More than half the freshmen at 10 Georgia colleges last year renewed their HOPE Scholarships as sophomores, according to a new report by the Georgia Student Finance Commission.

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.