What You'll Actually Pay
Price after grants
$10,029 to $25,688 a year for in-state students, depending on income.
College Scorecard 2024 estimate · in-state rates
See the price at your income ↑Sticker price
Full cost before aid: $33,678 a year in-state. Average need-based aid package: $14,180.Aid and debt
37.5%
receive need-based grants
$31,264
average debt at graduation
9,812
students got merit aid
about 32% of undergraduates
$6,419
average merit award
Getting In
Key dates
Test scores
SAT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 1210–1360 · 24% of the class submitted
ACT, middle 50% of those who submitted: 25–31 · 81% of the class submitted
40% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What they value
- Very important
- Course rigor (AP/IB)
- GPA
- SAT/ACT scores
- Important
- Personal essay
- In-state residency
- Considered
- Recommendations
- Extracurriculars
- Special talent
- Character
- Where you're from
- Volunteer work
- Work experience
- Not considered
- Class rank
- First-gen status
- Legacy status
- Demonstrated interest
What this means for you
Tennessee rates course rigor as Very Important, and your essay as Important.
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Rigor means AP, IB, and dual enrollment carry real weight — make sure your mix of AP or IB courses is strong. A strong essay can differentiate an otherwise average application.
Tennessee doesn't consider demonstrated interest in admissions at all — visits and follow-up emails won't move the needle here.
Source: Common Data Set 2024–25, Section C7 (admissions factors)
Tennessee just showed you what it values in an application. Use that to write a Why-Tennessee essay that's actually about you — not a template.
Get sourced starting points for your essayStudent Life
29% of Tennessee classes have fewer than 20 students.
29%
under 20 students
54.1%
20 to 49
16.9%
50 or more
Every class section counts, labs and seminars included; first-year courses tend to be larger. Tennessee CDS 2024–25, I-3.
18:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus life
35.4%
first-years from out of state
27%
live on campus
20%
of men in fraternities
37%
of women in sororities
Who attends
- White78%
- Hispanic6.7%
- Multiracial5.3%
- Asian3.8%
- Black3.8%
- Unknown / other1.3%
Enrolled undergraduates; international students are counted separately and not included. Tennessee CDS 2024–25, B2.
Popular majors
Will They Graduate?
56.6% of Tennessee students graduate in 4 years.
56.6%
finish in 4 years
Entered fall 2018
73.9%
finish in 6 years
Entered fall 2018
91.9%
return after first year
Finishing late means paying for extra semesters, so the 4-year rate is the one that shows the cost.
Students with Pell Grants
64.5% finish in 6 years, against 73.9% of all students.
A 9.4-point gap: Pell Grant students finish less often than students overall.
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.
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Downtown's Market Square is walkable from campus.
The City
Mid-size city
Knoxville, TN
Best For
Notable alumni
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.
Traditions
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 from Knoxville
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 and game days
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
Internships and jobs nearby
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
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 51% of demonstrated need, and graduates carry $31,264 in average debt.