<p>I was surprised and disappointed to see that UGA's Office of Financial Aid's website says it won't announce awards to students until JUNE, although it will determine eligibility by mid-April. This, to me, is a serious shortcoming. Georgia Tech will have its financial aid awards out by Friday (if it hasn't done so already) and so will Emory. Does anyone else have a problem with this? Will it affect your decision to attend, if you have offers in hand from other schools and have to assume you'll get nothing at UGA besides HOPE?</p>
<p>Are you referring to scholarships? All scholarship offers will be made by April 15th.</p>
<p>No, all financial aid – grants, loans, work-study, etc. Every other Georgia college I’ve ever deal with has put out their package in time to make comparisons before the May 1 deadline.</p>
<p>Do you k ow if it’s still possible to apply for work-study, or how? Thanks!</p>
<p>I emailed the OSFA about this a few days ago. Here’s what I asked:</p>
<p>“When does the OSFA announce the financial aid package for each student? I saw somewhere on the website that it would be announced in June. So I was wondering whether or not the office provides a service that gives an estimate of the awards prior to June (and prior to May 1st, the day the deposit is due).”</p>
<p>Here’s how they responded:</p>
<p>"Thank you for your email. Our office will process what we term as “early estimated” award letters for 2011-12. This is schedule to be available to students this upcoming month of April. Notifications regarding the availability of “early estimated awards will be sent out to students via their UGA email accounts. Please keep in mind, the “early estimated” award letter will reflect award amounts based on our school’s current 2010-11 cost of attendance fees. However, it will provide you with an ideal of what you will qualify in financial aid awards from applications submitted. The “official” 2011-12 awards letters will available in June and will then confirm financial aid award amounts presented on early award letters reflective of the actual 2011-12 cost of attendance fees.”</p>
<p>I’m also a bit disappointed, but whatever. NYU already sent me their financial aid stuff the very day I was admitted! UVA is working on my package now and I think they’ll have it out within the next two weeks. I haven’t completed everything for Emory yet 
but I think it should be ready by late April if I submit everything tomorrow (which I plan on doing).</p>
<p>When you think about it, UGA is a public university. Meaning that it must receive a lot of crap from the government for using their money. The process of determining who gets the HOPE and other GA scholarships probably prevents them from processing it as quickly. Emory should be able to process it much quicker because this is THEIR money we’re talking about. They don’t have to go through a middleman. Of course, because it is their money, they are more stingy with it.</p>
<p>I must admit though. UGA’s OSFA is A LOT nicer than Emory’s!!! Gosh I’ve sent soooooooo many emails to Emory and I’ve called them a couple of times and their answers are always soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo vague! They just use circumlocution to ease their way out of addressing serious questions that’s on everybody’s minds! UGA’s office has been more than helpful in answering my questions (although I admittedly had less for them since they didn’t require so much information)!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This matches what we were told in our Out and About Session.</p>
<p>You should understand that because UGA is a public institution they have to wait until the Board of Regents meets to set the tuition rates for next year. They cannot give you final amounts until that is set. That’s why they say its estimated because when tuition changes, they have to adjust the awards accordingly. </p>
<p>I would say that you should have a pretty good idea of what you will be offered by UGA by mid April.</p>
<p>@coolpg— Thanks, that’s helpful. Sounds like it will still leave us wondering, however. I read on UGA’s website that Financial Aid would tell students what aid they’re ELIGIBLE for in mid-April, which may be quite different from what they actually receive. I think the early admits are at an advantage for limited funds. Sorry to hear about Emory, since we’ll have to deal with them, too, but hopefully not everyone’s experience is that bad (I hear mixed reviews about it).</p>
<p>As for HOPE, students apply for that through the Georgia Student Finance Authority, which verifies, and cuts the check to the college. Shouldn’t be too much work for FA. Last year, my daughter applied to two state schools and a private college in Georgia. One state school offered $20,000 in loans (without noting she would be eligible for HOPE) and the other offered her a $3,500 loan (also without noting she would be eligible for HOPE). </p>
<p>She now attends a private college in Georgia.</p>
<p>In my experience, the early estimate was nearly identical to the actual amount offered formally. Things might be a little different this year with changes to HOPE, but I’d imagine that UGA will continue to make its early awards as accurate as possible.</p>
<p>if anything, Emory will give you a better aid than UGA because they have more $. they just received additional $14 million endowment for their financial aid fund so it will be good this year.</p>
<p>Hello, I was recently accepted to the University of Georgia. Since I have a 4.071 G.P.A. and scored a 1630 on the SAT I qualify for the Zell Miller scholarship which will cover my tuition and was recently awarded UGA’s Charter scholarship. However, I come from a low income family and my family can not contribute to helping me pay for expenses such as housing, food, books, miscellaneous expenses, and personal expenses. My other option is going to a Community College which will cover food and housing, since I will be able to continue to live with my family. However I will not be able to a have the college experience I so desire. I have until May 1 to make a decision (since this is the deadline for the $200 non-refundable deposit) and the pressure is most definitely on. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?</p>
<p>@AngelAngieAnne wow!.. did you apply to emory? emory offers very nice aid and they meet 100% of aid and are need blind. if your family makes less than 50k a year, you will graduate debt free from emory aka full ride. if your family makes b/w 50k-100k the max loan you will get total in 4 years is 15k. people who makes over 100k tend to still get aid. as for uga financial aid, uga doesn’t meed full need which means your financial aid is probably going to be made up of the usual HOPE scholarship/uga’s scholarship, pell grant, and loans. also, since uga is public, they wont give you are much free money</p>
<p>@emory83 thanks…Yes I did apply to Emory, this was originally my first-choice. Unfortunately, they put me on a waiting list so I don’t know if I’ll have the chance to attend Emory in the Fall.</p>
<p>AngelAngieAnne - UGAs prelim financial package should be out before the May 1st deadline. It will be sent to your UGA email. It will give you a better idea of exactly what your entire financial package will look like. It will show pell grants, work study, etc. Have you completed the FAFSA? Is your EFC=0? If so, then you will get more than just HOPE and Charter. You could also try calling the financial aid office to see if they can give you a better idea of what your financial package will look like.</p>
<p>Another thing - have you confirmed your GPA on GAcollege411 to make sure you meet Zell Miller requirements? Your HOPE GPA is calculated differently than the GPA on your HS transcript. Also you mentioned your SAT I is 1630. Zell Miller is based on CR+M score only and the 1200 CR+M is in one sitting. You can’t use superscore.</p>
<p>Yes I complete my FAFSA in January. My EFC is 0. I think the ZEll Miller GPA is calculated the same as the Hope G.P.A is calculated. My Hope G.P.A is a 4.0 and the requirements for Zell Miller are a minimum of 3.7 G.P.A OR a 1200 CR+M in one sitting, so I still meet the requirements.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Zell Miller requires 3.7 GPA AND 1200 CR+M in one sitting (or 26 Composite on ACT). You must have both.</p>
<p>Agree with gamomof3. You must have BOTH the 3.7gpa and 1200 CR+M in one sitting for your SAT or a 26 ACT.</p>
<p>I hope the financial aid packages come out in a timely manner. With a 0 efc, you should be offered a reasonable package. Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>Thanks you guys. I appreciate the help and apologize for the false information.</p>
<p>@ emory83: How did that work?
I was accepted at Emory and the financial aid they’re giving is not very good… my parents make about 35k. They didn’t even come close to meeting my need. </p>
<p>Do you know if there is a way I can fix this? I would love to go to Emory, but I cannot afford to go there if that’s all the aid they gave me… excluding loans… I’m supposed to contribute about 10 times my EFC… how did that happen???</p>
<p>@whoknows123 I got a very good package. my parents make about 60k… I have 5500 in loans and my parents contributes about 5k, rest are grants but I also have some scholarship and our medical bill went up last year by about 10k so… your situation is very odd. I would contact them asap. you should not have any loans if your parents make less than 50k. also, how much assets do your parents have? like in checking account, home equity, another house… whats your efc? you should have qualified for max pell grant and also $4000 in this other gov aid. contact them! there has been stories before where people under 50k end with loans at the beginning but then they fixed it once they contacted them. also, I did ED1.</p>