Many Florida college students will now have an extra incentive to stay enrolled in classes after the add and drop period ends, even if it means receiving a bad grade.
 
A new state law will force students with Bright Futures scholarships to repay their award money if they withdraw from a class after the add-drop period ends.

"It's like you're being forced to fail,'' said Sophomore Boris Bastidas at Florida Atlantic University. "If you withdraw after drop/add, you've got to pay the money back. If you stay in the class, you may get a bad grade that will hurt your GPA.''

The amount of the charge will depend on the value of the scholarship and the number of credit hours dropped. A typical charge for a three-credit class is predicted to be around $378.

Students without scholarships have always had to pay money for withdrawing from a class mid-semester.

The new law is the most recent, but not the first cut to the Bright Futures scholarship program, which is funded by the Florida Lottery. Bright Futures used to pay the total cost of public university tuition and fees for high school students graduating with an A average, but now the scholarship pays a fixed amount.

The state estimates that the measure will collect $32 million from students, and also improve the state's woeful graduation rates. At the University of Florida, only 56 percent of students graduate within four years; at Florida Atlantic University and Florida International University, fewer than half the students graduate within six years.

The state did not make statistics available on how many of the A-students receiving Bright Futures scholarships are part of the poor graduation rate.


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