Suggest An Edit

No but our academic merit aid is offered to all students regardless of citizenship status.

We don’t admissions decisions based off of economic/financial situations. Our admissions is more based off of academic history.

They are evaluated within the context of a domestic applicant from their place of residence, but they will be assigned to an admissions counselor who works with undocumented and international students. This is to help connect them with a counselor who has a stronger background on immigration concerns, but they are admitted as a “domestic” student for the purposes of application review.

Yes - please contact us so that we can help direct you to resources and ensure that we’re giving you accurate information. It will not be used in your application or decision process in any way and will only be shared to ensure that you are receiving relevant support. If you are uncomfortable disclosing your status in your application, you’re welcome to call us.

All students are eligible for FSC’s standard merit scholarships regardless of documentation status. There are a few specific scholarships that have a citizenship requirement, but most of FSC’s merit aid will not factor status into the scholarship award.

You would use the international admissions counselors.

All merit scholarships are stackable at FSC, but most students will not receive aid that completely covers the cost of attendance and would need to seek out private loans or outside scholarships to cover full cost if their families can’t pay out of pocket. The average financial aid award at FSC covers approximately half of the cost of attendance (tuition, room, meals and medical insurance). FSC does not work directly with any loans besides the Federal Direct and Parent PLUS loans, which undocumented students are generally not eligible to take.

FAFSA. Refer here for additional information on undocumented students and federal aid: https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/financial-aid-and-undocumented-students.pdf

Merit scholarships are determined based on academic record and most students are awarded a scholarship at time of admission. The Prestige and Premier Scholarships typically have rough GPA and SAT/ACT scores as a guideline, but were test-optional last year. The Prestige and Premier Scholarships typically receive about 500 applications, interview around 120 students, and award 8 to 10 Hollingsworth Scholarships (full-ride/full-cost) or McClurg Scholarships (full tuition). Other applicants and interviewees may receive Christoverson Scholarships of varying amounts. An example of a student with stacked scholarships: High academic achieving, graphic design, swimmer: This student received a merit based, christoverson (prestige), talent scholarship (graphic design) and swim scholarship for athletics.

Yes, on a case-by-case basis. They are not eligible for federal student aid by federal policy, but they can still submit the FAFSA for us to potentially award institutional need-based aid. FSC does not currently offer full need.

I have never witnessed this happened in my time as an admissions counselor. I took this from ACLU: “ICE and CBP maintain a policy which provides that they will not engage in immigration enforcement in sensitive locations like schools absent prior approval by a supervisor or exigent circumstances. This policy has recently been reaffirmed by the Department of Homeland Security. This means that ICE and CBP generally will not arrest, interview, search, or surveil a person for immigration enforcement purposes while at a school, a known school bus stop, or an educational activity.”

The state of Florida has a large sum of undocumented students compared to other states and so we do get a fair amount. However, we are a private institution so we don’t get as many as a public school where some of those students may be offered in state tuition.

That is not their primary focus. Their focus is campus safety. I will say that the FSC police on our campus are part of the Lakeland Police and because of this, they would have to enforce their laws if the situation arises, but again, this is not their focus while on campus.

Multicultural Student Council isn’t directly advocating for undocumented students solely but this is a club that has done so in the past. https://www.flsouthern.edu/campus-offices/multicultural-center/multicultural-student-council.aspx

Fundamentally, FSC is an in-person institution and does not offer much in the way of fully remote coursework for undergraduate programs. This would be handled on a case-by-case basis and would likely depend on the individual student’s particular situation.

We do not have to share this information. We only share the F-1 student visa information to them.

No - while FSC may be able to help direct students to outside legal counsel on a case-by-case basis, FSC does not retain an immigration lawyer on staff.

true