Interest in Tennesse’s free tuition program for its community and state technical colleges is promising, to say the least, as the number of applicants for its Class of 2025 broke last year’s record by more than 700.
Tennessee Promise, a last-dollar scholarship program that kicks in after a graduating high school student receives aid through the Pell Grant and other state grants, drew over 67,000 applicants this year. The figure may continue to rise as those impacted by Hurricane Helene are encouraged to apply past the Nov. 1 cut-off.
First-time undergraduate enrollment exploded across the state’s community colleges by at least 40% when the initiative was implemented in 2015. It quickly inspired a wake of last-dollar scholarship programs across Oregon, New York and Rhode Island, according to The Tennessean. Minnesota is one of the latest states to offer its residents tuition-free access to postsecondary education through its aptly named North Star Promise.
Nearly a decade later, Tennessee Promise continues to break records. The first-to-second-semester retention rate for its 2022-23 cohort hit an all-time high of 83.8%, according to the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. The proportion of applicants who chose to enroll in the state technical college system also hit an 18% high.
Tennessee high schoolers’ historic interest in community and technical colleges comes during a nationwide decline in undergraduate enrollment among first-year students this fall. Community colleges, however, have fared better than their counterparts. In the last two years, enrollment has grown by 6.8% among 18- to 20-year-olds, the typical age of graduating high school students, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. These gains are significantly higher than those found in the 4-year public (5.9%) and private (1.5%) sectors.
More from UB: Here’s why two-thirds of Latino students consider stopping out
