For Tech students who did not receive the HOPE Scholarship this year, the hope of financial aid may seem grim. Fortunately, the Scholarship office offers approximately 550 scholarships to ease the fiscal burden.
The requirements of Tennessee’s HOPE Scholarship are steep, according to the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation.
Students are required to have an overall 3.0 GPA and a minimum of 21 ACT score. Although that may sound easy to a rising freshman in college, for most college students it is not. Not only do college students need these requirements to receive the aid, they also have to maintain a 3.0 at the end of the semesters where they attempted between 72 and 96 hours to keep the scholarship.
Chelsea Watkins, HOPE recipient, was approved by FASFA to receive her scholarship, but said receiving it was not easy.
“It took an additional month to get it after I was approved because the Financial Aid office told me that just because FASFA said I was eligible, that it did not guarantee my scholarship,” Watkins said.
The HOPE is an excellent resource for college students, but for those who either did not qualify for the renewal or had problems with its processing, TTU has a solution.Kelly Chambers, scholarship manager at TTU said, “We make it easy. Students fill out one scholarship application, which makes them eligible for any TTU scholarship. It takes about 30 minutes.”
The scholarship application is due Dec. 15 and can be completed online at http://www.tntech.edu/scholarships/home/.
Chambers has advice for students applying for a scholarship.
“Now is the time to apply,” Chambers said. “Fill out the application completely and don’t leave questions blank. Some students may think their grades aren’t that great, but that shouldn’t stop them from applying.”
