Jennifer Mullins
Associate Director, Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid

As the mid-point of spring semester approaches, it's not too early to think about how spring grades will impact your student's HOPE eligibility. To understand how eligibility is determined, it's important to know what courses are, and are not, included in the calculations.

Courses included in the HOPE calculations:
* All credit hours attempted after high school graduation are calculated when determining HOPE eligibility, even if they are not accepted by Georgia Tech. Likewise, courses forgiven by the institution are included in the cumulative HOPE Grade Point Average (GPA) calculation. It is not unusual for the HOPE GPA to be lower than the Tech GPA. Transfer students will also notice that their HOPE GPA is most likely different from their Tech GPA.
* Pass / Fail credits are included in the attempted hours, but they are not included in the GPA calculation.
* Courses withdrawn (W) are included in the total attempted hours, but they are not included in the GPA calculation.

Courses excluded from the HOPE calculations:
* Audited / CO-OP courses are not included in the HOPE GPA calculation and are not included in the attempted hours.
* Advance Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and College Level Examination Program (CLEP) courses are not included in the HOPE GPA calculation and are not included in the attempted hours.

Students are evaluated for their continued eligibility in the HOPE Scholarship program at various checkpoints throughout their academic career. At each checkpoint a cumulative 3.0 GPA must be earned, or the award will be lost. All students are subject to the End-of-Spring checkpoint. Students will be checked at the end of every spring term, even if they were not enrolled in classes that term. The student must have a cumulative 3.0 HOPE GPA at the end of spring to continue receiving HOPE for the next enrolled semester.

If a first-year student loses HOPE at the end of the spring checkpoint and hasn't yet attempted 30 credit hours at the end of the spring checkpoint, the student should consider taking summer classes to reach the HOPE checkpoint of 30 attempted credit hours. Students can then regain HOPE at the 30 credit hour checkpoint if they have earned a 3.0 HOPE GPA. This ensures that the student's full-time schedule starting that fall is once again covered by HOPE.

Please visit the HOPE Web site for more information.