tiered one. UF does give out presidential scholarships though! There are tons of scholarships all over the internet too (if you want to graduate debt free). I really wanted to go to CU Denver but decided on UF for the financial reasons of course. But you can always look at those out of state schools for grad school! I’m trying to get into CU Denver’s Skaggs School of Pharmacy now instead of staying in Gainesville after I graduate.