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Updated: July 11, 2024 @ 10:14 am
University of Georgia students walk at the crosswalk outside Bolton Dining Commons following the 12:20 p.m. class change on Aug. 16, 2023. Wednesday marked the first day of classes at UGA. (Photo/Libby Hobbs; @libby.hobbs_)
University of Georgia students walk at the crosswalk outside Bolton Dining Commons following the 12:20 p.m. class change on Aug. 16, 2023. Wednesday marked the first day of classes at UGA. (Photo/Libby Hobbs; @libby.hobbs_)
The University of Georgia offers more than $6 million in scholarships and awards to undergraduate students. These scholarships help students finance their education with the expectation of students maintaining excellent academic standing. This can add additional pressure to students who are involved on campus or who have to maintain jobs while attending college.
Caleb Lyons, a rising sophomore double majoring in film studies and entertainment in media studies, said his Zell Miller Scholarship significantly helped him in his educational career.
“In terms of finance, Zell has taken a tremendous load off of my and my parents’ shoulders,” Lyons said. “My parents assist with paying for my college, and I don’t think I would have been able to attend the university without the scholarship. Academically, it holds me accountable for maintaining good grades.”
Arbella Amburn, a rising junior civil engineering student, feels similarly about the Zell Miller Scholarship because she is preparing for graduate school.
“In an academic sense, Zell is a big motivator for me,” Amburn said. “While getting the GPA I want is an award itself, it is also satisfying to be rewarded with free tuition to my dream school. As someone who plans to further my education with grad school, it’s important for me to be financially responsible to set myself up for success later on.”
The Zell Miller Scholarship covers a student’s full tuition cost with the stipulation that the student maintains a 3.30 GPA. The university checks a student’s eligibility every time a student completes 30 hours of classes and every spring semester. If a student loses scholarship eligibility during two of these checkpoints, they are unable to regain their eligibility, placing pressure on students to achieve academic success.
Lyons said that he feels more stressed maintaining the scholarship than when he was working to earn it. With academic and extracurricular involvement, Lyons feels that working for his scholarship can get overwhelming.
“I feel it has been more stressful to maintain the scholarship than it was to acquire it,” Lyons said. “I have found college curriculum to unsurprisingly be a lot more demanding than high school, and with my other commitments sometimes it feels as though I’m having to do some sort of balancing act. The pressure of needing the scholarship in order to continue to attend the school is really the biggest source of the stress.”
Similarly, Amburn said she had to work hard to both get and maintain her scholarship. However, Amburn said the GPA requirement for her scholarship has actually encouraged her to put forth more effort in a collegiate setting as compared to a high school setting.
“In high school I of course still had to try, but in college I have had to balance living away from home and learning how to be an adult in general while taking more strenuous courses,” Amburn said. “That being said, maintaining my scholarship hasn’t been too stressful since the GPA requirement for Zell in college is lower than in high school, which is considerate of how college is a much different, high-stakes environment.”
The HOPE Scholarship system changed in May 2023 to allow the Hope Scholarship to cover a student’s full tuition effective fall 2023. This has alleviated some of the pressure by allowing students with a 3.0 GPA to have their tuition covered whilst providing a safety net for Zell students whose GPA’s may have dropped below the 3.30 requirement.
The process of distributing financial aid can be daunting for some students because it doesn’t always seem fair. Financial aid can be difficult for some students to maintain and even more so to obtain in the first place because of the way need-based income is classified. Lyons said he thinks navigating the process was rather easy and straight-forward, but also slightly flawed.
“I think a major flaw I noticed was with the way financial aid classifies need-based income,” Lyons said. “Although on paper my family makes enough money to theoretically pay for my college, financial aid doesn’t account for many external factors that impact my family’s income. If it weren’t for my scholarship, I likely wouldn’t be able to attend as I would not be able to afford my tuition or afford to take out a loan.”
This is a reality that many students face, which is why scholarships are crucial to some students’ academic journeys and successes.
“Overall, I think that the HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarship system is a great investment in Georgia students’ education,” Amburn said. “It encourages students to keep their grades up so that no matter their socioeconomic status, they can have opportunities that they might not otherwise have.”
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