Who Loses HOPE? Attrition from Georgia's College Scholarship Program

Abstract

Georgia's lottery‐funded HOPE Scholarship program provides free tuition to in‐state students who can maintain a B average at state universities. However, roughly half of HOPE Scholars lose their support after their freshman year. This study employs student‐level administrative data to identify the observed characteristics that systematically relate to scholarship attrition. Conditional on measures of student ability, there are not statistically significant differences between white, black, and Hispanic students. However, there are dramatic differences across academic disciplines. Students majoring in science, engineering, and computing are 21 to 51 percent more likely to lose their HOPE Scholarships than students in other disciplines.