Tennessee HOPE Scholarship
Offered by Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation
About this scholarship
The Tennessee HOPE Scholarship is a lottery-funded award for academically qualified Tennessee high school graduates who enter an eligible postsecondary institution within 16 months. Completing the FAFSA is the scholarship application; the official fall deadline is September 1, with separate March 1 and May 1 deadlines for spring and summer. At four-year institutions and two-year institutions with campus housing, full-time recipients can receive up to $2,250 per semester as freshmen and sophomores and $2,850 as juniors and seniors. At other two-year institutions, the published amount is up to $1,600 per semester. Entering freshmen generally qualify with a 21 ACT or 1060 SAT, or a 3.0 high school GPA. The state publishes separate test and credential rules for home-school, GED, HiSET, and certain out-of-state graduates. Renewal is not automatic: recipients must file the FAFSA annually, remain continuously enrolled in fall and spring, make satisfactory academic progress, and meet the program's GPA checkpoints. Those checkpoints include a 2.75 cumulative GPA after 24 and 48 attempted hours and a 3.0 benchmark at 72 hours and later multiples of 24, with a provisional pathway for some students just below 3.0.
Eligibility
- Be a Tennessee resident under Tennessee Board of Regents residency rules
- Graduate from an eligible Tennessee high school or meet an officially listed exception or equivalency pathway
- Earn at least a 21 ACT, 1060 SAT, or 3.0 qualifying high school GPA under the standard entering-freshman pathway
- Enroll at an eligible postsecondary institution within 16 months after high school graduation
- Pursue an eligible associate or bachelor's degree program
- Complete the FAFSA by September 1 for fall enrollment
- Maintain continuous fall and spring enrollment and satisfactory academic progress
- Meet the published cumulative GPA checkpoints to renew the award