Undergraduate Student Summer FAQ

If you received the HOPE / Zell Miller Scholarship during the Fall / Spring semester then no action is required. The Zell Miller / HOPE Scholarship for summer is added to the award automatically after enrollment. Students must maintain eligibility for HOPE / Zell Miller based on their GPA at the end of spring semester in order to receive HOPE / Zell for summer semester. HOPE / Zell will be disbursed to the student account 10 days of the start of your earliest summer class.

If you are a transfer student or a new student to UGA for Summer 2024, you must complete a 2023-2024 FAFSA on StudentAid.gov or a GSFAPP on Gafutures.org in order to receive the HOPE or Zell Miller Scholarship for Summer 2024. The FAFSA is not required for HOPE / Zell Miller Scholarship. The FAFSA must be completed each year if a student wishes to apply for any Federal aid (grants, loans, Federal Work-Study) as well as HOPE / Zell Miller Scholarship. Students wanting to receive HOPE / Zell Miller Scholarship ONLY that are not interested in Federal Student Aid should complete the GSFAPPS instead. The GSFAPPS is a one-time application that is valid for up to 10 years. The student would not have to apply for HOPE / Zell Miller Scholarship again after completing the GSFAPPS one time.

The Zell Miller or HOPE Scholarship does not require Full-Time Enrollment (12 hours). There is no minimum hour requirement for any semester.

HOPE Scholarship covers $326.34 per credit hour for 1-15 hours per semester.

Zell Miller Scholarship covers 100% of the standard undergraduate rate of tuition per semester.

For more information about HOPE / Zell Miller Scholarship, please visit our website.

HOPE / Zell Miller recipients are eligible for HOPE / Zell Miller Scholarship as a transient student at other institutions in the state of Georgia. You will need to complete the HOPE Scholarship Transient Form on our website. The information will be sent to the transient school after spring grades have been posted in May and the spring HOPE checkpoint has been completed.

NOTE: Transient students typically pay transient costs out-of-pocket and are then reimbursed by the transient school once they have processed HOPE / Zell Miller Scholarship for the transient hours.

Students who are receiving a Federal Pell Grant for Summer: If a student drops or withdraws from a course prior to the end of the Short Session II drop/add period then that course must be removed from Federal Pell Grant enrollment status.

The end of drop/add for Short Session II for Summer 2024 is July 10th, so any classes dropped or withdrawn prior to July 10th cannot be counted for Federal Pell Grant enrollment status.

For example, if you enroll in 12 hours during Summer term and withdraw from 3 hours on July 1st, you will be considered three quarter time for Pell Grant purposes. This will result in a Federal Pell Grant repayment if you have already received Summer Federal Pell Grant for 12 hours. If you enroll in 6 hours during Summer term and withdraw from 3 hours on July 1st, you will be considered less than half-time for Pell Grant purposes and would have to repay your entire Federal Pell Grant for summer.

The Bursar’s Office is responsible for tuition and fees. Please visit their website for more information about tuition and student fees for Summer 2024.

Payment dates are established by the Student Accounts department. You can find Payment deadline dates on the Bursar’s website.

Students can apply any time during the Award Year (as long as they still meet all eligibility criteria); however, in order for financial aid to pay toward your semester’s student account charges, you must complete the financial aid process including Verification (if selected), by April 1st for Summer 2024.

Students who fail to complete the process by this date should be prepared to initially pay all the charges on their student account, including tuition and fees, housing, food services, etc. Once students have completed the financial aid process, they will be awarded the financial aid for which they qualify even if classes have already begun.

Summer disbursements are based on your summer enrollment. Financial aid awards will be disbursed to your student account 10 days prior to the start of your earliest class.

Summer 2024 is part of the 2023-2024 award year. Students must make sure they have a 23-24 FAFSA on file at UGA or complete the 23-24 FAFSA if they have not completed one yet. Students can complete the FAFSA on StudentAid.gov and add UGA as the school (school code: 001598).

Pell eligible students who received 100 percent of their Federal PellGrant over the previous fall and spring semesters and who enroll in at least 6 hours (half-time) in the summer will be eligible for additional Federal PellGrant funds if permitted by their enrollment status and EFC. To determine how much Federal Pell Grant funding you would be eligible for based on your enrollment/EFC, please contact our office directly at [email protected]. No action is required to have your Pell Grant added for summer, it will be automatically added to your award and disbursed to your Student Account if you are eligible.

In order to request Federal Loans for Summer, please follow these instructions (PDF) to complete a Change in Aid Request to have your loan eligibility reviewed in advance of the summer fee payment deadline.

Keep in mind loan eligibility requires at least half-time enrollment during the term.

Please be aware of the annual limits, since summer 2024 is the end of the 2023-2024 award year and is subject to the same annual limits. If you have already received your annual maximum of loans, you would not be eligible for additional loans for summer.

To receive Parent PLUS Loan during summer semester, the parent must complete a new PLUS application on StudentAid.gov specifically for summer semester (05/2024-08/2024). Please visit our website for Parent PLUS Loan Application Steps. Keep in mind Parent PLUS Loan eligibility requires at least half-time enrollment during the term.

For students participating in a summer study abroad, any aid not exhausted during the award year is available to use for study abroad expenses. If students are eligible for Pell Grant or HOPE / Zell Miller, no action is required and it is automatically added to the award.

To request loans: Please be aware of the annual loan limits, since summer 2024 is the end of the 2023-2024 award year and is subject to the same annual limits. If you have already received your annual maximum of loans, you would not be eligible for additional loans for summer. In order to request Federal Loans for Summer, please follow these instructions (PDF) to complete a Change in Aid Request to have your loan eligibility reviewed in advance of summer classes beginning.

For information about Study Abroad scholarships, please contact the study abroad program directly.

Students participating in a non-UGA Study Abroad program will need to complete the non-UGA Study Abroad process with the UGA Office of Global Engagement (OGE) that includes completing the Transfer Credit Approval Form, registering for a non-UGA study abroad course in Athena, and submitting Enrollment Verification. OGE will provide this information directly to our office for processing. Students eligible for the Federal Pell Grant or HOPE / Zell Miller Scholarship will have the funds automatically awarded (no additional action is needed). Financial aid cannot be disbursed more than 10 days before the study abroad program begins.

To request loans: Please be aware of the annual loan limits, since summer 2024 is the end of the 2023-2024 award year and is subject to the same annual limits. If you have already received your annual maximum of loans, you would not be eligible for additional loans for summer. In order to request Federal Loans for Summer, please follow these instructions (PDF) to complete a Change in Aid Request to have your loan eligibility reviewed in advance of summer classes beginning.

If the non-UGA study abroad is through another school in the state of Georgia, the student will also need to complete a HOPE Scholarship Transient Form. The transient school will be responsible for disbursing HOPE / Zell Miller for the hours attempted.

The scholarship / waiver is not something we automatically apply for summer, it has to be requested. We do not recommend students use the scholarship / waiver because normally summer is less expensive. Using it for summer would count towards 1 of the 8 allotted terms.

You are also required to be enrolled full-time or would have to use your one time less than full- time exception in order to receive the scholarship / waiver. Please keep in mind the waiver will only apply to the out-of-state portion which would be significantly less due to taking one class. You would need to contact Student Accounts Services for the exact amount that would be applied.

If you still want to have the scholarship and waiver applied for Summer please complete the Summer Academic Scholarship Request Form. If you are going to be enrolled for less than 12 hours you will also need to complete the Less Than Full-time Exception for Academic Scholarship Form.