The first cohort of Tennessee Promise students has had a success rate of 56.2 percent, compared to the national average of just 17 percent, Flora Tydings, chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents, told the Rotary Club of Chattanooga Thursday.
Tennessee Promise provides “last dollars” scholarships to high school graduates wanting to attend two-year state community colleges or colleges of applied technology.
The scholarship increased the number of first-time, full-time students attending college. It also increased the state’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid filing rate, making it the highest in the nation, Tydings told Rotarians. Tennessee’s FAFSA filing rate increased from 60 percent in 2014 to 73.5 percent this year.
Tydings said the average ACT score for the 13,287 students in the first cohort, starting college in 2015, was between 17 and 18, meaning those students would not have been accepted at a four-year university.
“So what we found is not only did this increase the numbers that were coming in, but it truly took those students who would not have been able to go to the university, and they are now in college,” Tydings said. “They are doing very well.”