payments for books and mandatory fees. The new HOPE Scholarship, or HOPE Lite, will now be based on Lottery revenue. The new scholarship within HOPE, the Zell Miller Scholarship, will cover 100% of tuition for those students who graduate with a 3.7 HOPE GPA and receive a score of 1200 (CR+M) on the SAT or a 26 ACT Composite at public colleges ($4,000 at private colleges), and maintain a 3.3 GPA while in college. Books and fees have also been eliminated for this scholarship as well. These changes also added additional academic rigor requirements to take effect in stages starting in 2015 and going through 2017. These requirements define the type and number of specific core academic courses required for graduation eligibility for the Hope Scholarship, including raising the required GPA for students to be eligible for the HOPE Grant to 3.0. Although these changes have taken some of the strain off of Georgia's finances, it has also resulted in about 1/4th of all Technical College students dropping out of college and increases in the accrued debt of those who remained. March 2013: State Representative Stacey Evans introduces House Bill 54 to reverse some of the changes to the HOPE Scholarship program and, she claimed, help more Georgia students realize their dream and the original purpose of the HOPE program. Her ideas were incorporated into House Bill 372 which lowered the required GPA for HOPE Grants (the HOPE Scholarship for Technical Schools) back to the original 2.0 and bringing back 5,000 students into Technical College in the first year alone. Award history Awards The money provided to HOPE Scholars varies and depends on the type of institution as well as the student's specific enrollment. Public institutions Tuition for number of hours enrolled whether full-time or part-time Private institutions Full-time students: $1,800 per semester, $1,300 per quarter Half-time students: $900 per semester, $670 per quarter Application procedures To apply for the HOPE Scholarship, students must follow the registration demands of the school they chose. Public colleges, universities, and technical colleges Students planning to attend a public college, university, or technical college have two options for applying for the HOPE Scholarship. Complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA): By using a GAcollege411 account and accessing the FAFSA application from GAcollege411, applicants can reduce the amount of time it takes to complete this form. Or one can apply for the HOPE