They are supposed to be Georgia's best and brightest -- the students getting free tuition and fees under the HOPE scholarship.

But some recipients spend almost as much time trying to work the system as they do hitting the books.

They take as few classes as they can get away with.

Others look for the easiest A's they can find, seeking out professors with reputations for giving good grades. And if a class gets too difficult, they're quick to drop it before a low grade goes on their records.

College students know that to keep HOPE money flowing -- about $4,400 to cover a year of tuition, fees and books at Georgia's research universities -- they've got to maintain a B average. For some, it's evolved into a far more complicated system than just studying for class.

Bill Melton, a seventh-year senior at the University of Georgia, said he dropped several classes, took extra semesters to graduate and changed his major -- in large part to try to keep his scholaarship.

"HOPE definitely changed the way I took classes," Melton said. "I did a lot of things to try to stay eligible."

Some UGA students use the Key -- a student government-run Internet site that lists all professors, their classes and their grade distributions. With handy colored charts, the Key shows students which biology professor is likely to give A's and which is likely to fail more students.

But there's an even more common tactic that students use to hang on to the scholarship even when their grades are dropping.

Students know the scholarship program doesn't check on their grade point averages until they complete 30 credit hours -- a typical student's full-time course load for a year. HOPE scholars who suspect they won't be able to keep their grades up often trim their schedule to about 24 credit hours. The result: Even students who have less than a B average at the end of their first year on campus can hold on to the scholarship for at least one more semester.

Financial aid officials say they see it often.

"We know that they are taking less hours to keep their HOPE one more time," said Connie Murphey, director of financial aid at Georgia Southern University. "I think parents in the back of their brains see HOPE as a three-term financial aid."

Often, the only real limit on how few credit hours students take is set not by HOPE but by car insurance companies, said Elise Boyett, the HOPE coordinator at Georgia Southern's financial aid office. Typically, students have to take at least 12 credit hours a semester to be considered full-time students and remain on their parents' policies.

Researchers at UGA -- where nearly all in-state freshmen qualify for HOPE -- have noticed a change since HOPE began. They have found that freshman HOPE recipients at the school withdraw from more classes and take fewer classes per semester than out-of-state students.

"HOPE has had some serious unintended consequences on college behavior," said UGA economics professor David Mustard, who conducted the studies with fellow researcher Chris Cornwell. "Students don't have an incentive to rush through college."

UGA student Daniel Digby wishes he'd been more savvy about how the system works. He said his high school just didn't do a good job of preparing him for college.

"First semester was so hard," said the junior from Bainbridge. "I was so stupid and didn't know how to play" the system.

Some of his friends knew better. They took fewer classes and saved harder courses until the summer. They meticulously planned out their schedules just to keep HOPE.

"There's definitely a game to it," Digby said.

State university administrators worry about students' extended college careers because funding from the state is based in part on credit hours. UGA President Michael Adams has said the university will lose $6 million to $10 million a year unless students take more classes.

Del Dunn, UGA's vice president for instruction and associate provost, said the school had considered giving students "a gentle nudge" toward graduation by limiting football tickets and parking for students who pass the four-year mark. They decided against it because part-time students would be penalized.

Several other states with HOPE-like programs pay for eight semesters, no matter how many, or how few, classes a student takes each semester.

West Virginia's PROMISE scholarship requires students to complete at least 30 credit hours a year.

"It weeds out the students who aren't going to be serious about completing their academic studies," said Bob Morgenstern, executive director of the program. "It saves our institutions money."