HouseHunter,
It is hard to answer your question precisely with the information you have provides. It would been easier to reply your post if you had mention whether it was transfer scholarship or freshmen scholarship that you were looking for. I wonder which website you looked and got that misleading info " the scholarship is only valid for 2 years". If I were you I would look at http://www.uta.edu/fao/scholarships/ for scholarship info at UTA.
As far as I am aware there are many scholarships available but it seems freshmen scholarship or transfer scholarship is more appropriate.
Freshmen (academic) scholarship is available for freshmen with requirement met such as SAT or ACT. Such scholarship is renewable up to 3 additional years upon meeting renewal requirements.
Transfer Scholarship is available for students transferring from other colleges with requirements met such as transferring with minimum 24 credit hrs and has at least CGPA 3.5. It may be renewed upto 2 yrs <
> and possibly extends on 3rd yr as well if college has fund. But 2 yrs is enough to finish Bachelors. It would be wise to finish all transferable classes at inexpensive college ( If it is other texas college upto 60 transferred credit hrs can be applied towards degree at UTA).
Besides that there is another scholarship "The Phi Theta Kappa Scholarship" that is an additional scholarship for member of Phi Theta Kappa. Its requirement is similar as requirements for transfer scholarship so you do not want to miss it if you meet requirements for transfer scholarship.
Good thing about Texas public college is if you get at least $1000 scholarship for an academic year, you will be eligible for in-state tuition fee ( which is already half of the non-resident tuition fee) for that year.
Hope you find it informative and wish you good luck.
P.S: I shared above information based on my experience at UTA but not an advice. Things could have changed since then.