TN Promise hopefuls face Monday application deadline
High school seniors have until 11:59 p.m. Monday to apply for Tennessee Promise, and officials are staging a late-night effort to help last-minute applicants.
Staffers at the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation hotline will be on hand to guide students through the application process until midnight. Mike Krause, Tennessee Promise executive director, said that while most seniors have completed their applications in school, hundreds could apply online in the final hours before the deadline.
“It remains an incredibly simple application to complete and can still be completed," he said. “If that one student that maybe waited to the last minute gets help, it’s a worthy endeavor.”
More than 54,000 students already had applied for the second year of the scholarship program as of Friday, which was slightly above the tally at the same point in 2014. If those students fulfill a set of requirements, such as attending meetings and doing volunteer work, the program will offer them two years of community or technical college tuition-free.
This year, about 30 of Tennessee's 95 counties have 100 percent participation among eligible graduating seniors. Every county in the state has logged at least 50 percent participation.
Those numbers suggest another year of wide support for the scholarship program. In 2014 58,000 seniors applied, representing 90 percent of eligible students statewide.
Krause said Metro schools represented one of the biggest success stories during the second year of recruitment. According to data pulled on Friday, 92 percent of Davidson County seniors had applied for Tennessee Promise.
He said that high percentage came from guidance counselors and schools working with students one-on-one over the past couple of weeks to drive up application numbers.
“Metro Nashville Public Schools mounted an absolutely herculean effort," he said. “They meticulously tracked individual student completion. I’m just really impressed by the campaign that they waged."
The same data showed Williamson County had one of the lowest levels of participation in the state. Forty-one percent of high school seniors there had not applied by Friday.
Officials across the state have urged students to apply for Tennessee Promise even if they don't think they will end up using it.
Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets.
More than 44,000 sign up for Tennessee Promise year 2
How to apply
Students can get information on applying online at tnpromise.gov. Applications will be accepted until 11:59 p.m. Monday. For help call the Tennessee Student Assistance Corporation hotline at 1-800-342-1663.
Applications by county
Cheatham: 390 applications, 86 percent participation
Davidson: 3,791 applications, 92 percent participation
Dickson: 450 applications, 82 percent participation
Montgomery: 1,390 applications, 74 percent participation
Robertson: 543 applications, 77 percent participation
Rutherford: 2,635 applications, 92 percent participation
Sumner: 2,006 applications, 100 percent participation
Williamson: 1,393 applications, 59 percent participation
Wilson County: 1,381 applications, 100 percent participation
Source: Data from Gov. Bill Haslam's office, pulled on Friday.