Panther Retention Grants
Georgia State provides micro grants to students each semester to help cover modest financial shortfalls affecting the students’ ability to pay tuition and fees and prevents them from stopping their studies or dropping out. Each semester, hundreds of qualified students are dropped from their classes for lack of payment. For as little as $300, Panther Retention Grants provide the emergency funding to allow students who want to get their degrees the opportunity to stay enrolled. Last year, nearly 2,000 Georgia State students were brought back to the classroom—and kept on the path to attaining a college degree—through the program.
Helping you cross the Financial Finish Line
You cannot apply for a Panther Retention Grant. Instead, staff examine the drop lists for students who are on track for graduation using our academic analytics, and have unmet need and modest balances for tuition and fees. Students are offered micro grants on the condition they agree to certain activities, including meeting with a financial counselor to map out plans to finance the rest of their education. Last academic year, 2,000 grants were offered. This included the first grants awarded to Perimeter College students during the spring 2016 and summer 2016 semesters.
Sixty-one percent of the seniors who received Panther Retention Grant support last academic year graduated within two semesters of receiving the grant and 82 percent either had graduated or were still enrolled one year after receiving the grant. With more than 5,000 grants awarded over the past four years, the Panther Retention Grant program has prevented thousands of students from dropping out of Georgia State.