Tennessee HOPE Scholarship requirements come down to one of two numbers: a 21 on the ACT (or 1060 SAT) or a 3.0 GPA. The scholarship pays up to $2,250 a semester at a four-year college for your first two years and $2,850 for your last two. Keeping it is harder than earning it: you need a 2.75 GPA after 24 and 48 attempted hours and a 3.0 at 72 hours.
The rules below are from College for TN, the state's college-planning site run by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission and Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation (TSAC).
How to qualify
For students graduating from an eligible Tennessee high school, HOPE requires one of:
- 21 ACT composite, or
- 1060 SAT (evidence-based reading and writing plus math), or
- 3.0 overall high school GPA, calculated with the extra quality points Tennessee's Uniform Grading Policy gives for AP, honors and similar courses.
You also must be a Tennessee resident and enroll within 16 months of graduation at an eligible Tennessee college. You apply by filing the FAFSA. It must be received by September 1 for fall, March 1 for spring or May 1 for summer.
Test-score fine print:
- No superscores. The ACT or SAT score must come from a single national or state test date. The ACT superscore and the ACT residual test aren't accepted.
- Timing. The test must be taken before your first day of college.
- Home school and GED graduates need the 21 ACT; their GPAs aren't considered. Home-schooled students can also qualify through two dual enrollment courses with a 3.0.
That single-date rule is the opposite of how colleges like UT Knoxville treat scores: UT superscores for admission, but HOPE won't. See UT Knoxville guaranteed admission.
How much HOPE pays
| Freshman and sophomore | Junior and senior | |
|---|---|---|
| Four-year colleges (and two-year colleges with on-campus housing) | Up to $2,250/semester | Up to $2,850/semester |
| Two-year colleges | Up to $1,600/semester | -- |
Source: College for TN. Amounts are per full-time semester and also available for summer.
Two supplements
| Supplement | Who qualifies | Extra amount |
|---|---|---|
| Aspire Award | HOPE-eligible, with parents' (or independent student's and spouse's) AGI of $36,000 or less | Up to $750/semester at four-year colleges; $250 at two-year |
| General Assembly Merit Scholarship (GAMS) | HOPE-eligible, with a 3.75 GPA and a 29 ACT (1330 SAT), single test date | Up to $500/semester, including summer |
Source: College for TN. Both use the FAFSA and the same deadlines as HOPE.
A freshman at a four-year college with HOPE plus GAMS gets up to $2,750 a semester; with HOPE plus Aspire, up to $3,000.
Keeping HOPE: the benchmarks
| Attempted semester hours | Cumulative GPA needed |
|---|---|
| 24 | 2.75 |
| 48 | 2.75 |
| 72, and every 24 hours after | 3.0 |
Source: College for TN.
If you're between 2.75 and 2.99 at 72 hours or later, you can keep HOPE semester by semester, as long as each semester GPA is at least 3.0 and you stay full-time.
Other rules:
- Enroll continuously in fall and spring and keep satisfactory academic progress.
- Refile the FAFSA every year.
- Don't drop courses without talking to financial aid first. College for TN warns that dropping without a documented medical or personal reason can cause a permanent loss of HOPE.
- Lost it? You can regain it once by meeting the benchmarks again while staying continuously enrolled without HOPE.
- Time limit: HOPE, Aspire and GAMS end when you earn an advanced degree or five years after you first enroll in college, whichever comes first.
What this means for you
- Have a 3.0 GPA? You're already eligible without any ACT score.
- Below a 3.0? Get a 21 on a single test date before you start college. Tennessee gives every junior the ACT, and in the class of 2025, 37.2% of graduates scored 21 or higher; see Tennessee high school ACT scores.
- Aim for 29 and a 3.75 if you can: GAMS adds $1,000 a year.
- Plan your first two years around 2.75. The 24- and 48-hour benchmarks come quickly, so know your attempted-hours count.
- For community college, pair HOPE with Tennessee Promise. Promise covers what HOPE doesn't; apply by November 2.