How the HOPE Scholarship Works

Because the main purpose of the HOPE program is to encourage young people to achieve, a student has to maintain a grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or higher through high school to qualify. The average should be based on all courses attempted, even if dropped. However, grades for Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate are weighted differently than those for standard courses [source: HOPE GPA].

The rules also allow for students who complete a HOPE-eligible home study program to win a scholarship with a 3.0 GPA. To be HOPE-eligible, the program must be accredited by the Georgia Accrediting Commission or a similar agency. If the student's high school or home study program doesn't meet these requirements, he or she still can win a HOPE Scholarship by scoring in the 85th percentile or higher on the SAT or ACT tests or by maintaining a 3.0 GPA in college [source: Home Study].

Even after making the grades, to receive a HOPE Scholarship, a student also must attend an in-state college or university. In Georgia, this means a public school like Georgia State University or a private institution like Emory University in Atlanta.

There are a number of additional requirements [source GAcollege411]:

The HOPE Scholarship program is relatively easy to apply for. In part, the process depends on the college the student is attending, so applicants should check with their college's financial aid office for specific details. One option is to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Alternatively, you can obtain a printed or electronic application online. Students can begin the process at GAcollege411.You don't necessarily have to apply before you start college, but you must complete the application before the last day of classes of the term for which you want to receive funds. If you're transferring in from an out-of-state school and were not named a HOPE scholar when you graduated from high school, you'll have to wait until you've attempted 30 credit hours of course work before you can be considered for the program [source: UGA].

Getting a HOPE Scholarship is only the beginning. There are also certain requirements you'll have to fulfill in order to keep it. In the next section, you'll learn what you need to do to maintain a HOPE Scholarship through college.

Once awarded a HOPE Scholarship, you'll continue to receive the aid each year -- there's no need to reapply. But in order to maintain a HOPE Scholarship, you'll have to keep up a 3.0 grade point average in college. It's also important to make "satisfactory academic progress," which translates to continuous enrollment aimed at earning a degree. As far as HOPE is concerned, a break of two or more semesters or quarters means you're not making satisfactory progress.

HOPE Scholarship eligibility lasts until you receive a bachelor's degree -- HOPE Scholarships do not apply to graduate study. Eligibility also ends after students take 127 credit hours -- and all credit hours attempted count, even if student drops the course part way through. However, exceptions are made for students pursuing some five-year degree programs, such as those for landscape architecture and pharmacy. In those cases, the HOPE Scholarship can continue until graduation or until 150 credit hours have been attempted.

Hanging on to your HOPE money also means passing a series of checkpoints with a satisfactory average. If you fail to maintain that 3.0 GPA until the end of the semester in which you attempt your 30th credit hour, you become ineligible. The same checks occur at the end of the semesters in which you attempt your 60th and 90th credit hours. Additionally, all HOPE Scholarship recipients must have a cumulative 3.0 GPA at the end of each spring term [source: GAcollege411].

Students who lose their HOPE Scholarships for not maintaining a 3.0 average can reapply if their GPA has returned to that level after the 30th, 60th or 90th credit hour attempted. However, if your cumulative average is still under 3.0 after you've attempted your 90th hour, you'll be permanently ineligible for the HOPE program.

One of the early criticisms of the HOPE program was that students who were eligible for need-based Pell Grants had their HOPE Scholarships cut by the amount of the Pell Grant. But since 2000, students have been able to use the HOPE money to pay for tuition, fees and books, and apply the need-based Pell money to other educational expenses like room and board [sources: Rubenstein, Scafidi].

Until 2009, the HOPE program received adequate funding from the state lottery to fund scholarships for all eligible students. But a fall-off in lottery proceeds has caused the state to consider cutbacks. While no students have lost their scholarships, future reduction in payments for fees and textbooks are possible [source: Foskett].

HOPE Scholarships are not the only financial aid Georgia offers to students. Read on to the next section to find out about additional opportunities.

Georgia education authorities knew that the basic HOPE Scholarships would not cover the needs of all students, so the state added a number of alternative forms of aid to the mix as well. A couple of them apply to students pursuing a technical education, and another offers aid to those who have earned a General Education Development (GED) diploma to continue their education. Some awards, in the form of loans, also target those who want to become teachers -- this is only facet of the HOPE program aimed toward graduate students. Here's a rundown of the options:

With all of these different award options, what impact has the HOPE Scholarship program has on students and the state of Georgia? Read on to find out.

In general, the HOPE program seems to have fulfilled all of the goals set for it in 1993. But it has also raised some controversy, and a debate that still goes on.

Proponents of the program point to a 2006 study by the Journal of Labor Economics, which noted that SAT scores across Georgia had gone up by 40 points since the HOPE Scholarship program began. Also, there was a 70 percent increase in the enrollment in black students at Georgia colleges and universities between HOPE's inception and 2006 [source: New Georgia Encyclopedia].

Additionally, some believe the HOPE program has helped to attract more students to Georgia colleges and retain them once they're there. This particularly may have been true during the down economy the U.S. has experienced in recent years. Applications to transfer to Georgia Tech rose 28 percent in 2009 from the year before [source: White]. Georgia colleges and universities have seen some other benefits, as well. For example, the national rankings of the University of Georgia have risen significantly since the HOPE program began [source: New Georgia Encyclopedia].

However, not everyone is in love with the HOPE Scholarship program. Critics point out that merit-based scholarships take public money and sometimes hand it to students whose families could easily pay for college. That means less money available for those who rely on assistance to be able to afford an education. And since middle- and upper-income students are more likely to go to college in the first place, they tend to receive more merit scholarships than lower-income students [source: Campbell].

An article in the National Tax Journal asserted that the HOPE program actually taxes the poor to pay for the rich [sources: Rubenstein, Scafidi]. The logic behind this argument is that poor and minority populations play the lottery more than other groups, and therefore contribute more to the HOPE funds -- but their children receive fewer HOPE Scholarships because they are less likely to attend college.

Other critics have suspected that some high schools, in order to win more HOPE Scholarships for their students, practice grade inflation, awarding higher marks to students who didn't deserve them. Again, the evidence is inconclusive, but the state has taken steps to make grading more standardized. Since 2007, it has been the Georgia Finance Committee -- not the local high schools -- that looks at students transcripts and determines their grade eligibility for HOPE Scholarship awards [source: HOPE GPA].

In the next section, we look at scholarships that other states modeled after the HOPE program.

In 1997, President Clinton signed into law a federal Hope Credit that took its name from Georgia's scholarship program, but was a different form of financial aid. The federal program was a tax credit intended to help all students, and it didn't require a minimum GPA. In 2009, this program was modified so it could be made available to a wider range of people and was renamed the American Opportunity Tax Credit. It gives students' families a tax credit of up to $2,500, as long as their modified adjusted gross incomes aren't above $80,000 ($160,000 for married couples) [source: IRS].

After seeing the success of the Georgia HOPE Scholarship, other states began to offer similar awards. Some, like Georgia's, are financed by state-run lotteries. Most are merit-based and require a minimum GPA. Here are just a few examples:

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. A number of other U.S. states -- including Kentucky, Louisiana and South Carolina -- offer similar scholarships to local high school graduates who attend in-state colleges. However, not all states that adopted HOPE-type scholarships have continued their programs. Maryland, for example, cancelled its HOPE Scholarship in 2004 and tough economic times prompted Michigan to drop its PROMISE Scholarship program in October 2009.

As the cost of tuition -- even at public schools -- has risen significantly in recent decades, students are scouring every possible source of aid to pay for their educations. HOPE Scholarships are an important resource in states where they are available, and one you will not want to overlook if you're looking forward to college.

Keep reading for more information about the HOPE Scholarship and other sources of financial aid.