HOPE Changes Affect USG Students

As signed into law by Gov. Nathan Deal, here is a summary of the key changes to the HOPE Scholarship program affecting University System of Georgia students. This summary does not include changes affecting students attending either a public technical college or a private college or university.

• Eligibility remains at 3.0 graduating from high school
• Students must maintain a 3.0 in college to keep HOPE
• HOPE tuition coverage capped in FY12 at 90 percent of tuition at USG institutions in FY11
• HOPE amount can fluctuate from year to year, based on Lottery revenues

• Eligibility is a 3.7 GPA graduating from high school
• Students must, in addition to the 3.7 GPA, have a combined 1200 on the critical reading and math sections of the SAT or at least a 26 ACT score
• Students must maintain a 3.3 in college to keep Zell scholarship
• Zell Miller Scholarship also awarded to the valedictorian and salutatorian from each high school without consideration of the GPA or ACT/SAT requirements
• Zell Miller Scholarship covers the full tuition rate

• Book and fee allowances eliminated
• Remedial classes no longer covered
• Institutes a firm cap of 127 semester hours for all students
• Students who lose the HOPE scholarship at an established checkpoint will have a single chance to regain HOPE
• Beginning with the high school graduating class of 2015, students will be required to demonstrate that they have taken a certain number of rigorous high school courses in math, science, and foreign language
• USG dual-enrollment (ACCEL) courses count toward the rigor requirements being phased in for 2015

Current HOPE students are not “grandfathered in” – they will see the reduction in the HOPE reimbursement beginning this fall, 2011