Bright Futures Scholarship Program

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Bright Futures Scholarship Program
Formation	1997
Type	Merit based Scholarship
Budget	$436 million
Website	Official website

Bright Futures is the name of a scholarship program in the state of Florida. It is funded by the Florida Lottery and was first started in 1997.

Contents 1 Program 2 Controversy 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Program

The Bright Futures program allows Florida high school seniors with "academic merit" to earn a scholarship to any public college/University in the state. This scholarship does not apply if the student chooses to attend college outside the state of Florida. Many private colleges in Florida offer Bright Futures recipients fully-paid tuition.

A certain SAT score or ACT score and high school GPA is required to earn a Bright Futures scholarship.

Summer semesters are currently not eligible for bright futures funding, even though most Florida Public Universities require at least six credits to be earned through summer study. This requirement can generally be satisfied by Advanced Placement or CLEP examination.

[edit] Controversy

The Bright Futures Scholarship was first created in 1997, and was meant to emulate the Hope Scholarship. Originally the Program dispersed just above 42,000 scholarships for about $70 million dollars. Over the last decade the cost for the scholarship has ballooned substantially. The Scholarship currently costs the lottery's coffers more than $436.1 million, with about 170,000 students taking advantage of the program.^[1][2][3]

The requirements for attaining the scholarship were meant to increase each year but have not, resulting in the current state of the award.

[edit] See also

• State University System of Florida
• Florida Board of Governors

[edit] Notes

^ 1. The GPA used to calculate for Bright Futures eligibility is not the same as what a high school student might have for his or her current GPA. The GPA is calculated by just using the "core classes" which are the classes that are required for graduation. ^ 2. Just like the Gold Seal Vocational Scholars Award, the high school GPA is calculated by "core classes" ^ 3. Criteria for GPA is the same as the criteria for the Florida Medallion Scholars Award.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Bright Futures website
• Bright Futures causes budget woes
• History of the scholarship
• Medallion Scholarship

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