Getting To Know: University of Tennessee-Knoxville
The University of Tennessee-Knoxville (UTK) has gotten into the college admissions news. This was thanks to a record-low acceptance rate for the incoming Class of 2028. Just over a third of all applicants got in. While nearly 65 percent of Tennessee residents who applied got, only a quarter of non-residents were as fortunate. UTK historically had much higher acceptance rates until last year. The university had accepted over two thirds of all applicants as late as Fall 2022.
After attending a counselor’s briefing, I was curious to take a data and virtual dive into UTK to see why this happened. I learned a few things along the way. Also, being a dog person, I have to like a school that celebrates its state canine; in Tennessee it’s the bluetick coonhound. My friend and former teacher, Julia Varriale, provided the photo up top. Another friend, Donna Lewis Sakubu, provided this one below. There are ten statues of Smokey, the university’s canine mascot, on campus. The university even invites you to trek to the Smokeys to see all ten. And if you don’t know the words to Rocky Top before you come to campus, you will know them by the halftime of your first home football game.
I have a soft spot for the University of Tennessee.
This is because I have attended several women’s basketball games involving the Tennessee Lady Vols. Most were against Rutgers, my undergraduate alma mater, including an NCAA Elite Eight game in Philadelphia,. I also saw the Lady Vols win the 2008 NCAA Final Four in Tampa, beating LSU and Stanford to claim a National Championship. I have sat next to Tennessee fans at every single game. Their fans were so nice, and they knew more about their opponent than I would have expected. They also have the satisfaction of going 11-1 against the Scarlet Knights. However, they always shake your hand after the game, whether they win or lose. It’s not the same when Penn State beats Rutgers at anything in New Jersey.
The University of Tennessee flagship is a fast-growing school.
According to the university’s Office of Institutional Research, UTK’s enrollment grew from under 20,000 undergrads in 2004 to nearly 29,000 by 2023.
- Interesting to me: nearly 30 percent of the undergrads, around 8,300, were enrolled in the business school. I was curious to see if the same was true for flagships in other states.
- The University of Tennessee has an undergraduate population that’s about the same size as the University of Georgia. Sure enough, about 30 percent (28 to be exact) are enrolled in their business school.
- However, the University of Tennessee also has about the same number of undergrads as the University of Maryland-College Park. Just under ten percent of their undergrads study business.
From 2014 to now, the size of the University of Tennessee freshman classes grew from 4,700 to nearly 6,700.
- At the same time freshman retention rose from 85 to 91 percent. Four-year grad rates rose from 51 to 58 percent.
- More interesting, from 2019 to 2023, the number of in-state students was relatively flat, while out-of-state enrollment more than doubled.
- This might have been one reason why UTK announced that it would offer guaranteed admission to the best students at Tennessee high schools
Tennessee residents who have a 4.0+ UT Core GPA and/or rank in the top ten percent of their graduating class are guaranteed admission to the university.
- However, they may not be guaranteed direct admission to a highly competitive major such as Architecture, Engineering, Nursing or Pre-Pharmacy.
- This policy was intended to attract in-state students from high schools that had not previously sent many students to the flagship. But it’s hard to say what the impact will be without knowing the final size of the incoming Class of 2028.
- The percentage of out-of-state students could drop from 40 to somewhere between 30 and 35 percent. This presumes that residents who qualified for the guarantee were given priority in admissions marketing and scholarships.
The University of Tennessee is also test-mandatory.
- The average SAT score for the Class of 2027 was a 1270 up from an 1160 ten cycles before.
- The average ACT has been consistently a 28 over the past three years.
Although the university has test-optional admissions before last year, it had considered test scores to be Important in admissions decisions. Now they are Very Important. The university admissions pages mention nothing about admission to a second-choice major. But I had to wonder, given the Top Ten Percent policy for residents, if out-of-state students who scored significantly below the average on a standardized test were more likely to be denied admission to one of the more competitive programs.
What are some of the attractions of the University of Tennessee?
There are a few good reasons why there is more interest in UTK. While other state universities market aggressively to attract non-residents, UTK starts with some advantages that are worth noting.
Reasonable pricing for in-state and out-of-state students versus other state schools.
As one example, a New Jersey resident would pay less in tuition and fees to UTK than they would to attend UDel, Penn State-University Park, U of Maryland-College Park, and Virginia Tech just to name a few popular options. Merit awards that averaged just under $6,700 went pretty far down into the Class of 2027. According to the university’s 2023-24 Common Data Set, 46 percent of the class received a merit award. The average student loan debt for 2023 graduates was approximately $28,300, which is $1,300 over the maximum that graduates may borrow over four years from the Federal Student Loan Program. However, 56 percent of the class graduated debt free.
It’s a popular option vs. flagships in neighboring states.
Tennessee borders on Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia, all of which have exceptionally selective flagship universities for in-state students. The average high school GPA for UTK is over 4.0 for the past four freshman classes, including the incoming Class of 2028. The ACT Composite range was quite broad across the full Class of 2027 (25-32), though some of UTK’s individual schools have more stringent admissions requirements. A mid-pack student at North Carolina State or Virginia Tech could be a candidate for a Volunteer Scholarship or a Chancellor’s Scholarship at UTK. Tennessee also borders on Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi, states whose flagships have been less selective than UTK, with the exception of Auburn University (AL). UTK might be a selective reach school for residents of these states, much like the University of Maryland-College Park is often a reach for New Jersey’s college-bound students.
This university has an attractive, though somewhat compact campus for a flagship state school.
Two of my friends and colleagues, Donna Lewis Sakabu and Julia Varriale, shared photos from their campus visits and I also took a virtual tour. The University of Tennessee is a less intimidating campus than larger schools that I have visited like Illinois or Penn State that feel like they stretch on for miles. But parts of the Knoxville campus is built up on stairs. While Tennessee winters are probably not as cold as those in Illinois or Pennsylvania, climbing can get tiring for some. Julia Varriale gave me a good example of the climb below.
Knoxville is a good balance of city and college town.
UTK has a more urban campus feel than many of its sports rivals in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). With approximately 195,000 residents, Knoxville is the fourth-most populous city in the SEC after Austin, Nashville and Lexington (KY). It’s downtown appears to be very pedestrian and student friendly. The mass transit around town and campus is free. It’s nice to have a car to get off campus and trek to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. But it’s not so nice to scramble for a parking spot near your classes.
The atmosphere I saw online reminded me of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The acreage of both campuses is actually about the same (920 vs. 940) and both communities blend campus, a waterfront and their downtown quite nicely. But on-campus student parking is really tight at both schools. UTK and Wisconsin share another problem besides parking: limited student housing options for a flagship state university. Only 30 percent of the student body currently lives in on-campus housing. UTK is trying to solve this problem by constructing three new residence halls, one opening in 2025, the other two in 2026. One major difference: while both campuses have waterfronts, UTK’s waterfront is by the football stadium. A Volunteer Navy of over 200 boats gets up f0r every home game, weather permitting.
Developers such as American Campus have built very nice student apartment complexes near campus, much like they did in Madison. The university’s off-campus housing office posts available rentals, and they are high near campus. There are also 47 fraternities and sororities at UTK. They attract about a fifth of the men and just over a third of the women. Twenty-nine are residential with their own houses. Thirteen sororities are in their own gated community.
Spirit and sports only start With football
- According to the NCAA, Neyland Stadium is the sixth largest stadium in NCAA D-1 college football and one of only eight that seats over 100,000 people.
- Those seats fill up when the program is having a successful season—and no team has won more home games in their football history than UTK. However, the last national championship came in 1998 long before most of the current undergraduate population was born.
- Tennessee ranks second in wins among Southeastern Conference teams after Alabama.
- The Volunteers have played in 12 bowl games since 2004, winning eight. But they have not won a conference title in the SEC since the 1998 season.
- Interesting to me: three of these games were the Music City Bowl, which is played in Nashville. The bowl committee had to be happy though the Vols lost two of those games. But Nissan Stadium was sold out for all three.
I dropped a couple of photos of the stadium below. I would like to thank my friend, Donna Lewis Sakabu for sharing these with me.
Student tickets are $20/home game for this coming season, quite reasonable considering the high profile of the program. They will go up to $25 in 2025.
Student admission to all other sports events is free.
The successes that the Volunteers have achieved in baseball, men’s and women’s basketball and softball make the full ticket a bargain. So does the festive atmosphere on campus that supports the teams. The Lady Vols Women’s Basketball program has been one of the nation’s best. The late Pat Summitt was a legend in women’s college basketball. Named head coach of the Lady Vols when she was only 23, she won eight NCAA National Championships from 1997 to 2008. Her Lady Vols regularly topped over 14,000 fans per home game. That’s more than many men’s college programs and NBA teams draw over a season. The baseball program was the current favorite to win this season’s College World Series.Tennessee’s most famous baseball alumnus is Todd Helton, Hall of Fame first baseman for the Colorado Rockies. While at Tennessee Helton was also Peyton Manning’s predecessor as quarterback of the football team.
This is a great place to get started if you want to live in the South after college.
Outside of Tennessee there are over 9,000 in the Atlanta metro area. There are even larger communities in Florida and North Carolina registered in LinkedIn.com. Over 26,000 are based in or around Nashville. Sports fans will have no problem finding a watch party in any major Southern city. There are also reasonably large communities with over 3,000 alumni in California, New York and in the Washington DC metro area. But they’re nothing close to the size of the base that a school like Rutgers or Penn State will have in those places.
Report Card: University of Tennessee
- Four-Year/Six-Year Graduation Rates: B+/B+
- Freshman Retention: B+
- Curriculum: A
- Costs: B+
- Comforts: B
- Community: A
- Connections: A (Atlanta,Nashville,Florida,North Carolina, Texas)/B (NYC, Washington DC, California)/C (elsewhere)
Conclusion
The University of Tennessee is a flagship that also attracts a lot of out-of-state students for academics, a reasonable cost, and festive atmosphere. There’s also over 360 possible majors, more than you’ll fins at some larger flagships. My feeling is that a 4.0+ core GPA combined with a 28+ ACT/1300+ SAT will be necessary for a non-resident to be seriously considered for admission to the more competitive majors. This especially true for those who hope to receive a scholarship.
There is a very high level of spirit and respect for traditions at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. However, it really helps to be familiar with life in the South before you come. The strongest alumni connections are there. It might also pay to find out if you can afford to live off campus after freshman year.
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