Why do you make students piece together multiple little scholarships (stacking Hope + Volunteer + others) instead of offering one big automatically renewing scholarship to National Merit Finalists like the University of Alabama and University of Kentucky do? Did the implementation of the lottery (Hope) scholarships strain the system that badly?
The hassle of having to reapply for the Hope Scholarship every year and having to stack scholarships in a piecemeal fashion that barely cover tuition is causing you to lose high quality in-state applicants! Surely you must realize that you are hemorrhaging Tennessee NMF’s to UK and UA north and south of your borders?
The fact that there are hardly any posts in the UTK forum over the last six months attests to the lack of buzz and enthusiasm among top students for your school.
I heartily agree. My son is NMF, ACT 35. The offers from UAlabama and UKentucky are markedly better than the one from UTK. For example, UA offers free out of state tuition for ACT 32 or greater and even better deal for NMF. For this reason, many of the very top students at our Middle TN public high school in the last few years have chosen UA or UK. I think UT needs to get in the game with better merit offers if they want to attract the best and brightest.
Yep - and seemingly no interest on UTK’s part about changing their scholarships for talented in-state applicants.
My DC2 is not even going to apply to UTK for this reason.
Why blow a National Merit Scholarship with so many perks (like Bama’s) to attend a university like UTK that barely covers the cost of tuition? It makes no sense.
I am very interested in this topic. I am in Knoxville with three kids. My oldest, a junior, is currently looking. I think he would chose UT currently. He loves Knoxville and is invested in the community. He has a 34 ACT and did very will on the PSAT. Am I correct that with Hope, Volunteer and NM scholarships UT will offer him $14,500 with the opportunity to apply for additional scholarships, however currently leaving $10k to pay per year? He is also planning to look at AL which offers nearly a full ride for NM, Auburn, and GA. I am interested to hear from parents with kids at any of these other schools to see how their scholarships compare. Did it really cost you less to send your kids out-of-state? Also, I am very concerned about our state if we keep sending the best and brightest away for school. Would love to hear from parents with recent experience with this?
If your looking for scholarship money - pick Alabama over Auburn… If you’re looking for education and fit - visit the schools, they are equal but different. My son chose less $ because of fit…fell in love with Auburn and so did his parents. War Eagle!
We have a bunch of extended family in Tennessee and I wonder the same thing. I did have two cousins graduate from UTK. But my nephew goes to ETSU and my niece goes to VT.
You would think that UT would want to compete with UA and UK in the scholarship department but maybe they don’t need to? ??
D16 has all her materials into UTK; waiting to hear about bigger $ (Haslam, Chancellor type scholarships). Between Hope ($3500-5000?), Volunteer ($8k), and NMF ($2k). In the meantime she’s looking most seriously at out of state NMF scholar programs-- cost will likely be same or less-- and no unfortunate orange!
Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but why does it matter how much total scholarships you receive? What matters to me is how much we have to pay. If you get free tuition as UA or UT, it’s still the same thing. And UT is like any school whose state offers a Hope scholarship, they combine it with institutional scholarships to arrive at the free tuition. That’s the beauty of a state scholarship, it saves the university system money they can use for other things. It’s a reason to stay in state, not leave it.
I completely agree…it is what I have to pay out of pocket that matters not necessarily the scholarship. Currently however depending on test scores and grades of your student UTK is not competing at all with other state schools. In my current situation (we live in Knoxville) with my student it would actually be a horrible financial decision for him to stay in state and attend UT. Tuition is covered but room and board will cost me around $9000 a year and he could attend Alabama for free (tuition, room and board). Now we may choose to spend that money because UTK is where he wants to go, but seems crazy that he could have his college paid for completely by several other schools and we still will pay $36,000 over 4 years at UT, especially when he plans on grad school as well. Make sense?
Exactly - UT presently cannot match Alabama’s NMF scholarships.
Not saying they are obligated to, mind you - just pointing out that many talented NMF students will continue to run for the border unless something changes.
I am currently working with the Principal of my school who is also very concerned about this issue. He has a proposal to make to the legislature on the issue. The climate seems right currently with a budget surplus and a focus on education. If anyone who has been through this over the last few years would like to share a testimonial that we can use it would be helpful. It may be too late for our kids but we can hopefully make some changes for the future. If you would like to share please pm me.
Ah, that makes sense. I didn’t realize UA gives room & board to NMF. Ultimately my son likes UT’s engineering program over UA’s so he didn’t apply there, but that would be a tough decision. Did your student actually apply to UT? Surely with those stats there would be other departmental or academic money available.
Well technically UA doesn’t give room and board except for first year, but they give $3500 toward it after first year plus computer, plus $2000 travel/research AND a 5th year of tuition for grad school, so when adding in the 5th year it easily translates to full ride for 4 years. My son is actaully a junior…we started the process early. He is looking into accounting and engineering. Yes, he will apply to both and I have heard that there are a few departmental scholarships. Plus there are chancellor and Haslam scholarships but they are very limited and are around $2-5k. I would think he would possible win a bit more money and he will apply for private scholarships as well. We will try everything we can! Is your son a senior? Has he decided on UT for sure?