Did you know that if you drop below full time you can lose your Hope or Tennessee Promise Scholarship? Be sure to talk to financial aid and your advisor before making any changes.
Collegefortn.org has a list of FAQs that I talked about and you will want to look at those and then look at your specific school's website about scholarships.
You can lose scholarships for attending less than full time as well as failure to progress. There's a percentage of classes that you must pass so they feel you will graduate timely. Of course GPA requirements must be met as well. All in all many people keep their scholarships, but over 4 years many also lose them. I'd just hate for you to lose them for something you could have prevented.
Speak to your advisor AND financial aid before dropping a class with a "W" grade as well. You need to know how that impacts hours attended, hours passed, and your full time status. It's really a lot to read up on and you're likely busy with your classes, which is why I say to make an appointment and talk to someone at the school who knows the rules for your specific situation.
Check out TN.gov to see more and click around on what the First-Time HOPE scholarship recipient renewal and retention progression looks like. There are so many pages of documents that tell how many they give out, how much, to which colleges and universities, and so much more. It's a lot of information, but good to know about.
There are so many places around campus to meet people. However, it doesn't always happen as quickly as you'd like. Be sure to get out there and talk to people, see if there are others looking for someone to eat dinner with, or just invite someone who you see sitting alone to join you. Speak to your RA, go to the lobby, go early to class and talk to people in there, join a club, check out the religious or social organizations, go to the gym, just don't sit there sad. You can do it, but you're not alone. Others are also out of their comfort zone and in a few weeks it'll start feeling more comfortable.
Hello everyone, this is a reminder that I posted about this at the end of August, but it's HERE!! Most people need a few reminders so this is it...share with your class of 2026 groups. It stinks to have to pay for it when it could have been free.
The Gates Scholarship Program is for low-income, high-achieving students. The deadline to apply is September 15th. https://www.thegatesscholarship.org/
The Gates Scholarship (TGS) is a highly selective, last-dollar scholarship for outstanding high school seniors from low-income households. Each year, the scholarship is awarded to exceptional student leaders, with the intent of helping them realize their maximum potential. This year they took out the requirement of being a minority, but you still must be pell-eligible. What that means is your income must be low when you fill out the FAFSA you need to be able to quality for the Pell Grant. You may want to look up what that income looks like for your area, but this chart on the Federal Student Aid Partners should give you an idea.
I did find a great Reddit Thread from a previous winner where you can read comments and ask anything, but there are other sites around just google and look and see what other advise you can find.
The timeline for the Gates Scholarship is shown below - apply by Sept 15th!
From their website - An ideal candidate will have:
Exceptional personal success skills (e.g., emotional maturity, motivation, perseverance, etc.)
An outstanding academic record in high school (in the top 10% of his/her graduating class)
Demonstrated leadership ability (e.g., as shown through participation in community service, extracurricular, or other activities)
The Elks Most Valuable Student Scholarship is for high school seniors who are U.S. citizens. It is both a regional and a national scholarship with the same application! The 2026 MVS application closes on November 12, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time.
Go check out the application and read more about it. It will send you to this ISTS page to apply. You will need to create an account, be sure it's an email you will check as that's how they notify the finalists and winners (through email). I suggest you making a new email address that sounds professional for your applications just so it looks more professional.
This application has an essay, requires a high school counselor report, a resume, and your grades list. It's lengthy but worth it! It's one of the first for seniors this year so go ahead and get everything together now so you have it for others as the year goes on.
Scholarships are available only to students who enroll in four-year undergraduate degree programs at accredited U.S. American colleges or universities.
Current high school seniors, or the equivalent, who are citizens of the United States are eligible to apply.
Applicants do not need to be related to a member of the Elks.
High school graduates are not eligible to apply.
Applicants must be citizens of the United States on the date their applications are submitted; permanent legal resident status does not qualify.
2026 Most Valuable Student Award Offers 500 Four-Year Awards for the 2026-27, 2027-28, 2028-29, 2029-30 Academic Years
Four-Year Total Award
No. of Awards
Total
First Place
$30,000
20
$600,000
Runners Up
$4,000
480
$1,920,000
Total:
$2,520,000
Many local Lodges, districts and state Elks associations award their own scholarships through this program. These scholarships are not to be confused with the 500 Elks National Foundation Most Valuable Student Scholarships, but the application is the same.
Each year, the month of September is Tennessee College Application & Exploration Month. If you are a senior in high school, go check out this year's list of free colleges to apply to in Tennessee. This list can save you hundreds of dollars, so if you're even considering any of these, be sure to apply while it's free. At most schools, there's a fee to apply, which can impact some people's ability to apply to various schools and see what they receive in student aid offers.
Do it before the free window closes! I'll keep my eyes peeled for other states, but I know some others have a week or month like this as well.
2025-2026 Dates
September 1-5 — Explore College & Career September 8-12 — Prepare to Apply September 15-19 — Apply September 22-26 — I Applied, Now What?
The full PDF is here, but can change as schools are added as the month progresses.
You need to get your balance owed down to $0 before you can confirm your classes. You can do that by paying, accepting your loans, accepting your scholarships, or making a payment plan. However, you must do these soon as you must confirm your classes by the deadline.
Purpose: To help a deserving female Williamson County student pursue undergraduate studies.
The Award: Up to two selected female students may receive a Scholarship (paid after the recipient satisfactorily completes her first semester and earns a passing grade) of up to $2,500 payable to the “School” in which they are enrolled.
Watch this so you be sure you don’t miss anything!
I have talked about a lot of stuff in this, so here's the links to back up what I talked about. First you should look at CollegeforTN.org to learn the lingo. The definitions of many of the items the financial aid office speaks about can be found there and it's really helpful.
The HOPE scholarship has a documentyou can download and read to see amounts, stats of losing/keeping, how many are awarded, etc. You can view many years' worth of data on the HOPE on the tn.gov site.
The Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation (TSAC) Student Portal, is your one-stop-shop for applying for Tennessee financial aid, including the Tennessee Promise application.
The Tennessee Student Assistance Award (TSAA) provides non-repayable financial assistance to financially-needy undergraduate students who are residents of Tennessee. Sometimes this shows up as the TSAC grant.
For the Pell Grant the application was the FAFSA and you can see the amounts they have listed for this academic year.
Lastly how to check out and accept your student loans. This is the website you will go to in order to do your counselling. The Master Promissory Note (MPN) is a legal document in which you promise to repay your loan(s) and any accrued interest and fees to the U.S. Department of Education. It also explains the terms and conditions of your loan(s).
When you want to repay your loans, this is where you go as well. Your servicer will have sent you emails about it, but you can log in and look here too.
Secondly, check your university email. Seriously. Go do it now, I'll wait.
Did you find something to take action on? Oh you didn't because only old people check their email, well guess what - you're now considered old. Have you said six-sevvvven thirty times a day? Yeah you're now old so welcome to the club and check your email.
If you're going to a college in the fall you need to check that email often. Put it on your phone or forward it to the email address you will check. Some forward to their gmail as that has a good app that will do notifications and you can always disable the email forwarding after you graduate.
Be sure you are signed up for your orientation for this summer. If you've attended orientation, you may have left with a less-than-exciting schedule for the fall....let's talk about how you can fix it. Go into your portal and go into your classes and find other sections of the SAME CLASS. If it's ENGL 1010 you may see there's 30+ sections of that class. Wow. As long as you're moving to the same class you can make changes as many times as you want to get the class schedule you desire.
This is a tip that not many incoming students will know...there's a date RIGHT before classes start where if you haven't confirmed your schedule and have a zero balance they will drop your classes. It's called "The Purge" and I'll talk more about what it is and such later, but for today you will want to know that it can happen, but not to you because you're paying attention. If there's one class section that's full, but would fit into your schedule perfectly - go join the waitlist for it today. The earlier you're on the waitlist the better. Now, be sure to check your email daily because if someone drops it you will only have a short window of time to sign up for it. I'll tell you more about how to grab the class if it doesn't have a waitlist in a little bit, but if there's a waitlist go get on it now.
Have a good summer and make sure you have no outstanding forms to fill out in your financial aid section of your portal too. There's entrance counselling for first time student loan recipients and you may have to do it before it will post to your account. It's a lot, I know. I'm here to remind you at least until you realize that this happens each year.
