New Hollins scholarship program will cover tuition, room and board for some low-income students

Hollins University has announced a nationwide program to offer debt-free education at the private women’s college in Roanoke.

The Hollins Opportunity for Promise through Education scholarship, or HOPE, will cover tuition and fees along with on-campus food and housing for some students with financial need. The university plans to give awards to up to 100 students in each of the next two admitted classes.

“We believe in the power of the Hollins academic and residential experience and want to ensure that students can access this experience regardless of income level,” President Mary Dana Hinton said in a press release.

Fall 2025 incoming freshmen will be the first class eligible for the scholarship. Applicants will be automatically considered if they are eligible for the Pell Grant, a federal student aid program.  Hollins’ release on the program notes that students with family incomes at or below $65,000 are typically eligible for the Pell Grant.

International and transfer students are not eligible for the HOPE program.

The nationwide launch of the program expands on the original HOPE Scholars program that Hollins established in 2021. The last-dollar program, which gets applied after other financial aid offers, covers tuition for some students living within a 40-mile radius of Roanoke. That program is open to commuter students as well as on-campus residents and gives priority to students whose families have household incomes of $50,000 or less.

The early success of the local program propelled the school to expand it to applicants from across the country. Sixty-two students were enrolled in the local HOPE program for the 2023-2024 academic year, said Jeff Hodges, director of public relations at Hollins.

“Retention rates for HOPE scholars are higher than our overall undergraduate retention average, which signals their deep readiness and commitment to a rigorous academic experience,” Hodges said.

Hollins announced in December 2021 it had received a $75 million donation from an anonymous alumna, the largest single gift the university had ever received. That gift established an endowed scholarship fund exclusively for undergraduate scholarships.

Hodges said the school expects to raise $10 million by the end of 2024 to fund the first two years of the nationwide HOPE program. “Our long-term goal is to raise roughly $125 million in gifts that will go into our endowment to support the HOPE scholarship into perpetuity,” he said.

The school had 673 undergraduate students in fall 2023, along with 77 graduate students, according to state data. Its undergraduate enrollment has remained steady over the past 10 years, which contrasts with many other colleges in Virginia that have seen enrollment decline over the same period.

About 60% of Hollins’ incoming undergraduate students were from Virginia in fall 2023.

Full-time tuition costs $42,000 annually, plus about $16,000 for room and board and $1,000 for student fees. The average incoming undergraduate receives more than $34,000 in scholarships and grants, the university said, and all admitted students receive academic merit scholarships of at least $24,000 annually.

Accessibility and affordability is a key pillar of the university’s strategic plan credited to Hinton. Hinton started as president of Hollins University in 2020 and has a contract through 2030.

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