Florida Parents of College-bound students -
Did you know that the GPA showing on your student's transcript/report card is NOT the same GPA used to qualify a student for our Bright Futures scholarship program? It's not even the core, recalculated GPA used for admissions that I told you about last month! Yep, it's a whole different calculation. Your student needs to know their THREE DIFFERENT GPAS for the same coursework/transcript, to best inform their college options, financing, and selection process.
As if that wasn't confusing enough, most of our local Guidance counselors don't plan to meet with students to discuss Bright Futures until the Fall of SENIOR year - AFTER students have registered for classes, AFTER most college applications are submitted, and oftentimes when it's too late to make course selection adjustments that might better position the student for qualification. (I'm not judging our Guidance folks here - they have a LOT on their plate, and they are NOT college counselors. They are HIGH SCHOOL counselors there to facilitate a successful progression through the state 9-12 curriculum and have extraordinary workloads managing as many as 500+ students each, many of whom are not college bound.)
Fun fact: you can absolutely make an appointment with Guidance to ask for a preliminary evaluation of Bright Futures at any time, or reach out to me, and I can run one for your student and make suggestions if needed. I STRONGLY recommend rising Juniors take a look at their Bright Futures GPA to see where they are in achieving the scholarship, while better understanding the testing and volunteer/work requirements for each level. If possible, Junior year is the time to "make it happen" so you do not become overwhelmed with "all of the things" during Senior year.
MANY students are just one or two classes away from either qualifying OR making slight adjustments to coursework to qualify for a higher-value scholarship. It just takes a little "strategic planning" to make it work.
As always, holler if I can help!
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