Okay, so I've been doing the math. My parents keep saying: "You have HOPE, you're fine." But I'm looking at numbers and I'm NOT fine. I'm terrified. 
Here's what HOPE actually covers:
Tuition. That's it. Mostly. At Georgia Tech, in-state tuition is about $10,500 . HOPE pays for most of that, depending on GPA. Sounds great, right?
But look at the OTHER costs Georgia Tech estimates for one year :
I showed this to my mom. She stared at the paper for like a full minute. Then she said: "We need to find a cheaper apartment."
But here's the thing that really messes with my head—a policy analyst from the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute says that for every $1,300 in need-based aid, a student's chance of enrolling AND graduating goes UP . So the money literally determines whether people finish college or not.
Another expert calculated what a student ACTUALLY needs to live , using MIT's living wage data :
What this means:
Unless my family has an extra $20k lying around—which we don't—I'm going to be working. A lot. And probably still struggling.
A freshman at Georgia College named Annie told lawmakers: "The cost of living is going up. Managing a job, social life, and school at the same time is really difficult." She asked them to "help with financial problems because we're all college students and we're just getting out of our houses."
I feel that. Hard. I'm not even in college yet and I'm already stressed about money.
Here's what HOPE actually covers:
Tuition. That's it. Mostly. At Georgia Tech, in-state tuition is about $10,500 . HOPE pays for most of that, depending on GPA. Sounds great, right?
But look at the OTHER costs Georgia Tech estimates for one year :
- Housing: $11,744 (off-campus estimate)
- Food: $6,132
- Books & supplies: $800
- Personal expenses: $2,800
- Transportation: $550
- Fees: $1,496 (not covered by HOPE)
I showed this to my mom. She stared at the paper for like a full minute. Then she said: "We need to find a cheaper apartment."
But here's the thing that really messes with my head—a policy analyst from the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute says that for every $1,300 in need-based aid, a student's chance of enrolling AND graduating goes UP . So the money literally determines whether people finish college or not.
Another expert calculated what a student ACTUALLY needs to live , using MIT's living wage data :
- Food: $4,335 (less than Tech's estimate—so Tech's number is actually LOW for food??)
- Housing: $15,580 (more than Tech's estimate—so Tech is lowballing housing!)
- Personal/misc: $11,273 (includes medical, phone, internet—Tech's estimate is $2,800. That's a $8,473 gap.)
- Transportation: $10,300 (Tech says $550. That's not even close.)
What this means:
Unless my family has an extra $20k lying around—which we don't—I'm going to be working. A lot. And probably still struggling.
A freshman at Georgia College named Annie told lawmakers: "The cost of living is going up. Managing a job, social life, and school at the same time is really difficult." She asked them to "help with financial problems because we're all college students and we're just getting out of our houses."
I feel that. Hard. I'm not even in college yet and I'm already stressed about money.
