The Two Intertwined Cs: College and Communication
By: Joshua Davis
May 8, 2017
HOPE, a Georgia merit-based scholarship, is not obtained overnight, nor obtained without communication. However, in regards to important and ever-changing information about it, communication is not always received.
The CSU News Team interviewed several Georgia college students who have felt slighted by the HOPE Board, their high school and college in regards to matters such as the change in HOPE’s GPA Requirement and financial aid office issues that weren’t communicated to them.
Things That Are Out of High Schools’ Hands
One such instance where high school students were thinking about college, but still had it almost taken from them, comes from current CSU student Graham Johnson’s testimony about a change in HOPE’s GPA requirement that affected his high school’s baseball team.
“When I was a HS sophomore, the GPA threshold for HOPE (which I believe was 100% funding for all who qualified then) had increased from 2.6 to 3.0,” said Johnson. “When the news broke, I remember the baseball team, fed up, saying “there goes college.” However, they all still went; their dads paid.”
Even if a student does his part in applying for scholarships, that doesn’t mean the ones receiving the application will necessarily do the same.
Current CSU student Steven Talley mentioned an occasion where he sent in an application for HOPE that didn’t result in him hearing anything back.
“Once I sent in the application for the HOPE Scholarship,” said Talley, “and I don’t remember ever getting a response.”
Things That Are In High Schools’ Hands
Former Hardaway High School (and current CSU) student Duncan George stated that the changes to HOPE’s GPA requirement during his high school tenure didn’t have any bearing on him.
“The change didn’t affect me,” said George. “I was in high school still and didn’t have to worry about money.”
While it is true that high school students typically don’t have to worry about money as much as college students, the sooner high school students start doing what is necessary to gain scholarships, the better their odds of getting the best scholarships possible will be. However, with students mainly focusing on their present lives while in high school, sometimes it takes high school faculties stressing the necessity of scholarships during school hours to get students to start thinking about college.
With the Bad Comes the Good
Talley and Duncan are not the only ones to have ever been left in wonder over something HOPE-related. Georgia Tech graduate Dr. Norm Sammons also shared his experiences with HOPE.
“My experiences were great! Getting the HOPE scholarship initially was easy, as was maintaining it throughout my college career,” said Sammons. “The only negative I could think of was that they were a little unclear about when HOPE funding terminates. Other than that, it was a great program in those days!”
Sammons’ response brought in a new perspective. While he was left in the dark about when HOPE funding terminates like Talley was about the HOPE application he sent in, his experience with HOPE was a positive one overall.
Sammons’ outlook on his HOPE experiences is reminiscent of the college journey. While it is true that communication issues do occur every step of the way, in the end, the benefit of going through college outways the hassles students experience while within it.
