HOPE & Zell Miller Scholarships

Basic HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarship Eligibility Requirements

• You must be a resident of Georgia.
• You must be a citizen or eligible non-citizen to receive funding.
• You must be in a degree seeking program.
• You must be maintaining Satisfactory Academic Progress.
• You must not be in default or owe repayment on any federal or state aid.
• Male students must be registered for Selective Service if required.
• You must be in compliance with the Georgia Drug-Free Postsecondary Education Act of 1990.
• Once you earn your first Bachelor’s degree you are no longer eligible for the HOPE or Zell Miller Scholarships. Click here for more information.
• Initial eligibility for the HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarships is determined by the Georgia Student Finance Commission (opens in new tab).

Residency for the HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarships

To meet residency requirements for the HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarships, you must be a resident of Georgia at the time of high school graduation. Students who are not Georgia residents when they graduate high school will not meet residency requirements for the HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarships until 24 months after they establish domicile in Georgia. If that date falls after the start of a semester, the student will not meet residency requirements for the scholarships until the following semester.

Example: Frank graduated from a high school in Texas. His father’s company transferred him to Georgia so the entire family moves to Georgia and establishes domicile on September 2, 2020. Frank is granted in-state residency for tuition purposes by UGA, but he will not meet residency requirements for the HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarships until September 2, 2022 which is 24 months after the date he established domicile. Since that date is after the start of Fall semester, we would not be able to determine his eligibility for the HOPE Scholarship until the following semester, Spring 2023.

Continuing Eligibility

HOPE Scholarship recipients must maintain a 3.00 HOPE GPA. Zell Miller Scholarship Recipients must maintain a 3.30 Zell Miller Scholarship GPA.

If you are otherwise eligible, you can continue to receive the scholarship through 127 HOPE Attempted or Paid hours, whichever comes first.

OSFA checks a student’s HOPE GPA at 30, 60, and 90 attempted hours, as well as every Spring semester. While you can lose HOPE at the Spring semester checkpoint, you can only regain eligibility at the 30, 60, and 90 attempted hours benchmarks.

A HOPE or Zell Miller Scholarship recipient who has lost their Scholarship eligibility at two checkpoints cannot regain eligibility.

So what counts in your HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarship Attempted Hours and GPA?

Some things to remember about your HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarship GPA

• You can view your current HOPE/Zell Miller Scholarship eligible GPA on www.gafutures.org (opens in a new tab). Your HOPE/Zell Miller Scholarship GPA may be different than your UGA GPA. Login to www.gafutures.org and click “My College HOPE Profile” on the left side menu for a one-page portal where you can see your college GPA for the HOPE/Zell Miller Scholarship, view how many hours you have used, check your expiration date for the scholarship program and more. We encourage you to check this site often to ensure that your information is correct and that you are aware of your HOPE/Zell Miller Scholarship GPA to maintain eligibility.
• UGA grades on a +/- grading scale but the plusses and minuses do not count in your HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarship GPA.
• Effective Fall 2017, when calculating the HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarship postsecondary GPA, an additional weight of 0.5 will be added to grades of B, C, and D for approved degree level science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses taken at an eligible postsecondary institution Fall 2017 or later. You can find a link to the list of approved courses on the STEM Weighted Course Directory (opens in new tab). This list changes annually, so be sure to look at the information for the correct year.

Grade Changes and Transfer Credit

The UGA Office of Student Financial Aid will award your HOPE or Zell Miller Scholarship based on the information on file at the time of awarding. If OSFA receives additional information such as new transcripts from other schools or grade changes at UGA that change your eligibility at any time you will be required to repay any HOPE or Zell Miller Scholarship funds you were awarded that you are no longer eligible for.

It is your responsibility to ensure UGA has all of your transcripts in a timely manner.

Example: Lacy attends UGA for two years and has the following attempted hours and GPA:

Lacy forgets to send her Summer 2025 transcripts from another school to UGA and she finally does so after Spring 2026. OSFA is required to recalculate her GPA and adjust her HOPE award to what it should have been if her transcripts were received in a timely manner

Because of the additional transcripts received, Lacy’s 30 hour benchmark moved and she no longer has the required 3.00 HOPE Scholarship GPA. She must now repay the HOPE Scholarship funds she received for Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 because she is not eligible.

STEM Courses and the HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarships

Effective Fall 2017, when calculating the HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarship postsecondary GPA, an additional weight of 0.5 will be added to grades of B, C, and D for approved degree level science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses taken at an eligible postsecondary institution Fall 2017 or later. Please visit STEM Courses and the HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarships for more information and for a link to the list of courses approved to receive the additional weight.

Second Degrees, Double Majors, and Dual Degrees – Double Dawgs

Eligibility for the HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarships ends once the student meets the requirements to graduate from the first undergraduate degree program. More information on Second Degrees, Double Majors, and Dual Degrees – Double Dawgs can be found here.

Expiration Date for the HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarships

Eligibility for the HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarships expires 10 years after the student’s high school graduation date for students who receive their first disbursement of the scholarship Summer semester 2019 or later.

Eligibility for the HOPE and Zell Miller Scholarships expires 7 years after the student’s high school graduation date for students who received their first disbursement of the scholarship Summer semester 2011 through Spring semester 2019.

Eligibility for students who received their first disbursement of the HOPE Scholarship Spring semester 2011 or earlier does not expire.