HOPE and Zell Miller scholarship at UGA: GPA requirements, checkpoints, and how to keep your funding

If your student hasn’t started at UGA yet, the margin gets built earlier. My companion piece covers protecting your child’s Zell Miller GPA in high school, which is where the GPA and test-score cushion is set. If the HOPE GPA itself is new to you, start with why the HOPE GPA is not your child’s report card GPA.

The basics: HOPE vs. Zell Miller

Both scholarships are paid for by the Georgia Lottery and open to Georgia residents at eligible Georgia schools. They differ in what they cover and the GPA they require.

HOPE Scholarship: Covers part of tuition. You need a 3.0 HOPE GPA from high school to get it and a 3.0 HOPE GPA in college to keep it.

Zell Miller Scholarship: Covers 100% of standard tuition, which for 2025 to 2026 comes to a maximum of about $10,512 for two semesters at 15 credit hours each. To qualify out of high school you need a 3.7 HOPE GPA plus the 1200 SAT requirement (math and evidence-based reading/writing) or a 25 ACT composite. Valedictorians and salutatorians of eligible Georgia high schools qualify automatically. To keep it in college you need a 3.3 HOPE GPA at every checkpoint.

You get one or the other, never both at once. Lose Zell Miller with a 3.0 or better and you drop to HOPE. Lose HOPE and you have neither.

Your HOPE GPA is not your UGA GPA

UGA grades on a plus/minus scale, so on your UGA transcript an A- is 3.67 and a B+ is 3.33. HOPE and Zell Miller ignore the plus and the minus. For HOPE, an A- is an A (4.0) and a B+ is a B (3.0).

Your HOPE GPA can therefore come out above or below your UGA GPA, depending on your grades. A student with a lot of A-minuses and B-pluses will see the two numbers drift noticeably apart.

Your current HOPE/Zell Miller GPA is at gafutures.org under “My College HOPE Profile.” Look at it often, and well before a checkpoint.

The STEM course GPA boost

Since fall 2017, HOPE and Zell Miller calculations add 0.5 to grades of B, C, and D in approved STEM courses. A B in organic chemistry counts as 3.5 instead of 3.0, and a C counts as 2.5 instead of 2.0.

For pre-med and STEM students carrying hard science courses, that takes some of the sting out of a B. It does nothing for an A, which is already a 4.0, or for an F.

The Georgia Student Finance Commission keeps the approved list, and not every science or math course is on it. Check yours.

When you’re evaluated

Eligibility is checked at these points:

Attempted Hours Checkpoints:

• 30 attempted hours
• 60 attempted hours
• 90 attempted hours

End-of-Spring Checkpoint: the end of every spring semester after your first checkpoint.

Every course you attempt after high school, anywhere, counts toward attempted hours and goes into the HOPE GPA. That includes courses at other schools, summer courses, and courses HOPE or Zell Miller didn’t pay for. Withdrawn courses count toward attempted hours but stay out of the GPA.

If an attempted-hours checkpoint and a spring checkpoint land together (you reach 60 hours at the end of a spring semester, say), the attempted-hours checkpoint is the one that counts.

One hard course can cost a student Zell Miller. I work on the class that puts the scholarship GPA at risk. Tell me about your student →

Losing eligibility: what happens and when

If your HOPE GPA is below 3.3 at any checkpoint, you lose Zell Miller. With a 3.0 or higher you get HOPE instead, automatically.

Below 3.0 at any checkpoint, you lose HOPE, and Zell Miller with it if you had it.

The spring checkpoint only works in one direction. You can lose eligibility there, but you can only regain it at an attempted-hours checkpoint (30, 60, or 90 hours). Lose it at the end of spring and you may go without scholarship money until you reach the next attempted-hours mark.

Regaining eligibility

If you lost HOPE, you get it back if your HOPE GPA is at least 3.0 when you reach the next attempted-hours checkpoint (30, 60, or 90 hours). The 90-hour checkpoint is the last chance.

Zell Miller can be regained once, if your HOPE GPA is at least 3.3 at the next attempted-hours checkpoint. Lose it a second time and you are permanently ineligible for Zell Miller, though you can still hold HOPE with a 3.0 or higher.

Lose HOPE at two checkpoints and you cannot regain it. The same goes for losing Zell Miller twice. Nothing can be regained after the 90-hour checkpoint.

Transfer students and scholarship portability

HOPE and Zell Miller eligibility can move with you between HOPE-eligible Georgia schools, and every attempted hour and grade from every school goes into the calculation. If you’re transferring to UGA from a Georgia community college or another USG school, your courses there are already part of your HOPE GPA at UGA.

Get every transcript from your previous schools to UGA quickly. A late transcript can trigger a recalculation that reaches back into semesters you’ve finished, and that can mean paying money back.

The 127-hour limit

You can receive HOPE or Zell Miller for up to 127 attempted semester hours or through your first bachelor’s degree, whichever comes first. Hours from every HOPE-funded program (HOPE Scholarship, Zell Miller, HOPE Grant, Accel) count toward that one limit.

Changing majors or adding a minor or certificate stretches your time at UGA, but not the hour cap. Plan the degree so it finishes inside the funded hours.

The 10-year expiration

Since 2019, HOPE and Zell Miller eligibility expires 10 years after your high school graduation, GED test date, or home study completion. Students who received HOPE or Zell Miller before spring 2019 have 7 years instead.

Mistakes that cost students the scholarship

Students who watch only their UGA GPA get surprised at checkpoints, because it isn’t the number HOPE uses. The one that counts is on gafutures.org.

Stacking hard courses is another. A single rough semester of organic chemistry, physics, and calculus together can drop a HOPE GPA below the line, so the order you take courses in matters for the scholarship as well as for your degree.

Some students don’t know the STEM boost exists and panic over B’s in approved STEM courses that HOPE is counting as 3.5.

Late withdrawals add up. A W doesn’t touch your HOPE GPA, but the attempted hours still count, and too many of them bring the 127-hour limit or the next checkpoint closer than you planned.

And students who lose eligibility once and regain it sometimes miss the “two losses” rule: the next loss is permanent.