The current study explored differences in financial behaviors between college students in Georgia who retained the merit-based HOPE Scholarship and those who lost it. Logistic regression was used to analyze data from a sample of 557 undergraduate students from a large southeastern university. Students who initially had HOPE Scholarships but lost them were less likely to have used recommended financial management practices and had higher credit card as well as student loan debt than students who retained HOPE Scholarships. The results suggest that students who had lost the HOPE Scholarship may be more financially vulnerable than initially expected, particularly given their higher levels of debt and maladaptive financial management practices.