SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) – Free tuition is music to many students’ ears.
HOPE scholarship will soon pay 100 percent of public university students’ tuition after the Georgia state budget passed with extra funding. Before, it only covered about 90 percent of tuition.
In order to receive HOPE, you have to have and maintain a 3.0 GPA.
Georgia Southern Armstrong campus sophomore and current HOPE recipient Gabrielle Harris’s tuition is already 90 percent paid for. But college isn’t cheap.
“15 credit hours is a little over $2,700 for the semester,” GSU VP of Enrollment Dr. Amy Ballagh said.
Harris is juggling a job, classes and extra curriculars.
“I’m going to be going to grad school. So right now I’m using my college funds to pay for the difference that HOPE doesn’t make,” Harris said.
Thanks to the Georgia state budget, her full tuition will be paid next year. She says it’s setting her up for success and no student loan debt.
“I’ll definitely have more money saved to up in the future if I want to get an apartment or a car,” Harris said.
One Georgia Southern student who had HOPE but lost it says he’ll be grinding to get it back.
“I dropped just a little bit below and I’m definitely going to grind to that back cause I need 100 percent. That’s crazy. I would love that.”
Luckily for students, Vice President of Enrollment at Georgia Southern, Dr. Amy Ballagh says the process to receive HOPE, a lottery-funded program, won’t change.
“Students who are eligible for hope will still do the same things that they’ve always done. We encourage all our students to apply with the federal student financial aid application,” Ballagh said.
When HOPE started, it covered all of students tuition until the Zell Miller scholarship came around in 2011 and required a 3.7 GPA to get that perk.
Now, Dr. Ballagh believes more high school students will choose to get their degree, which is a $1 million investment, according to a Georgia Southern study.
“With hard work and keeping their grades up, this allows them the access that they need to be able to do whatever their educational dreams are.”
“It’s going to be a really big blessing for a lot of the students on this campus and people I know personally.”
While HOPE covers tuition, students still have books, housing and transportation to consider. Georgia Southern offers community financial aid seminars twice a month for free.
The next one is tomorrow at 11 on the Armstrong and Statesboro campuses. For more information, click here.
For information on HOPE and the FAFSA, click here.
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