Georgia HB 324 has been signed into law.  This removes the requirement that the FAFSA be completed by all Georgia resident students applying for HOPE/Zell Miller Scholarship funds.  Instead, we understand that GSFC will reinstitute the GSFAPPS application.  We have provided this Hope Zell Miller Scholarship Update to try and provide the most recent information.

The information below is based on information provided by the Georgia Student Finance Commission (GSFC) May, 2011. Additional details are available at GAcollege411 and the hope scholarship knowledge base.

HOPE and Zell Miller are merit based scholarship programs available to students who have met the University System of Georgia and the GSFC residency requirements and are enrolled in an undergraduate degree seeking program. Students may receive HOPE or Zell Miller, but NOT both at the same time. This page outlines the differences.  Since the law for this program can change each year, please check back often for further Hope Zell Miller Scholarship Update information.

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Here is the text of the article…

“Georgia’s HOPE scholarship is one of the largest merit-based college scholarship programs in the United States, but it could be so much more. By rewarding both good grades and volunteer service, the HOPE scholarship could teach the rest of the nation how to produce educated, engaged citizens who know how to give back.

By requiring service, the HOPE scholarship would build on the legacy of the G.I. Bill, arguably one of the most successful and popular government programs in U.S. history. By the end of 1956, roughly 2.2 million World War II veterans used G.I. benefits to attend college. Giving veterans an education in return for their service helped create the “greatest generation,” building our country’s unparalleled economic strength and enriching our communities.

We recently increased the academic requirements for the HOPE scholarship in response to our state’s fiscal constraints. Today, high school students in Georgia earning a 3.0 grade point average or better qualify for scholarships to colleges in the state. That’s a great reward for academic performance. But if we’re eager to turn out good citizens, we have to do more.

Since 1993, Georgia has awarded HOPE scholarships worth almost $7 billion to more than 1.6 million students. Think of the impact on our communities and our students if each of them contributed by serving others. Tying service to scholarships would teach students that citizenship is a two-way street – benefits, yes, but responsibilities, too.

The value of student service time would add up in many ways, not the least of them economic. Last year, 203,000 students received HOPE scholarships. If we required each of these young people to spend just 100 hours volunteering while they were in high school, they would provide time worth nearly $150 million. Add a requirement to volunteer 50 hours each year during college, and we’d see an additional economic impact of $74 million.

Today, local governments and nonprofits face the challenge of providing more services with fewer resources. Student volunteers would bring energy and enthusiasm. And who knows, maybe some of these young people will come up with innovative solutions to community problems.

Research shows that service requirements benefit students in a host of welcome ways.

• Students who participate in community service are 22 percent more likely to graduate from college.

• Students who volunteer just one hour a week are 50 percent less likely to abuse drugs, alcohol or cigarettes.

• Youth who serve develop social and civic responsibility and are more likely to become lifelong volunteers, and to vote and participate as active citizens.

In addition, service learning motivates students to achieve and helps them develop leadership skills and self-confidence. Students who serve find mentors or career interests, encounter new worlds, beef up their resumes, and improve their chances of being accepted into the most competitive colleges and getting jobs.

Over the past few years, our legislators have been forced to change the HOPE scholarship’s eligibility requirements to maintain its economic viability. If we need to increase the requirements for eligibility again, let’s add a service requirement rather than continuing to increase the GPA. We need students who are committed to academic excellence and giving back to our state.

A service requirement for the HOPE scholarship would cultivate the next generation of civic leaders by keeping not only the brightest but also the best kids in Georgia.”

The post Should Service be a Requirement for the Georgia Hope Scholarship? appeared first on Hope Scholarship.

In general, the answer is yes. However, there are a few requirements that must be met before the student is eligible to receive a hope scholarship or tuition equalization grant.

First, and most important, being a child of a military parent stationed in Georgia does not remove the requirement that the student must graduate from a Georgia high school to be eligible for an award during the Freshman year at a qualified Georgia public or private institution.  If the student did not graduate from a Georgia high school, the student will need to establish and fulfill the residency requirements after the Freshman year in order to then be considered for a hope scholarship or equalization grant.

Second, the student must fulfill the academic requirements with a minimum 3.0 GPA on qualified classes and, for Zell Miller Scholarship, the ACT and/or SAT scores are also important as well as class rank.

Finally, all other requirements for the hope scholarship must also be met to obtain the scholarship as an entering Freshman at a qualified institution.

Once a student is enrolled in college, the checkpoint hours are used to determine eligibility during the Sophomore, Junior, and Senior years in college. After the freshman year, the student will need to continue to show Georgia residency status either with a parent in full time military service stationed in Georgia or by meeting the normal residency requirement of establishing Georgia residency for 24 consecutive months immediately preceding the first day of classes for the quarter or semester for which the hope scholarship is awarded.

As you can see, children of military parents stationed in Georgia are indeed eligible for the Hope Scholarship as long as you keep your GPA (Grade Point Average) above 3.0, graduate from an eligible GA. highs school, maintain or establish Georgia residency, attend a qualified institution, and meet the other requirements.

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This is an easy recommendation to make but a hard recommendation to follow for most 14 year old high school Freshman. It takes a creating a strategy by the parents and the student, a desire to follow the strategy, along with the willingness and ability to prioritize homework, test study, projects, and reading over sports, video games, and watching TV. In other words, it takes hard work. However, the work is well rewarded. In the state of Georgia, there are two version of the Hope Scholarship — the Hope Scholarship and the Zell Miller Scholarship. The regular Hope awards a portion of tuition while the Zell Miller awards 100% of tuition to the student.

As an example, the Hope Scholarship maximum for the University of Georgia is $3181.50 per semester. Over the course of 8 semesters, or 4 full years of college, this adds up to a healthy $25,452. The Zell Miller paid $3461 in 2011. Assuming flat tuition, which will never happen, this equates to $27,688 over 8 semesters. It will actually be higher since the Zell Miller rises with tuition rates. Lets look at one way to value the Hope. Take $25,452 over 4 years in high school. This is $6363/year non-taxed. This would be equivalent to about $8000/year of taxed income. If we assume 5 academic classes a semester or 10 academic classes a year, this equates to about $800/academic class over each year in high school. The average class will have a combination of, perhaps, 6 tests and 10 homework or other graded assignments for a total of 16 gradable events giving an average of $800/16 or $50 per event. So, every homework assignment, every test, every project that your Freshman grumbles about, or you grumble about when helping, is worth about $50 to you. However, the Hope Scholarship Requirements are hard and fast. If you slack off on a test here or a project there, you run the risk of not just burning up a $50 opportunity on that assignment but a catastrophic loss of the whole $25,452 if you drop below the minimum GPA.

As a word of warning and just something to think about, the Hope Scholarship Requirements will probably become more difficult as time passes. This is due to the reduced funding from the Georgia lottery along with increasing tuition rates and more students utilizing in state colleges. In other words, the money is not keeping up with demand so either the funding needs to increase (probably not going to happen), or the demand needs to decrease. The only way to decrease demand is to tighten down on the requirements which means increasing the minimum GPA. So, work as hard as you can your Freshman year and keep it up throughout your tenure in high school. You may be rewarded well for your efforts.

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What is clear, however, is that the basic Hope Scholarship Requirements call for an award that covers 84.7% of the 2011-2012 tuition which, for the University of Georgia or Georgia Tech, was $6168 of $7282 tuition.  This left $1114 for the student to cover.  Georgia Tech has just published the estimated 2012-2013 tuition rate which is $7938. The basic award amount will remain $6168 since the award was pegged to the tuition rates in the 2010-2011 school year; therefore, the student or student’s family will cover all of the increase which will mean an amount of $1770 in tuition not cover by Hope.

It is interesting to look at the percentage increase in tuition which is 9%. The increase in tuition not covered by Hope is 59% since all of the tuition increase is now carried by the student.

The tuition, of course, is not the complete picture. Hope does not cover mandatory fees. The mandotory fees for 2011-2012 is $2370 while the mandotory fees for 2012-2013 are increasing to $2442. So, the total tuition plus fees not covered by the basic hope scholarship for 2012-2013 is $1770+$2442 or $4212 for the year.  It is my concern that the universities will start using mandatory fees to gain additional revenue instead of passing all higher costs to tuition.  Tuition increases that are multiples of the rate of inflation or the CPI (Consumer Price Index) are a major cause of the funding shortfall for Hope.

The example that I presented here is for a university system of Georgia Research institution.  For tuition rates at other schools in the system of Georgia, see the student and financial aid link.

The Zell Miller Scholarship still covers 100% of tuition but does not cover fees so, using the example above, the student will need to cover the mandatory fees of $2442.

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They are coming…. the new requirements that is.  Tennessee and Georgia are both once again “tweaking” their respective programs due to shortfalls in lottery based funding and increases in tuition along with increases in student in-state enrollment.

The good news is that the legislative sessions for 2012 are about to come to a close.  This will shed light on what the final new requirements will be for school year 2012-2013.  What is apparent is that at a minimum, the aid amounts will cover a smaller percentage for the next school year than for the current.  There are some worse case scenario proposals being tossed around that would totally eliminate scholarship eligibility for some students.  One proposal would put a financial cap on the eligibility effectively eliminating any students above the cap.  Another proposal would once again make the filter finer for academic requirements.  The requirements would be tightened by increasing the minimum GPA (Grade Point Average) to receive a scholarship.  It seems like hope scholarship changes each year have become the norm.

Do Hope Scholarship Changes need Changing?

From most news accounts that I’ve been watching, the Tennessee legislature has better addressed the issues of funding (revenue) vs tuition costs (expenses) whereas the Georgia legislature has, for the most part, waited and waited hoping for a funding turnaround to solve the problem.  Since this has not happened, Georgia has started extreme tightening which has led to difficulty for students and parents that must budget for colleges costs.  It is interesting to me that in a country where the rule of law and contracts is constitutionally mandated that the citizens of these states allow the legislatures to run willy-nilly each year changing what was promised the previous year.  There should be some consideration to holding the new hope scholarship requirements stable for each entering freshman class for their four year college career, or, at least, hold the requirements steady for 2 year periods for everyone.

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1. Students must meet one of the following academic requirements:
   • Graduate from a HOPE eligible high school or home study program with a 3.0 grade point average.
   • Graduate from an ineligible high school, complete an ineligible home study program, or earn a GED, and score in the national composite 85th percentile or higher on the SAT or ACT tests.
   • New Hope participation for students already in college. Earn a 3.0 GPA at the college level on degree coursework after attempting 30, 60, or 90 semesters hours or 45, 90, or 135 quarter hours, regardless of high school graduation status.  This applies for students currently on the program or students that were not initially eligible for HOPE.  
2. Be enrolled as a degree-seeking student at an eligible institution.
3. Meet HOPE’s Georgia, U.S. Citizen, or eligible non-citizen requirements: Georgia residency requirements.
4. Be in compliance with Selective Service registration requirements (male students 18-25 years of age must be registered withing 30 days of 18th birthday.  You can register at any US Post Office).
5. Be in compliance with the Georgia Drug-Free Postsecondary Education Act of 1990. A student may be ineligible for HOPE payment if he or she has been convicted for committing certain felony offenses involving marijuana, controlled substances, or dangerous drugs.
6. Not be in default or owe a refund on a student financial aid program.
7. Maintain satisfactory academic progress as defined by the college.

Award Amounts Public Institutions

Students attending public colleges or universities receive a HOPE Award Amount based upon a per hour rate at the institution he or she is attending.  View award amounts here.

Award Amounts Private Institutions

For Fall 2011, Winter 2012, and Spring 2012, students attending private colleges or universities receive the following:

• Full-time students: $1,800 per semester, $1,200 per quarter
• Half-time students: $900 per semester, $600 per quarter

Award Limits based on Total College Hours completed and Time from High School Graduation

A college degree-seeking student is ineligible for the HOPE Scholarship if the student has:

• Received payment from any combination of HOPE Scholarship, Zell Miller Scholarship, HOPE Grant, and Accel Program funds (through Spring term) totaling 127 semester (190 quarter) hours of credit; or
• Attempted 127 semester (190 quarter) hours of college degree credit, regardless of whether or not HOPE funds were received while attempting the hours; or
• Earned a baccalaureate (four-year) college degree, regardless of whether or not HOPE funds were received while earning the degree, or
• Reached the Seven Year Expiration of Eligibility date. The expiration of eligibility date will be June 30th of the seventh academic year following the student’s date of high school graduation, home study completion, or successful GED test.   Note: those on active duty military in this time period may request an extension.

Application Procedure

Applying for the HOPE Scholarship is easy, but you should always check with the college you are going to attend to make sure you are completing the applications they require.

Students have three options for applying for the HOPE Scholarship.

• Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) By using your GAcollege411 account and accessing the FAFSA application from GAcollege411, you can reduce the amount of time it takes to complete this form.
• If you are not applying for FAFSA, you can apply for HOPE through electronic application at GAcollege411.
• If you would rather use a printable paper application, find it here.

Application Deadline

While you have until the last day of classes or exams to submit your application in order to receive HOPE funds for that semester or quarter, you should submit your HOPE application as early as possible. The earlier you apply, the earlier the funds are disbursed to your school and credited to your account.  This is particularly important to avoid late fees and penalties from your college/university.

Where to Go for Help

If you need help filling out an application or have other questions relating to the HOPE Scholarship,  contact the financial aid office at the school you plan to attend, talk with your high school counselor, or contact the Georgia Student Finance Commission (GSFC).

You can contact the Georgia Student Finance Commission (GSFC) by:

E-mail:
gacollege411@gsfc.org

Telephone:
Call us toll-free at: 1-800-505-GSFC (4732)
In Metro Atlanta: (770) 724-9000
A representative is available Monday – Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

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