These

renewal rates come despite a just-released

national study that shows the

freshmen-to-sophomore year dropout rate in

academic year 1997-98 was 26.4 percent among

America's four-year colleges and universities,

and 45 percent among two-year institutions.

At

the university of Georgia - the state's

largest public university - 56 percent of

the 1997-98 freshmen renewed HOPE as sophomores

for the current 1998-99 academic year.

Among

Georgia's private colleges, Morehouse College in

Atlanta had the best results, with 84 of its 132

freshmen remaining HOPE-eligible as sophomores,

or 64 percent.

HOPE

- Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally

- provides tuition, mandatory fees and a

$300 per school year book allowance to Georgia

students attending Georgia public colleges,

universities and technical institutions. HOPE

provides a $3,000 scholarship to students

attending Georgia private colleges and

universities. Degree-seeking students must earn a

"B" average in high school to qualify

for HOPE, and maintain a "B" average in

college.

HOPE

Scholarships are funded entirely by proceeds from

the Georgia Lottery. Since September 1993, more

than 371,000 HOPE Scholars have received a $732

million for their tuition, fees and books.

HOPE

is administered by the Georgia Student Finance

Commission.

The

Commission report found that statewide, 36

percent of the 25,829 freshmen attending

Georgia's 67 public and private colleges and

universities renewed their HOPE scholarships as

sophomores in 1998-99.

"We

anticipate that the new high school core

curriculum requirements that students must make a

"B" average in the core curriculum

courses will improve the renewal rate beginning

with the fall semester 2000 entering college

freshman," Commission executive Glenn

Newsome said. This year' senior high school class

- the Class of 1999 - is the final

class in which grades from all courses taken

count toward the "B" average.

Beginning

with the high school class of 2000, only the core

curriculum courses of English language arts,

mathematics, science, social science and foreign

language will count in calculating HOPE

eligibility.

Newsome

pointed out the HOPE renewal rate should be

considered in conjunction with the recent report

of students simply leaving college after one

year.

ACT

Inc., best known for its college admissions

testing program, studied the

freshman-to-sophomore-year dropout rates at 1,625

four-year and 920 two-year colleges and

universities throughout the United States.

The

overall dropout rate among four-year institutions

for the 1997-98 academic year was 26.4 percent, a

slight drop from the 26.7 percent rate of

1996-97. Among public four-year colleges and

universities, the dropout rate was 28.8 percent

for 1997-98, versus 25.3 percent for private

four-year schools.

Among

two-year college, the freshman-to-sophomore-year

dropout rate was 45 percent, an increase from the

44.6 percent rate of 1996-97. The dropout rate

among two-year public colleges for 1997-98 was

47.7 percent, substantially higher than the

two-year private college dropout rate of 31.5

percent.

The

Commission administers Georgia's HOPE Scholarship

Program as well as other grants, loans and

scholarships. Last year, the Commission provided

financial assistance to more than 231,000 Georgia

students.

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