Today, Tyler ISD celebrated a groundbreaking milestone as seniors across Early College High School, Tyler High School, and Tyler Legacy High School were awarded an extraordinary $1,041,006,912 in early scholarship offers—some before submitting a single college application. Students received a total of 21,107 scholarship offers from colleges and universities nationwide.
At Tyler High School, students earned $273,480,420 in scholarship opportunities across 5,674 offers. Tyler Legacy High School students received $587,092,700 across 11,808 offers, while Early College High School students were awarded $180,433,792 through 3,625 offers.
The celebration was the result of Tyler ISD’s new partnership with VU Scholarships, a technology platform designed to reverse the traditional college search process. Instead of applying first and waiting to see whether financial aid will follow, students were matched in advance with colleges where they already qualify for merit scholarships based on their academic performance.
This initiative comes at no cost to families and requires minimal ongoing staff management, allowing Tyler ISD to extend the opportunity to all eligible students districtwide. This is an optional program where parents sign up their students to participate. Tyler ISD juniors will have the opportunity to participate in this partnership in the spring semester.
“This moment represents more than scholarship dollars—it represents opportunity,” said Tyler ISD Deputy Superintendent Dr. Lance Groppel. “Our students can now approach their college decisions with clarity and confidence, knowing exactly what financial support is available to them. This initiative is opening doors in a way we’ve never been able to before.”
The districtwide celebration included student reveal events at all three high schools, where cheers, tears, and applause filled the room as students discovered life-changing scholarship opportunities.
Tyler ISD looks forward to continuing this work to expand access to higher education and empower students to pursue their goals with fewer financial barriers.
For more information, contact Jennifer Hines at Jennifer.Hines@TylerISD.org.