By Faith Shealy

The state of Tennessee has found a way to help students pay for college through the Tennessee Lottery Scholarship, the most popular being the HOPE Scholarship. Although many students start college with the scholarship, about a fourth of the students lose it because they cannot maintain grade requirements.

The Tennessee Lottery was implemented when Gov. Phil Bredesen signed the law on June 11, 2003. The Lottery’s official first day was Jan. 20, 2004. The first transfer of money into the Tennessee Lottery Scholarship fund was April 15, 2004. This would be the beginning of helping high school graduates go to college without having to worry about the expenses.

The Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation, run by the Tennessee government, controls the lottery money and comes up with the requirements of the scholarship. The student must meet and maintain the requirements to keep the scholarship while they are in school. The students are evaluated throughout their time in school to make sure they have kept the required grade point average.

A freshman going into college must be a resident of Tennessee and must go to a school in Tennessee that is approved for the HOPE Scholarship. They must have a 21 on their ACT or a 980 on their SAT. If they are not eligible for the HOPE Scholarship, because of grades, they may regain the scholarship only once.

Lisa Bell, a financial aid counselor, speaks with students every day on the matter of financial aid and scholarship opportunities offered at ETSU. She said that about 83 percent of students at ETSU have financial aid and 4,500 of those students have the HOPE Scholarship. Bell reported that about a fourth of the students lose the scholarship, which is a significant number.

“A 3.0 GPA is hard to maintain,” Bell said. “Students have a lot of responsibility, jobs and such because of the cost of living going up.”

Sophomore Logan Williams, 20, says the HOPE Scholarship pays almost all of his tuition. He does not believe it is difficult to maintain the grade average for the scholarship.

“If you want to keep your scholarship, you’ll find a way to keep it,” Williams said.

Williams believes that some of the rules are too strict. He believes that taking a semester off of college to work or travel should not be reason to lose the scholarship.

John McMeen, 24, is a computer science major at ETSU. He graduated high school one year before the scholarship was implemented. He believes the scholarship is really helpful to students who do not have the money to pay for school.

“I wouldn’t have to worry about half as much if I didn’t have to worry about paying for school,” said McMeen.

Although the HOPE Scholarship seems helpful to students, the means have been somewhat controversial. The lottery has been seen as damaging to people’s pocketbooks
for many years, and many people protested the lottery when the bill was passed in 2003.

McMeen believes that the lottery is a good idea despite the bad reputation given to it by some people.

“I play the lottery knowing it will help people go to school,” McMeen said, “but mainly because I’m hoping I’ll win.”

Williams said that the gambling aspect of the lottery was not taking people’s money.

“If you are old enough to gamble, you are old enough to decide how you will spend your money. At least it is going for a good cause,” Williams said.

With the announcement of the rising tuition in fall 2009, many students are wondering where they can find the extra money to help cover the extra cost, and if they would get more scholarship money.