Grants
Federal Pell Grant
This federal aid program is designed to assist undergraduate students who demonstrate they are unable to attend college without financial assistance. This form of financial assistance is a grant with no repayment required. Applicants must be enrolled at Abraham Baldwin in a degree program and be citizens or permanent United States residents. The amount of the grant is governed by financial need and the cost of attending ABAC for an academic year. The duration of the students’ eligibility for a Pell Grant is limited to the time students are enrolled in an undergraduate degree program of four years or less and are making satisfactory academic progress. Application is made by completing the FAFSA online.
Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG)
Grants ranging from $100 to $4,000 per academic year are available through this federally funded program. These grants are awarded to students who have demonstrated financial need. Grants are renewable each year during undergraduate study, provided students show satisfactory academic progress and financial need. Funding for this program is limited, so not all students who are eligible will receive an SEOG award. Application is made by completing the FAFSA.
Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally (HOPE)
The HOPE Scholarship and Zell Miller Scholarship are funded by the Georgia Lottery for Education and are available to eligible Georgia high school graduates. Students may gain HOPE eligibility by having a 3.0 overall GPA at the 30th, 60th, or 90th attempted hour. Full time enrollment is not a requirement.
Students attending public colleges or universities receive a HOPE Award Amount based upon a per hour rate payable up to 15 hours at the institution they are attending. Grade point eligibility for entering freshmen is based on a minimum 3.0 HOPE GPA (as calculated by GSFC) and the student must also meet specific rigor course requirements; The Zell Miller Scholarship requires a minimum 3.7 Zell Miller grade point average (as calculated by GSFC) combined with a minimum score of 1200 on the math and reading portions of the SAT test or a minimum composite score of 26 on ACT as determined by the high school and reported to the Georgia Student Finance Commission (GSFC). Alternately, a student is eligible for the Zell Miller Scholarship if they were the salutatorian or valedictorian at their high school.
ABAC students currently receiving HOPE or Zell Miller may renew the scholarship based on ABAC’s certification of their grade point eligibility on their course work attempted and the completion of their financial aid application. All HOPE Scholarship recipients must have a 3.0 GPA and Zell Miller must have a 3.3 GPA (however, they can continue with HOPE if they fall below 3.3 and have at least a 3.0) at the end of having attempted 30 hours, 60 hours, 90 hours, AND at the end of each spring semester, to continue their eligibility. If new students are enrolled in fewer than twelve (12) credit hours for each of their first three terms in a row, they are considered a three-term checkpoint and are checked at the end of the third term. After the three-term checkpoint is applied once to students, the end-of-spring checkpoints must be applied to the students regardless of the number of hours enrolled each term.
Students who have lost HOPE eligibility may regain it upon having attempted 30 hours, 60 hours and 90 hours, if their GPA has reached 3.0 and it can only be regained once. But HOPE eligibility cannot be gained or regained at the end-of-spring check point. HOPE Scholarship recipients will have a paid hours limit in addition to an attempted hours limit. The total cumulative credit hours for which students can receive payment from any combination of credit hours from the Accel (through Spring term 2011) program plus HOPE Grant hours plus HOPE Scholarship hours are 127 semester hours.
Students applying for HOPE must complete a FAFSA or the GSFAPPS (state application at www.GAfutures.org). Transfer students who previously received HOPE at other institutions will be evaluated based on their GPA on all previous course work attempted after high school graduation. HOPE recipients who wish to enroll as transient students at other HOPE eligible institutions are eligible to receive HOPE funds at the host institution.