Most kids could get less HOPE so a few can get more. Seems unfair to me.
The celebrating might be less once high school grads see their HOPE amounts. (AJC/file photo)
The luster of a HOPE Scholarship — once a full tuition ride to public colleges for Georgia high school graduates with a B average — may dim a bit more this year.
To recap how we came to this depressing situation: Faced with a money crunch, Gov. Nathan Deal last year reduced HOPE for all but top high school students, those who graduated with a 3.7 or higher GPA combined with a minimum score of 1200 on the math and reading portions of the SAT test or a 26 composite score on the ACT.
And he dubbed that new elite scholarship the Zell Miller Scholarship.
It turns out that more kids qualified for the Zell Miller Scholarship than had been expected, so the regular HOPE Scholars — which I call HOPE Lite – could see their financial awards shrink even further than predicted over the next several years.
In stark terms, to fully fund the Miller-level scholars, the state could end up plundering the HOPE Lite coffers.
I still have the same complaint about the two tiers of HOPE that the governor and Legislature created.
The qualifications for the full HOPE/Zell Miller Scholarship rest solely on high school performance. So, teens who graduated from the state’s highest performing high schools and even achieved a perfect score on the SAT cannot get full HOPE if their grade point average was not 3.7.
Students who took 11 AP classes and attended highly competitive high schools but ended up with a 3.6 GPA because of their grueling course loads are out of luck. And that will not change even if those students are physics majors at Tech and maintain a 4.0 GPA there.
Seems unfair to me. What do you think?
The Georgia Student Finance Commission, which oversees both scholarships, already has seen thousands more students qualify this year for the Zell Miller Scholarship than it had anticipated. Commission President Tim Connell said the agency may have to borrow against future revenue from the Georgia Lottery to cover the cost. That, in turn, will only further exacerbate HOPE’s financial woes.
Additionally, despite conservative cost estimates from commission officials, Deal has asked lawmakers to allot millions of dollars less than what will likely be needed. Deal’s request comes as uncertainty lingers about how many students will be eligible for the money, and how much they will receive. It has some lawmakers questioning whether either program can survive without drastic changes and college freshmen wondering if the scholarships they receive will still exist by their senior year.
All are trying to understand the ramifications of last year’s reforms, when a reduced HOPE scholarship was put into place to prevent the program from going broke. At the same time, Deal unveiled the Zell Miller Scholarship, named for the former governor who created HOPE nearly 20 years ago.
The new program promised full tuition to the state’s most accomplished students. In contrast, HOPE students receive about $500 less each semester than Zell Miller scholars, depending on the campus they attend.
The gap between the payouts to students will widen in the next few years, because of other reforms lawmakers also passed last year. Among them, the HOPE program starting in two years will no longer be able to dip into reserves to supplement Georgia Lottery revenue, which pays for both scholarships as well as pre-kindergarten programs statewide. Those reserves have kept HOPE afloat.
“HOPE is going to get worse before it gets any better,” said Sen. Buddy Carter, R-Pooler, chairman of the state Senate’s higher education committee.
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100 comments Add your comment
Most kids could get less HOPE so a few can get more. Seems unfair to me. – Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) | Life Insurance Press
January 22nd, 2012
9:26 pm
[...] Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) [...]
Better Future
January 22nd, 2012
9:45 pm
We live in a technology-driven society and must focus on STEM majors. Currently, retention of a Hope Scholarship heavily favors easier majors because the requirement that you maintain a high collegiate GPA. Some of our brightest students (high GPA, high SAT) enter Tech on Hope Scholarships in STEM majors, struggle with the exceedingly difficult and rigorous coursework, and see the Hope Scholarship slip away because of the GPA requirement. Others switch to less demanding majors to maintain their scholarship, and society suffers the loss of a potential engineer or scientist to an over-subscribed major like communications or art history. If we treat all college majors equally when considering scholarship retention, there will be less incentive to enroll in science, technology, engineering, and math majors, and that is where we have the greatest need!
Prof
January 22nd, 2012
9:56 pm
Don’t blame raised USG tuition on the schools thinking that HOPE will pay for it; blame it on state legislatures demanding budget cuts from the schools for the last 4 years. Whatever the student pays in tuition does NOT cover the full cost of the student’s education, whether in-state or out-of-state.
ScienceTeacher671
January 22nd, 2012
10:07 pm
Don’t forget that the Lottery Corp. needs to pay its mandated percentage.
I agree that HOPE for the first year should be a loan that is forgiven as long as the student maintains the college GPA. This alone would help.
The idea of having HOPE for a set amount in an attempt to prevent colleges from raising tuition because HOPE pays is probably a good one as well.
I will note that the Lottery Corp has almost never paid as much to education as it is supposed to, it quit funding technology in schools a long time ago, and its other stated purposes, Pre-K and HOPE scholarships, aren’t doing too well either; yet until this year the Lottery Corp was still giving out generous bonuses to its employees. And there’s talk that our General Assembly might let the Lottery Corp operate casinos, too??
Who in the General Assembly is profiting from this? You have to wonder.
MB
January 22nd, 2012
10:39 pm
@MannyT The comparison was for HOPE retention. Compare how many students from Dougherty retain HOPE at GT vs the number of Brookwood students who retain it at GT. That comparison would provide grade inflation data.
And why do you think students should receive HOPE money for remedial classes? To encourage high schools to NOT provide a rigorous college prep education to students? That students are qualifying for HOPE who need remediation is direct evidence of lack of rigor in that high school. Now if you mean that students should get a chance to regain HOPE early in their college career, that is reasonable and the new guidelines allow ONE reinstatement, which seems reasonable. For a student who’s been able to cruise through high school without studying, the rigor of college may be an eye opener. One re-up seems a good consideration of that, or for a student learning to balance school and a job.
MB
January 22nd, 2012
10:45 pm
@ BetterFuture – you are spot on. Seems that it would be reasonable to have HOPE cuts based on the average GPA for the school. If the top 25% at GT in the Engineering School have a 2.9 or above, that would be the HOPE retention GPA for GT Engineering students. If the top 25% at Dalton in Health and PE have a 3.6, that would be the cut for those students to retain HOPE. Discourage grade inflation (which Tech profs aren’t going to abide anyway…) and improve the quality of graduates
Most kids could <b>get</b> less HOPE so <b>a</b> few can <b>get</b> more. Seems unfair to me. « Make Your Money Online « Make Your Money Online
January 22nd, 2012
10:48 pm
[...] Most kids could get less HOPE so a few can get more. Seems unfair to me. That was supposed to be strictly for funding the hope stuff and now that the normal political bull has started they all have a hand in taking the money from the kids that it was for to start with. HOW COME WE CANT GET AN HONEST PERSON IN OFFICE TO MAKE … Read more on Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) [...]
Craig
January 22nd, 2012
10:48 pm
Good Mom, I think you could use a pill of some kind, or anger management perhaps. I didn’t know anyone was still hanging out in Zuccotti park. Your “refutation” of the idea that HOPE has contributed to rising tuition in Georgia schools is hardly definitive. Who cares if other states do not have HOPE? The point is that as long as universities are afforded significant revenue streams outside of the student’s ability to pay, the natural (market) restraint on tuition is retarded and spending is allowed to go on with little or no discipline.
Perhaps you should take your own advice (@ 7:52) and “listen to what [someone] else has to say and think about it for [more than] a nanosecond.”
Better Future
January 22nd, 2012
10:57 pm
@MB, I have read that college education majors receive inflated grades (lowest GPAs and SATs entering college, highest GPAs exiting college), but engineering students cannot receive inflated grades because courses build on a progression and if you don’t master the lowest level course, you will be unable to function in the latter coursework. I like your idea of rewarding a defined percentage of STEM students based on the actual GPAs of their peers. I personally know a valedictorian who chose computer science over engineering because he knew the coursework would be easier (not easy, just easier) because he was worried about scholarship retention. To compete in the global workplace, we have to encourage our brightest students to choose the most difficult majors. They will provide the economic engine and the innovation to provide a better life for the average American.
Gail
January 22nd, 2012
11:07 pm
MB- Great idea about the GPA required for retaining HOPE being based on top 25% of other students in same major at each college.
Truth in Moderation
January 23rd, 2012
12:58 am
THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE!
“BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) – Hundreds of angry Libyans on Saturday stormed the transitional government’s headquarters in the eastern city of Benghazi, carting off computers, chairs, and desks while the country’s interim leader was still holed up in the building.”
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20120121/D9SDIGOG0.html
And what, you ask, does this story have to do with Hope Scholarship?
It’s all about money. We were told that we invaded Libya so they could be free from a tyrant dictator and install a “democratic” government. I don’t think the Libyans got the news flash.
Meanwhile, just how much did Americans spend on this undeclared NATO war?
What! You don’t know?
Check this out and see if this is what a RIPOFF looks like……
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/libya-war-costs-for-us-896-million-so-far/2011/08/23/gIQA5KplYJ_blog.html
GwinnettMom
January 23rd, 2012
12:58 am
What if an amount was given instead of “full tuition”. Back in the day, I received a scholarship based on my SAT score that covered the costs of attending Dalton College (then a Junior College) for two years. I lived at home, attended college, and worked. When I graduated from the University of Georgia (no scholarship), neither I nor my parents had any associated debt. My parents used the unspent funds they had set aside for college an let me buy a car. My daughter is going to a small private out of state college after taking her core courses at Georgia Gwinnett. There’s “no HOPE” for her outside of GA so I’m sure now that she’s not spending her share there’ll be plenty of money for everyone else.
another comment
January 23rd, 2012
12:58 am
Many of the top Private Schools are making sure that virtually all of their graduates are now graduating with a 3.8 GPA or Better. After all these parents have paid $16K to $23K per year. These are the Families making $200K and plus a year. They have counted on the HOPE for all these years. Do you think that their grades would drop out of contention. They also make sure their students get all sorts of tutoring to meet the 1,200 score on it. They also have their students take their AP tests multiple times if they do not score at least a 3, after tutoring. They want to make sure their advertising material has the correct stats.
There can be big differences in School differences. There is between Cobb and Fulton. I found with my daughter she got a couple of really stinker teachers in the Fulton County School. So she went back to Cobb, where we found better teachers. We also found in Fulton that some parents were trying to compensate for these bad teachers by hiring tutors for 3 + days per week of tutoring per subject per week. This is ridiculous. When the average test score on the final exam in the AP US History Class and In Physics on the finals are failing, then you know it is a teaching problem. When the Cobb School doesn’t have this issue.
MannyT
January 23rd, 2012
1:05 am
@MB, Gail, Better Future
If you are willing to use percentage for college majors within a school, why not use a similar system at the high school level for HOPE eligibility?
Top X% (min 3.0 GPA) at each high school, get HOPE.
MannyT
January 23rd, 2012
1:48 am
@MB
I’m sure someone could collect retention data by school, but I would question what good would become of it. Lower retention means more money in the pool to use for future students. So those that wash out are less of a cost to the HOPE system. I wouldn’t tie retention to the K-12 systems because things can happen after the students have left the high school that may impact their college grades. You could have been a legitimately strong high school student, but your college grades might suffer due to a variety of reasons. As an example, I would guess that the Ivy League admits students that were almost all very much above average in high school. Yet, some of them will still struggle in college. That doesn’t mean they were not good high school students.
I mentioned in that prior post that “There would be some details to limit the total HOPE cost to the state and flag the K-12 system. Too many remedial HOPE scholars will cost the system in the future.”
If a student gets an A/B at the local high school, it seems that both the student and the school bear some responsibility for entering college below the norm. However, the student may have received a lower grade in that one subject in high school, yet still be admitted to college & HOPE qualified. The K-12 system would have to bear some negative consequence, defined by the state, if they keep HOPE qualifying many remedial students. The student has to deal with the remedial college class that replaces one regular class in your limited HOPE funds.
Yes, I would allow a student to take remedial courses under HOPE. The class should not count toward the HOPE GPA-no easy A for remediation. If the college decided to accept the student, I would think the school expects the student to handle the work. If the college is wrong, its dropout rate increases. As long as the student is LIMITED in the number of class hours that HOPE pays, it doesn’t matter to me that some classes were remedial. You don’t get extra class hours because you need remediation, but you can use some of your freshman class hours toward remedial classes if needed.
In these cash strapped times, I’d say one shot at HOPE. In better times, you can have a chance to reenter.
a reader
January 23rd, 2012
7:12 am
FIrst, let an AP A be a 4.5 in the Hope calculation. That will help the kids with the harder classes qualify for whatever level of Hope / Zell Miller. They’re the kids more likely to keep Hope / stay in college / stay in GA.
Second, keep the ACT/SAT requirement – it’s the only thing across school districts that’s possible to actually compare/ have as a benchmark.
Third, grandfather current students who can’t change history (college students especially can’t retake their ACTs/SATs) and who made decisions and possibly gave up out of state money to stay here. We find ourselves trying to decide between two full tuition offers from out of state flagships (based on grades / SATs) that are guaranteed for 4 years based only on my child’s academic performance (not the whims of the school or state) vs. the uncertainty of Hope.
Dr NO / Mr Sunshine
January 23rd, 2012
7:28 am
Well of course its unfair. Anytime liberal give-aways may fall under the ax then its unfair, mean-spirited, racial or all of the above.
END HOPE NOW!!
Entitlement Society
January 23rd, 2012
8:08 am
@ Craig – Great post to Good Mom! You’re spot on!
East Cobb Parent
January 23rd, 2012
9:02 am
I spoke to several parents who either have children at Westminster or a relative’s child is at Westminister. None were applying to GA or GA Tech. All applied exclusively to Ivey League Schools. Parents and students were evaluating different scholarships and incentive packages to determine which school to select. You may have more graduates of middle income parents staying in GA due to the Hope, but I wouldn’t start lumping all the upper income into that pile.
flipper
January 23rd, 2012
9:08 am
Well, our first of three won’t graduate until 2014. The others are 2017 and 2021. They will all be seriously considering out of state schools. There is a good chance we will just up and move out of state once the oldest graduates if Hope is reduced and especially if it is income capped. As small business owners, we will be taking dozens of jobs with us. We can operate in NC or several other states just as easily as in GA. What’s the point of staying in a state that is one of the worst in the nation educationally for a measly $2000 or less a semester that could be yanked away at anyone’s political whim?
I would much prefer that my kids get the heck out of Georgia and settle as adults in a state with a better reputation for education and a higher statewide IQ. Now there is little or no incentive to stay here.
I know I sound snarky, but the truth is the truth. Income cap Hope and watch job producers move out of Georgia. Also watch executives of what could be huge job producers choose other states over Georgia when deciding where to locate offices. But.. whatever… so long as the “vile rich” suffer (which they won’t suffer – they will just take their money elsewhere), I guess it’s what’s best for Georgia.
This weeks roundup January 23, 2012 » Junk Yards in GA
January 23rd, 2012
9:12 am
[...] Most kids could get less HOPE so a few can get more. Seems unfair to me. – Atlanta Journal Con… [...]
AJinCobb
January 23rd, 2012
10:05 am
@East Cobb Parent,
Although your anecdotal survey of Westminster families found that “None were applying to GA or GA Tech. All applied exclusively to Ivy League Schools,” according to the Westminster website, more of their graduates go on to UGA than any other single college, by far.
http://www.westminster.net/admissions/frequently-asked-questions/index.aspx (click on What colleges do Westminster graduates attend?”)
yes i am worried
January 23rd, 2012
10:08 am
Flipper
Do you understand that HOPE saves you only about 8000-10000 dollars a year. You are basing where you live on the availability of HOPE?
yes i am worried
January 23rd, 2012
10:13 am
Opps posted too soon.
In most states, in state tuition costs are higher (sometimes much) than GA to begin with. Most states don’t have HOPE or anything like it. A large handful of states do have programs for the very low income students, but otherwise families are pretty much on their own.
UNC Chapel Hill and UGA cost almost exactly the same for in state residents. You stay in GA and get any discount with HOPE and you are ahead. University of Alabama tuition is actually cheaper — perhaps you should move there.
What HOPE has done is allowed middle class and upper class families to forgo saving for college. These same people probably vote the “personal responsibility” platform on almost all issues.
Maureen Downey
January 23rd, 2012
10:31 am
@AJ, Thanks for noting that. A large number of top private school grads end up at Tech and UGA for the same reasons that large numbers of strong public school grads do — good schools at a reasonable cost.
Warrior Woman
January 23rd, 2012
10:53 am
Not only is it fair, it is right to reward the best and brightest, and thereby keep them in the state.
The change that needs to be made is to require full funding by the lottery corp.
To Atlanta Mom from Good Mom
January 23rd, 2012
11:19 am
$60,00o a year is barely middle class. As a matter of fact, middle class is defined as $54k to $110K.
$60,000 a year for a family of four is barely getting by. There is no more money for saving for college.
The middle class is the one getting the shaft. The poorest of the poor get grants for school. The middle class, without Hope, will have to rely on student loans and with college costs going out of control, one cannot borrow enough money to get through college without going for a degree that gets you a job that pays very very well.
Now take the professoin of teaching. If you want a good teacher you can’t get one because no one is going to borrow boat loads of money to get a degree that won’t guarantee them a very good salary so only the worst, those who can do nothing else, will go into important jobs such as teaching and social work.
The real criminal here is not the Hope scholarship. It is the outrageous cost of college at State universities. We need to ensure a State school is afforable to all American citizens. Private schools can do whatever they want within the law but the backbone of education is a public education and a public university.
We have to keep our eye on the ball.
Hey Craig from Good Mom
January 23rd, 2012
11:26 am
Hey Craig, how many lottery tickets do you buy?
Put your money where your mouth is. If you want Hope, buy a bunch of lottery tickets. If you don’t want Hope, don’t buy them. That’s how you can spread your influence.
What you are really saying, if you thought about it for more than a moment, is that college costs are too high. If college costs were affordable, you wouldn’t be complaining.
What we need to do is to ensure State colleges are affordable for all citizens, not just affordable for you and your children.
To Prof from Good Mom
January 23rd, 2012
11:30 am
Prof makes a good point “Whatever the student pays in tuition does NOT cover the full cost of the student’s education, whether in-state or out-of-state.”
Even when paying the “full” tuition price in or out of state, state colleges are subsidized by everyone. College belongs to all of us and we need equal access to education, which means, tuition has got to be lowered so that everyone can afford it who will do the work, with or without Hope.
Prof
January 23rd, 2012
1:15 pm
@ Good Mom. My point was that as long as our state legislators keep demanding budget cuts from the USG schools because they lower appropriations of funds, those schools are going to be forced to raise their tuition. …especially when each year there are higher student enrollments. Blame the state legislature for the rising tuition, not the schools.
reformed gambler
January 23rd, 2012
1:35 pm
I stopped buying Georgia lottery tickets last year when they changed HOPE. There was no hope for poor kids anymore and no hope for me: a poor person getting poorer buying Cash 3, Cash 4, Georgia 5, PowerBall, MegaMillions, Fantasy five, Decades of Dollars and countless scratch off tickets. I watched as people in line with sometimes barely enough food for their kids would spend their last dollar on a chance.
Never again. I’d rather assist the children that I know with tutoring so that they can get better grades and land full scholarships to colleges and universities outside of Georgia. They don’t need to get any loans to enrich banks and they do need to get a better education so that they can haver a better community and the number of crimes in our communities can go go down tremendously.
We need to make sure that our children are educated about personal finance in public schoosl at an early age so that they won’t grow up and buy lottery tickets.
reformed gambler
January 23rd, 2012
1:39 pm
Oops, I was typing too fast. “…so that they can have a better community.” “Go go?” “schools” sorry
flipper
January 23rd, 2012
2:03 pm
@yesiamworried, no, we moved here because we both went to (private) colleges here and ended up setting down rootsbefore we had kids and realized was a pathetic state this is as far as education. We have been teetering on moving several times, but stayed b/c our kids are in some of the very few good schools in the state and because Hope made sense for us. Now it no longer makes sense, especially now that we are fully aware of how bad the education system is. It will only get worse as Hope is cut b/c more and more quality students with means will flee. Soon all that will be left will be the rich and stupid or the poor and smart. Believe it or not having a few around who are both rich and smart is not a bad thing… but Georgia can chase them off if it thinks that would be best. Each year, there is less and less reason to stay around, and it is quickly tipping in the direction of getting out while the getting is good.
We are not the only ones thinking this way… just ask around.
Better Future
January 23rd, 2012
2:06 pm
@yes, I am worried- Since the middle class and wealthy pay the bulk of property and income taxes that allow the public school system to exist, I see no harm in rewarding theiir children for their efforts in achieving high marks in high school. Poor children have an opportunity to work hard and apply themselves and attain a Hope scholarship. The standards don’t exclude the poor. It is exhausting working 50 plus hours a week to support my family and all the families who receive welfare, food stamps, an education, etc. from the taxes my spouse and I pay. I was raised in a low-income family, as was my husband, but we have achieved a lot through hard work. We put in 100-plus hour workweeks between the two of us. How are we rewarded? Well, the government takes a huge chunk of our income and redistributes it to people who sit at home collecting welfare while watching Jerry Springer and drinking soda and eating chips which they got with food stamps. If we were taxed less, it would be a lot easier to save for our children’s college. if our children win a Hope Scholarship on merit, great!
FYI
January 23rd, 2012
3:35 pm
@ Better Future. You can’t get chips with food stamps.
Better Future
January 23rd, 2012
4:17 pm
@FYI, there is rampant EBT abuse. Google it. Here’s just one example: http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/12/13/ebt-card-scam-shut-down-in-lynn/ . @ Yes, I am worried, BTW, even though I expect my children to qualify for Hope, I am being “personally responsible” and not counting on it. I am saving for my kids’ education and my retirement. Look to Greece if you want to see what happens when people put their faith in the government picking other people’s pockets.
Ole Guy
January 23rd, 2012
4:48 pm
Where’s the unfair? It’s called COMPETITION…something which this younger gen had best start learning.
Mom
January 23rd, 2012
5:14 pm
My daughter will be a Zell Miller scholar. She has a 4++ gpa (never made a B), is a National Merit Scholar, 1500 SAT, AP Scholar, yadda, yadda. She has gotten many lovely offers from out of state schools, including at least three full tuition/fee scholarships. She wants to stay in state and go to Tech because she wants to live and work in GA when she graduates, Tech is a great school, and with the Zell Miller–even the full rides to the other schools are not better deals.
If it were not for that Zell Miller scholarship, we would insist that she make a different choice. It would be silly for us to pay for her undergraduate education, or her to take out loans to pay for it, when she has earned so many great scholarships. No doubt she will have many loans at some point for graduate or professional school.
At this point, however, I am concerned that the Zell Miller will not be here for her in four years and the gpa requirement (3.3) at Tech means she might lose it anyway. Those out of state guaranteed 4 year (and 5 year) full rides with lower gpa requirements are looking better to me everyday.
As an added note, I feel like UGA and Tech do not give out generous university scholarships because they do not have to–we have the HOPE. But if my daughter were a student in a different state, her grades and SATs would merit her a full scholarship to her flagship state university–and it would be a guaranteed 4 year scholarsihp. So for super high achieving students, there are actually some down sides to HOPE right now.
a reader
January 23rd, 2012
6:05 pm
You can’t have a “Hope” GPA above 4.0, since an AP “A” is 4.0 as is a regular A. They only let grades B and lower be adjusted for being AP grades. People are supposed to uninflate all those school district inflated grades. The Hope GPA of 3.7 may actually be tougher to get to than the ACT/SAT requirement.
Of course if the state is seeing extra Zell Miller scholars, I do wonder if folks are double inflating their grades (some schools will bump up the numeric grade before assigning a letter grade (and that’s very hard to unwind), so a 77 becomes an 82, which is a B, and then add 0.5 for AP), so it’s a 3.5 when it really should have been a 2.5).
catlady
January 23rd, 2012
6:09 pm
Prof: the legislature is starving the k-12 schools, too. Too bad we can’t up fees and tuition.
I put the majority of the rise in tuition on the starvation from the state. Secondly, the HOPE has encouraged the rise, even before the state starvation. Finally, students seem to have some pretty high expectations: private rooms, fancy workout facilities, great technology, state of the art sports teams, yada yada.
em
January 23rd, 2012
6:33 pm
If you go to the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement (http://gaosa.org/University.aspx?PageReq=108&SchoolId=ALL&FromSection=report&SY=2010), I think this will help explain why HOPE is running out of money. Only 32% of Georgia’s students retain HOPE after 90 hours and only 52% graduate after six years. Maureen, I think this is the problem with HOPE. Too many dollars have been spent and are being spent on students who are probably not equipped to handle the rigors of higher education and too many teachers have probably succumbed to the pressures of NCLB by inflating grades. Having struggled to pay for my own college education, I see HOPE as a wonderful gift to the citizens of Georgia. Perhaps, though, it is time for HOPE to become a reimbursement program in order to preserve it for future generations.
MB
January 23rd, 2012
7:54 pm
@EastCobbParent As noted, Westminster sends plenty of kids to GT and UGA. Most Ivy and near-Ivy League schools don’t offer academic scholarships (everyone would qualify, lol). They only offer need-based aid; thinking you might need to reconsider the veracity of your sources. If they’re that “upper income,” why would they have aid?
Atlanta Mom
January 23rd, 2012
8:19 pm
@MB,
As long as you make less than $200,000, you are eligible for “need based aid” at both Harvard and Yale. It’s all in how you define “upper income”
MB
January 24th, 2012
6:59 am
@ATL Mom Actually household income is only part of the equation for “need-based aid” for those top-tier private schools. You have to complete a very extensive CSS profile which includes your equity in your home, investments, retirement, etc. My income is about $60K and my son got zero “need-based aid” because we planned for the future and had little debt. Kind of strange, eh?
Frankie
January 24th, 2012
8:48 am
I may be wrong but it seems as though the students, parents as well as the colleges in Georgia are all waiting on the HOPE scholarship…
If a student has a 3.5 -4.5 GPA and is in the top 3 percent of his/her class the Georgia Colleges should be offering them a full scholarship without assistance from the HOPE FUNDs. But I do not think this is the case.
THere are plenty of scholarships out there other than the HOPE Fund and every parent should be seeking out those instead of waiting on the HOPE FUND..
The whole HOPE FUND needs to be re-evaluated because a 3.5 -4.5 GPA should be the same everywhere and private school or public school should not be a factor..but living inthe real world I know that parents on both sides do everything they can to position their child for these funds.. I do not agree to taking money from one group of students to add funds to another group no matter what the scores are…
Steve
January 24th, 2012
12:40 pm
@flipper-You are spot on about considering a move out of state. My wife and I are also considering a move out. We are both professionals(teacher and nurse) and also are frustrated with the uncertainty of Hope. We are now considered “rich” because we have made sound financial decisions and have worked hard. Our youngest graduates from high school in 2016 and the viability of HOPE will be one of a number of deciding factors on what we do then. The UNCERTAINTY is what’s killing parents. Why can’t anybody just make up their mind and then grandfather that years class in ? The reasons to reside in Georgia are getting fewer and fewer. Think about the scenario of many middle class professionals leaving the state in droves and taking their tax revenue and bright kids with them.
yagottabekiddingme
January 24th, 2012
5:52 pm
I work in college counseling. If you want a really good deal for your soon-to-graduate high schooler, with “decent” grades/SATs, look out of state and private. Especially Ohio privates. Although their price tags look like $50K, their AVERAGE financial aid package (mostly scholarships and grants) is over $25,000. There are some terrific smaller liberal arts schools who will fight over your southern-born chillun with REAL $$. Just sayin’
Latest Student Loan Deferment News | debt infos
January 24th, 2012
9:49 pm
[...] students waiting in a two hour line to get their $ a thousand … Go through a lot more on Atlanta Journal Constitution (web site) Posted in student loan Tags: deferment, Latest, loan, News, student You can leave a [...]
Free Zumba Online
January 25th, 2012
7:44 pm
This is my third time to your website, I love it every time!
Communists?
January 26th, 2012
9:10 am
I do not think that word means what you think it means, Paul Murphy. Oh well, you’re behind a computer screen, so why would you care how you denigrate the English language? It’s not like I can confront you face-to-face and chide you.