Carson-Newman University
Private College in Jefferson City, TN. Six-year graduation rate 53%. Median 10-year earnings $48,382.
Students who entered Carson-Newman University land at a median of $48,382 a decade later, close to what most four-year schools deliver. Six-year completion sits at 53%, near the national average for undergraduate institutions. Median debt at graduation is $21,500, roughly typical for an undergraduate degree.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
With an acceptance rate of 90%, Carson-Newman University takes nearly everyone who applies. 2,460 students applied in the most recent cycle — a mid-sized pool drawn mostly from the surrounding region. Only 17% of admitted students enroll — the great majority of admits go elsewhere or nowhere. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 5% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, and test-optional applicants are not represented in them.
Test score bands (middle 50% of submitters)
These bands describe the enrolled first-years who submitted a score, not the entering class. Where most students apply test-optional the submitters are a self-selected, higher-scoring group.
| Test | 25th–75th percentile | Submitted |
|---|---|---|
| SAT Evidence-Based Reading | 500–645 | 18 (5%) |
| SAT Math | 455–570 | |
| ACT Composite | 19–25 | 261 (70%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at Carson-Newman University →Academics
53% graduate within six years — average, but that average still hides a large group who do not. First-year retention is 74% — the single largest point of attrition on this campus. Retention and graduation track closely, so most of the attrition shows up in the first year rather than after it. 26% transfer out. IPEDS does not follow them, so whether they finished elsewhere is not recorded either way. At 12:1, students get materially more instructor contact than at a typical public university.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 1,374 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Net price lands at $20,895 a year on average, neither cheap nor punishing. Aid is steeply need-based: families in the $0–30k band pay $16,672 while those at $110k+ pay $28,621. 97% of students get grant aid averaging $26,683, so the published price is a poor guide to what most pay. 55% of students borrow federally, so debt is the norm rather than the exception.
Entering first-year students
A different, smaller group than the rates above: full-time students in their first year of college anywhere. The grant series here also excludes the "other sources" counted in the all-undergraduate figure, so the two are not comparable.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · 360 students
Net price by family income
The same students as the headline above, limited to those who received Title IV federal aid — a narrower group, with a lower overall average. IPEDS publishes no combined figure across these bands, so they should not be averaged into one.
| Family income band | Average net price |
|---|---|
| $0–30k | $16,672 |
| $30–48k | $16,446 |
| $48–75k | $17,313 |
| $75–110k | $21,209 |
| $110k+ | $28,621 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 760 of these 1,374 students, totalling $4,784,198 — an average of $6,295 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Jefferson County) — budget these against any cost-of-attendance housing estimate.
HUD Fair Market Rents (40th-percentile gross rent incl. utilities) · FY2026
Veterans & GI Bill
VA GI Bill Comparison Tool (Veterans Affairs GIDS)