Don't Lose Hope
A guide to keeping your Hope Lottery Scholarship
- Submit a FAFSA every year, as soon as it opens.
- Remain continuously enrolled. Full-time students must complete at least 12 credit
hours per semester. Part-time students must complete at least 6 credit hours per semester.
- Taking a break or changing enrollment status from full-time to part-time (withdrawing from courses) will result in the loss of your scholarship. You may appeal the loss by providing proof of extenuating circumstances and submitting a Tennessee Scholarship Appeal Form. However, approval of your appeal cannot be guaranteed.
- You may be able to maintain the necessary number of credit hours by enrolling in enough credit hours to regain full-time status at the Austin Peay Center at Fort Campbell or Clarksville Campus Part B.
- If you must withdraw, call the Office of Student Financial Aid at (931) 221-7907.
- Maintain the required Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship (TELS) GPA.
- Your number of attempted credit hours increases each time you register for courses.
- You may lose your scholarship if you receive grades of FA or FN in a semester.
- Your GPA must meet the minimum guidelines, indicated below, at every 24 credit-hour mark.
| When your attempted TELS credit hours reach... | You must have at least |
|---|---|
| 24 or 48 attempted hours | 2.75 cumulative TELS GPA |
| 72, 96, 120 attempted hours and every multiple of 24 attempted hours thereafter | 3.0 cumulative TELS GPA OR 3.0 semester GPA and a cumulative TELS GPA of 2.75-2.99 (ONLY if enrolled at least full-time) |
- Raise your TELS GPA to the minimum requirement at your next benchmark review.
- If you have reached your new benchmark review and feel you have obtained the minimum TELS GPA requirement, you may submit a Lottery Scholarship Regain Option Request Form.
- You can only regain the Lottery scholarship, for GPA purposes, once. For example, if you regain your scholarship at the 48 hour benchmark and then fall below eligibility requirements at the 72 hour benchmark, you will not be eligible for regain.
- Note: The Repeat/Exclusion Request cannot be processed for courses where a grade of FA, FN, W, or WF has been received.
- Repeat a course in which you performed poorly.
- If you have repeated a course and earned a better grade, your repeated course could replace your previously earned grade. If your repeated course grade results in you earning the minimum TELS GPA at your next benchmark, you may be eligible to regain your scholarship. Any regain processed would be for one-time only and may not be utilized again in the future.
- If you have reached your new benchmark review and feel your repeated course grade would result in you obtaining the minimum TELS GPA requirement, you may submit a Lottery Scholarship Course Repeat/Exclusion Request Form.
The Tennessee Education Lottery Scholarship (TELS) GPA includes developmental and repeated courses. These grades are not typically calculated into your university GPA. If you earned college credit hours prior to high school graduation, these grades are computed into your APSU GPA but not the TELS GPA or attempted credit hours.
All attempted hours after high school graduation, including remedial and developmental studies courses, are included in the total attempted semester hours.
You may review your TELS GPA via OneStop under Web Self Service, Student Records.
Provided the student meets all continuing eligibility criteria above, the student
may receive the HOPE Scholarship until the first of the following terminating events:
- Student has earned an advanced degree; or
- Five (5) years have passed from the date of initial enrollment at any postsecondary institution
Changing your major, declaring a double major, adding a minor, etc., may extend your education. If this prevents you from graduating within the five year time frame, unfortunately the loss of the scholarship cannot be appealed.
Submit the Tennessee Scholarship Appeal/Leave of Absence Request Form and all supporting documentation to the Office of Student Financial Aid.
- You may not appeal Lottery scholarship losses due to earning an inadequate GPA.
- If your appeal/leave of absence is denied by APSU, you may submit requests to appeal APSU decisions to TSAC. Information pertaining to appealing your loss through TSAC may be reviewed here.