“Hope” isn’t just the title of one of Tennessee’s most popular scholarships; it’s an amenity students can call their own . . . even if they lose the Hope Scholarship. Every spring, more than 700 Tech students drop below the minimum grade point average and are disqualified from the Tennessee Hope Education Lottery Scholarship.
The GPA requirement differs depending on which 24-credit-hour benchmark a student has reached. At 24 and 48 hours, the minimum is 2.75. At 72 hours or more, it’s 3.0.
What you may not know, however, is that 100 students regain the Hope Scholarship each semester. Students who send a request online will be reevaluated at the next benchmark to determine if they are eligible to regain their scholarship.
Sometimes, simply retaking a course will do the trick.
In other cases, “it takes a couple semesters of good, old-fashioned hard work,” said Adriane King, assistant director of financial aid.
The financial aid department tries to notify students when they should send a request, but King said it’s ultimately the student’s responsibility.
There are second chances available if students are unable to regain the Hope Scholarship. Tech has a privately endowed fund, called the Second Chance Hope, that offers financial assistance for this exact purpose. Applicants must have previously been awarded the Hope scholarship, and eligibility is determined primarily by financial need and is given out on a first-come, first-serve basis.
