The following information is quoted from the web site of the Georgia Student Finance Commission:
"The standards for calculating the HOPE scholarship qualifying grade point average were changed in the 2004 session of the Georgia General Assembly. The new standards reflected in O.C.G.A. §20-2-157 were largely taken from recommendations made by a Joint Study Commission on HOPE that met during the summer and fall of 2003. A summary of the most significant changes to the HOPE program follows.
What is the new HOPE scholarship eligibility standard and how will it be calculated?
The new HOPE scholarship eligibility standard became law while the members of the graduating class of 2007 were high school freshmen. The new standard was covered extensively by the media in 2003 and 2004 and was debated by the General Assembly prior to passage in the 2004 legislative session. All schools, public and private, that had previously participated in the HOPE scholarship program were notified of the change by the Georgia Student Finance Commission (GSFC) when the new standard was signed into law in April of 2004.
Under the new scholarship eligibility standard, schools will no longer be required to calculate grade point averages but will transmit transcript and grading scale data for all seniors to the GSFC. As required by law, all high school attempted grades must be reported, whether or not credit was earned. GSFC will calculate student eligibility for the HOPE scholarship using un-weighted grades and will apply a 3.0 scholarship eligibility standard for college preparatory students and a 3.2 scholarship eligibility standard for students receiving other diploma types, both on a true 4.0 scale (no grades regardless of weighting will exceed 4.0). Earned Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) course grades will be un-weighted by GSFC, if weighted by the local school, and then uniform weights will be added by the GSFC to these courses before GSFC calculates each student's grade point average. Note that only courses for which a grade was earned will be counted in the GPA calculation, thus "incomplete" or "withdrawn" courses will not be considered.
High schools will be given reports that list both eligible and ineligible students (based solely on grade point averages) after the preliminary calculation in February in order to correct any mistakes in data. When students graduate, final HOPE scholarship eligibility will be determined based on the student's completed high school academic record, and a revised list of students eligible for the scholarship will be made available to colleges following review and approval by the high schools."
For more information about the HOPE Scholarship, please visit the GAcollege411 web site. |
