Hi there,
My daughter is a sophomore in one of Georgia’s high schools so I started educating myself about college expenses. I’ve read a lot about Zell Miller and HOPE grand available in Georgia and for me it’s too good to be true: just have good grades and everything will be paid by the state? The daughter is looking mostly for 4y public university. Are there any hidden caveats or it’s actually the ultumate solution for those who have 3.5+ GPA?
Zell pays all tuition and Hope pays partial. You still pay room and board and all the other goodies.
Everything is not paid for. You will have to pay room and board, books and personal expenses with both awards.
As noted above, with Zell Miller, your tuition is fully covered. With the Hope award only partial tuition is awarded.
Still…these are excellent awards to receive towards attending an instate university in Georgia!
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The above posts are correct. Georgia residents are lucky to have free tuition from Zell/Hope as many states do not have this option. Especially for schools of the caliber of GA Tech and UGA (although there are other very good schools in GA that this would apply to as well).
The Hope doesn’t provide free tuition. It provides partial tuition.
Zell is full tuition through the Hope scholarship program.
As stated by others, even if you get full tuition through Zell Miller, the fees plus room/board can be expensive. I believe the high school GPA needed for Zell is 3.7 and it is wonderful to get full tuition, but I have friends and family members who pay close to $20,000/year for all the other costs, personal expenses, fraternity etc. The fees at UGA are quite high.
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Correct. The important thing to understand is that there are two levels of the Scholarship program… a partial tuition and a full tuition, depending on GPA… 3.0 gets partial tuition and 3.7 gets full tuition.
https://www.gafutures.org/hope-state-aid-programs/hope-zell-miller-scholarships/hope-scholarship/
One more thing to keep in mind for the Hope and Zell scholarships. They are not based on your high school GPA. Hope recalculates your GPA with only core classes, so it’s important to track the student’s Hope GPA as they go along so there are no surprises in the end.
Good catch. I’m glad you pointed that out! I had forgotten that as my D’s school provided the Hope/Zell GPA (calculated for the students) on the year end reports.
I’ll edit my previous post so as not to confuse anyone.
The Zell/Hope GPA is calculated online on their GA Futures accounts.
UGA is not expensive for those receiving Zell, except by choice. Fees are not high. Off campus living is very inexpensive. Many students pay their expenses through part time work. Not doable at some other schools. Greek life is expensive, but that’s a choice.
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Fees are not included and they are high - count on 3K+/year. Still it’s a great option. State flagships admission is super competitive. GT has transfer pathways for students not offered 1st year admission, and that can help.
Fees are $2,278/yr. That’s quite low. Look at the fees at some other publics. Then look at some privates.
$3000 a year for college is great. We are in Virginia and had to pay full price for UVA and VT. Would have loved to have the kind of options that people in places like Georgia and Florida seem to have.
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That is only the fees, not the total. Fees, R+B, books, etc. that are not covered by the Zell/Hope grants will leave around $17-$20k (round numbers, I did not look up exact). Still not bad compared to many states, but it is not $3k. If I am misunderstanding your statement, my apologies. 
That sounds more reasonable if room and board aren’t covered. Still, better deal than many states if tuition is covered , either fully or partially.
Okay. So you made me curious. I never compared fees when we were looking at colleges; I compared Cost of Attendance in total, after merit/grants. I did not care about the details just the bottom line. And I still believe that is all that matters, not a comparison of a single line item of the COA.
But for giggles, here are some in-state fees (quick check so apologies if I made any mistakes). I was surprised at the range! Also, I purposely chose other southern schools. Some don’t break out fees from tuition so I obviously did not include those. Nothing scientific about my selection, but I was surprised that I had to look at so many before finding one more expensive than UGA/Tech.
UGA $2278 (as you mentioned)
GTech $2594
Bama $800
Clemson $1440
UNC $1972
UVA (CAS) $3230
$17-$20k includes Greek dues. Room and board freshman year is high. But a non-Greek student can live off campus for much less than $17-20k in later years. I know Greek life is big, but it’s an expensive choice.
And lots of schools have added fees for some programs, like engineering. Both UVA and Virginia Tech do. I’m guessing many others do, like Georgia Tech?
Agree, frat dues, cost of housing , etc. varies and being in a frat or sorority with those added expenses is a personal choice.