The Bright Futures Scholarship is a scholarship sponsored by the FL Department of Education for students who graduate from a high school in the state of FL and who plan to attend College in the state of FL.  In general, Bright Futures offers 3 different scholarship levels which all require students to achieve a certain GPA, SAT/ACT/CLT scores, and document either volunteer hours or work hours to qualify.  Learn more about the eligibility requirements for Bright Futures. 

The volunteer/work hour requirement must be in performed during high school.  Students can begin documenting these hours the summer prior to 9th grade and continue to accumulate the required 75 or 100 hours throughout high school up until graduation.  Learn the details of these hours and the paperwork required.

Most scholarships are Merit Based!  This means most scholarship awards go to students who achieve excellent grades and test scores.  So if you want to maximize your chances to earn scholarship money, pursue challenging courses like Honors and Advanced Placement (AP) and earn the best grades you can.  

Sophomore year (or for some sites when you turn 16 years old), you can start to sign up for Scholarship Search Sites such as the Fastweb.com website or the Goingmerry.com website.  These sites allow students to create a profile, and an algorithm automatically notifies the student of scholarships that match their criteria.  CollegeBoard's BigFuture is another site that allows students to earn a chance to win scholarship money by completing certain tasks like building a college list, career list, scholarship list etc.  Basically tasks that are good for students to do to prepare for applying to college anyway!  Plus BigFuture provides great tools to help students complete these tasks, so we recommend exploring this tool early in your high school career.  View other search sites and resources.

In addition to the aforementioned scholarship search sites, most Scholarship and Financial Aid applications open senior year.  There are 3 different buckets of potential money for students that will be reviewed in this section.

1.  College Provided Scholarships:  (August - November)

• Merit Based:  Most colleges offer merit based scholarships, whereby students are automatically considered for these scholarships simply by submitting their college admissions application.  Submit your college application by the school's early application deadline, as once the money is gone it's gone!!  
• Need Based:  Many colleges also offer need based scholarships.  It's important to check with the financial aid office at the college you wish to attend to see what need based scholarships are available and what the criteria are.  For example, Seminole State College offers scholarships to "first generation college students". 

*Many private schools will calculate a student's Expected Family Contribution or what is now called the Student Aid Index to determine how much financial aid they will provide vs. what the family should be able to afford.  Private colleges will typically provide some sort of financial aid or scholarship to students, but keep in mind that the average cost of a private school can be more to start with.  So it's important to see the entire compensation package the school is offering before making a decision if the college is right for you.        

2.  Local Community Based Scholarships:  (November - March) 

• SCPS Scholarship Site:  SCPS provides a great service to students and families by gathering all local and community based scholarships and housing them in one place.  Students can click on "All Students" and see a list of scholarships filtered by Due Date.  We recommend getting familiar with this site when senior year starts so you are ready when scholarships start getting entered late Fall and Early Spring.
• Lyman HS Scholarships:  We have created a Lyman Scholarship site just for Lyman students.  Mrs. Lee, our scholarship coordinator, manages this site and keeps up to date information for Lyman specific scholarships including PTSA, Foundation, and Booster scholarships.  This site includes a calendar to help students plan due dates.

3.  Federal Financial Aid: (December - July)

• FAFSA Website:  The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) underwent a facelift last year.  They are making a few more tweaks to the application after some technical issues last year, so the current plan is to open the FAFSA for 2025 graduates on December 1, 2024. Learn what you can do now to prepare for when the FAFSA form opens.
• In the Spring (Date TBD), Lyman will be hosting a FAFSA lab, where we bring in experts to work with students and parents on completing the FAFSA.
• Students can request individual assistance with the FAFSA from TRIO Connections for Central Florida. You can contact them at TRIO@seminolestate.edu to schedule an appointment.

4.  Bright Futures Scholarship: (October - July)

• The Bright Futures Scholarship Application referred to as the Florida Financial Aid Application (FFAA) opens for current seniors on October 1st.  Students will need to "Create a Student Account" in order to complete the application.