The University
of Tennessee-Knoxville
Public Research University in Knoxville, TN. Six-year graduation rate 74%. Median 10-year earnings $60,249.
Students who entered The University of Tennessee-Knoxville reach a median of $60,249 ten years later, which puts this school in the upper band of undergraduate earnings outcomes. 74% graduate within six years, so most students who start here finish here. Graduates carry a median of $20,500 in debt — in line with the national norm.
Earnings: College Scorecard, median ten years after entry across students who received federal aid — completers and non-completers alike.
- ✓ Debt-to-income ratio 0.34 — healthy (below the 0.40 threshold)
- ✓ 3-year loan default 0.0% — below national benchmark
Admissions
Selectivity is real here: only 42% of applicants are offered a place. 59,764 students applied, a pool deep enough to make the acceptance rate meaningful. Yield sits at 27% — the remainder of admitted students enroll elsewhere or not at all. Read the score bands below narrowly: only 24% 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 | 600–680 | 1,635 (24%) |
| SAT Math | 600–690 | |
| ACT Composite | 25–31 | 5,507 (81%) |
IPEDS Admissions · 2024
Apply at The University of Tennessee-Knoxville →Academics
A 74% six-year graduation rate is the strongest academic signal on this page. First-year retention of 92% shows the cohort holds together through the hardest year. Retention and graduation track closely, so most of the attrition shows up in the first year rather than after it. Transfer-out runs to 16% — common enough at this school that the completion rate is measuring a smaller group than the entering class. At 18:1, class sizes land in the normal range for an undergraduate institution.
Financial Aid
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24 · grant and loan rates against 28,770 degree- or certificate-seeking undergraduates
Average net price after grant aid is $21,648 a year — mid-range for a four-year institution. The income table below is the number that matters — $10,029 at $0–30k versus $25,688 at $110k+. Grant aid reaches 77% of students at an average of $11,465. Federal borrowing reaches 29% of students.
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 · 6,689 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 | $10,029 |
| $30–48k | $12,162 |
| $48–75k | $18,206 |
| $75–110k | $23,627 |
| $110k+ | $25,688 |
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Federal student loans went to 8,340 of these 28,770 students, totalling $52,993,476 — an average of $6,354 each.
IPEDS Student Financial Aid · 2023-24
Local housing costs
Typical rents near campus (Knox 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)