Queen’s U in Charlotte has a direct entry nursing program with relatively modest requirements (25 ACT, I believe) and substantial automatic merit aid for relatively modest stats. Queen’s is small, but it is in Charlotte (about 4 hours from Atl) and has a lot to offer. If you put your stats or expected stats into their NPC, you can get a good idea of what it would cost. Since, even with HOPE, you have to pay room and board and piles of fees, it came out for my kid to be about the same cost as in-state with HOPE.