A record-breaking number of students applied for the Tennessee Promise program, with more than 67,000 applicants from the Class of 2025, an announcement from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) said.¶
According to a Monday news release, the data marks the highest number of applicants since former Gov. Bill Haslam launched the program in 2015. The program includes a last-dollar scholarship that provides recent high school graduates the opportunity to complete an associate degree, certificate, or diploma program free of tuition and mandatory fees at a public community college, a Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT), or a public or private university with an eligible associate degree program, and provides students with support from mentors in partnering organizations like tnAchieves and The Ayers Foundation Trust.¶
"We are thrilled to see this level of interest and commitment from the Class of 2025," THEC Executive Director Dr. Steven Gentile said in a public statement. "The enthusiasm these students are showing for higher education reflects the success of Tennessee Promise and the growing momentum toward making postsecondary opportunities a reality for all Tennesseans."¶
The THEC announcement noted that the commission’s recent data report on Tennessee Promise applicants and students, student outcomes, student transfer behavior, and program finances found that the first-to-second semester success rate for the 2022-23 cohort hit an all-time high of 83.8 percent. This marks a 2.5 percentage point improvement over the previous cohort and the highest retention rate we’ve seen among all cohorts to date, according to the report.¶
In addition, THEC leaders said, over 18 percent of Tennessee Promise students in the 2023-24 cohort enrolled at TCATs in their first semester. This also marks a historic high, and represents a 1.6 percentage point increase from the last cohort.¶
For more information on Tennessee Promise, visit CollegeforTN.org/TNPromise.¶
