HOPE plan creates fee payment ceiling

Georgia’s HOPE scholarship has recently undergone changes in an effort to preserve funds as the lottery money continues to shrink.

Effective June 1, 2004, three main areas of HOPE have been modified. A new end-of-Spring semester check point, a mandatory fee cap, and an hours-paid-for cap were added.

Suzanne Buttram, director of financial aid and scholarships, explained that a new end-of-spring semester eligibility checkpoint has also been added. Previous checkpoints of 30, 60 and 90 completed hours are still in effect.

“Every student will be reviewed at the end of spring regardless if they reach a checkpoint then (30, 60 and 90 hours),” said Buttram. “The interesting part is that at these spring checkpoints, students can lose eligibility, but not gain or regain eligibility (unless it happens to coincide with one of the already established attempted hour checkpoint).”

The end-of-spring semester checkpoint preserves HOPE funds by eliminating students’ ability to take under 30 credit hours and not be checked until after their third semester.

“This will basically add more opportunity to lose HOPE without adding more opportunities to gain HOPE,” said Buttram. “I believe we will see more students lose HOPE earlier than before. Traditionally, most entering freshmen have not reached their first checkpoint until the end of their second fall semester.”

Buttram explained that by adding a mandatory fee cap, HOPE money will be protected from rising mandatory fees. This cap allows HOPE to use funds toward tuition incurred costs, not toward rising fees set by each university.

“The fees HOPE will cover is the same amount charged in 2003-2004. Basically, for a student who does not have lab fees etc., HOPE will cover all but $68.50 per semester in fees,” said Butttram. “Last year, there were a couple of new fees that HOPE did not cover, the Student Activity Center fee and the extra parking lot fee.”

In addition to the mandatory fee cap, HOPE now has a 127 paid-for hour cap. A 127 attempted hour cap has already been in existence.

“This paid hour cap includes any hours that the student has received any form of HOPE for,” explained Buttram. “I don’t know how much of an impact it will have on our students, I can see the possibility of non-traditional students being impacted,” continued Buttram. “Before this regulation, I can tell you that a student was not limited on the number of certificate programs at technical colleges they could receive HOPE for. For example, a student could do auto-mechanics, cosmetology, computer skills, etc., and all would be paid for by HOPE. This is probably one of the reasons behind this.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 17 2004. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry