Pretty much nothing unless you have financial need. They only selected 300 semifinalists for Presidential from 15,000 EA applicants, and half of those were GA residents. There are tons of other scholarships but they say on the website that financial need is a factor for them. We are currently applying for them, though. Will see what happens. They also have a good co-op program. We have a lot to figure out. You can’t beat GA Tech’s reputation, but he was also impressed with UT’s engineering facilities and connection to ORNL (and no debt).
We have a good friend through church that is I think a dean over Freshman at UT engineering. I have nothing but positive things to say about him. I have been very impressed by them so far. No debt is a huge factor. Getting these kids started off without debt will be so important to them for the future. Thanks for the information about GA Tech. Good luck!!
Thanks! Once we get to the end of the process and I know more about final #'s, I will put an update on here.
That would be helpful!!
Well this was a timely article my son’s school just tweeted! Talks about the mentality behind why some schools are recruiting heavily outside their state. UT is mentioned but the article is predominantly about UA.
@Nerdyparent: “UT presently cannot match Alabama’s NMF scholarships. . . . many talented NMF students will continue to run for the border unless something changes.”
I spoke with Tom Broadhead, in the UT Office of Undergraduate Admissions, a few months ago at an admissions event, and asked him why UT did not recruit NMF students as Alabama and some other schools do, with full tuition and/or full ride scholarships. His response was that one year in the recent past, during the late UT presidency of Wade Gilley (I think it was), UT actually tried to lure NMF students with full tuition or full ride scholarships; and he said that the number of NMF students at UT actually decreased by half; so UT didn’t do it again. Now, I question whether one year of results is a statistically valid sample, and whether UT looked to see if there were other reasons why the number of NMF students declined during that year; but for whatever reason, UT prefers the nickle-and-dime approach with their merit scholarships, even with NMF students.
I think that UT is being short-sighted in this approach; but neither Joe DiPietro nor Jimmy Cheek have been burning up the phone lines to get my thoughts on the matter. :">
@gandalf78 wow - that is interesting.
It would probably take more than one year of offering a better deal to NMF for it to catch on (not nearly enough time to generate buzz).
Haslam scholarships are great, but there are too few to keep the majority of NMFs in state when they can get better offers at Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Kentucky, and Alabama.
I think they used to offer a $2000 pittance for NMF, but even adding this to their other piecemeal volunteer scholarships won’t cut it.
Progress is being made! Working with our Principal we developed a proposal and we are currently in discussions with someone in the Governors office. I am very hopeful at this point that at the very least information is being gathered and this problem will be solved. Again, anyone who could write a letter telling their story (why your student went out of state) would be appreciated. You can PM me and I can tell you where to send it or email it me and I can get it to the right people. Part of the problem is that it happens and the students leave and nobody ever knows why. We need them to see that if they had been more competitive your student may have stayed in state.
Interesting discussion. I am a former California resident whose DS is currently a student at Alabama. I am also a TN Achieves mentor volunteer. DS has friends at Bama who are from TN and did not benefit from the current TN Achieves program and they are a bit jealous.
I promised an update when the decision is made and here it is. Go Vols! Yes it is difficult to turn down Ga Tech and even Mercer, but UT did a good job of rewarding my son financially for his efforts. He received no money from GT. He is looking forward to the honors engineering faculty and the perks of early registration and great housing. And maybe he will get into GT for grad school, and will have co-op money to help pay for it 
Good luck to everyone still deciding!
^ Congrats on the decision – UT’s College of Engineering is definitely one of the academic bright points for the Knoxville campus! If you are an OOS student, then getting money from a highly competitive public university like GT is just tough.