There is much information concerning the hope scholarship ga found on the internet. Much is written and provided on gacollege411; however georgia college 411 is not the easiest site to navigate. You will find yourself bouncing around quite a bit to find relevant information. This was a little frustrating for my older son when, as a high school senior, two years ago, he began searching for information concerning requirements, eligibility, and gpa calculation for the hope scholarship ga.
Hope Scholarship GA
So, I decided to start a website to, hopefully, provide a resource for students and parents to easily find information concerning application, award amounts, renewals and changes to this program. When we began researching more about this, we found that there was a similar merit based program in Tennessee and a freshman year aid based award in South Carolina.
Because the funding for the awards are based on lottery proceeds, the money available to pay for tuition awards is not guaranteed each year. In fact, the economy has slowed such that the money coming in to fund tuition awards has not kept up with the demand created by increased enrollment and has not kept up with the rate of tuition increase at colleges and universities. This has caused a funding dilemma for the legislature and much difficulty for each new crop of high school seniors trying to decipher the latest rules associated with the hope scholarship ga. Even more frustrating for current scholarship recipients in college is that the changes to the program apply not only to new students but also to college students already receiving funds from the scholarship.
Hope Scholarship GA changes student’s budget
Most students now should budget enough money to pay approximately 15-20% of tuition and all books and other fees the freshman year. Each subsequent year, the student should plan on budgeting 3-4% additional tuition because the award amounts were fixed to the tuition rates of the 2010-2011 school year. This fixed amount will not change; however, the tuition rates will increase, and, if history is any measure, tuition will increase at a higher rate than the inflation rate. The typical UGA student will pay approximately $1750-$1850 for tuition and fees not covered by the hope scholarship. Obviously, it is still a wonderful award and opportunity for graduating high school seniors and students currently on the program and in college.
Our advice is to keep up with the changes and news concerning the scholarship, and if you would like to influence the direction that the scholarship takes in the state legislature, please contact your state representative or senator.
