At a Glance
Tennessee admits 41.6% of applicants.
What You'll Actually Pay
See what families at different income levels actually pay after aid.
What families actually pay, by income level
After grants and scholarships. Before loans. Public school prices shown at in-state rates.
Source: College Scorecard / IPEDS, 2024-25
Where the Sticker Price Goes
Based on average need-based grant. Actual cost varies by family income — see chart above.
Shown at in-state rates.
Debt at Graduation
37.5%
receive need-based grant aid
$31,264
average debt at graduation
Tennessee graduates carry an average of $31,264 in debt.
Merit Aid
9,812
students received merit aid
$6,419
average merit award
Getting In
Tennessee admits 41.6% of applicants.
SAT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 24% of the class submitted
ACT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 81% of the class submitted
40% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What They Value
Academic
Nonacademic
University of Tennessee, Knoxville considers your essay Important — a strong essay can differentiate an otherwise average application. Demonstrated interest is Not Considered here — campus visits and emails to admissions won't affect your odds.
Student Life
29% of Tennessee classes have fewer than 20 students.
Share of undergraduate class sections at each size, from CDS Section I-3. More red = more large lectures.
At Tennessee, 29% of your classes will have fewer than 20 students.
Class size data reflects all undergraduate sections including labs, seminars, and lectures. Large research universities often have smaller upper-division and graduate-level sections that improve the overall distribution. First and second-year students typically experience larger classes than these averages suggest.
Source: Common Data Set 2024–25, Section I-3 (class sizes)
18:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus Life
From out of state (freshman class)
35.4%
Live on campus
27%
Men in fraternities
20%
Women in sororities
37%
Who Attends
Racial and ethnic breakdown of enrolled undergraduates, as reported in each school's Common Data Set. "Unknown / Other" includes students who did not report or selected "other."
Tennessee's student body is 78% white.
Popular Majors
Will They Graduate?
Tennessee graduates 56.6% of students in 4 years.
Graduating late means paying for extra semesters. The 6-year rate tells you who eventually finishes — the 4-year rate tells you what it actually costs.
Tennessee graduates 56.6% of students in 4 years.
What finishing late actually costs
Based on each school's published cost of attendance. Public school costs shown at in-state rates.
Tennessee
56.6%
4-yr grad rate
Extra year cost: $33,678*
* In-state cost of attendance. Out-of-state students pay significantly more.
Graduation rate data from Common Data Set 2024–25, Fall 2018 cohort (most recent available). 4-year rate = students completing in 4 years or less. 6-year rate = students completing within 6 years.
73.9%
Overall 6-yr rate
64.5%
Pell recipient rate
A 9.4 point graduation gap between lower-income and overall students suggests financial or academic challenges for some students.
Freshman Retention
91.9%
91.9% of first-year students return for sophomore year.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in Knoxville.
Knoxville is a mid-sized East Tennessee city on the Tennessee River, with campus running down to the water and the Great Smoky Mountains an hour east. Downtown's Market Square is walkable from campus.
Notable Alumni
Peyton Manning
Two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback, who completed a BA in speech communication at Tennessee in three years
Class of 1996
Howard Baker
US Senate Majority Leader and White House chief of staff, who graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Law
Class of 1949
Cormac McCarthy
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, who studied at Tennessee across the 1950s and published his first stories in its student literary magazine, but left without a degree
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
The City
Mid-size city
Knoxville, TN
Best For
Traditions
Rocky Top
The fight song, played after every scoring play and known well beyond the state. It functions as the school's second name.
The Vol Navy
Fans sail down the Tennessee River and tie up at Neyland Stadium for home games — a tailgate fleet rather than a car park.
The Torchbearer
The campus statue and the university's symbol, tied to the motto that one who bears the torch shadows oneself to give light to others.
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from Knoxville
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
1 hourThe most visited national park in the country, immediately southeast of Knoxville.
Nashville
2 hours 45 minutesThe state's music and business capital, and a common internship destination.
Atlanta
3 hours 15 minutesThe nearest global airport and the largest job market in reach.
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
McGhee Tyson (TYS)
25 minutes from campus
For international flights: Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) — about 3 hours 15 minutes by road.
Pro sports nearby
- Tennessee Titans NFL
- Nashville Predators NHL
- Atlanta Braves MLB
Career Proximity
Tennessee's pipeline runs through energy and engineering — Oak Ridge National Laboratory is 30 minutes away, and the Tennessee Valley Authority is headquartered in Knoxville itself.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory
- Tennessee Valley Authority
- Denso
- Covenant Health
Nashville, 2 hours 45 minutes
Who Thrives Here
Tennessee admits 41.6% of applicants and requires the SAT or ACT rather than treating scores as optional, which is worth checking early because it changes what a student has to prepare. Its 30,564 undergraduates are 63.9% in-state and 35.4% from out of state, and the culture is unambiguous: 20% of men and 37% of women join Greek life while only 27.0% live on campus, so Knoxville itself absorbs most of student life and a student who wants none of that will be swimming against the current. Teaching is at real scale — 18 to 1, with 29.0% of sections under 20 — and completion lags what the retention rate promises: 91.9% of first-years return, but 56.6% finish in four years and 73.9% in six. Cost strongly favours residents at $13,812 against $32,956, Tennessee meets 59.6% of demonstrated need, and graduates carry $31,264 in average debt.