Yes, UGA’s HOPE scholarship is the attractive option here, but obviously UGA is not an easy admit.
In general, private colleges have more merit money (read: scholarships) to throw around than publics (thus, I slightly disagree with the previous poster). Also, in general, a student will receive the most merit money at those schools where she/he is a considerable “cut above” the average admit. It makes sense, since merit scholarships are recruitment tools, a chance to lure a student who is ticketed elsewhere.
However, some private schools have very generous merit for nearly everyone. For instance, Ohio Wesleyan University (not suggesting it; only using it as an example) offers 30K to any student with a 3.4 GPA and a 23 or higher on the ACT. Of course, OWU costs 60K per year. Still, the 50% automatic discount makes the school within the price range of many state flagships.
The OP doesn’t mention what type of school that she/he is interested in, nor how much her/his family can afford. Start scanning schools’ scholarship pages–for both private and public schools. You can simply Google, “[Name of School] scholarships” and you should see what merit scholarships are available, as well as general requirements.