Numbers aren’t everything, but they do paint an impressive picture of our Class of 2019.
UT will welcome 4,722 new Volunteers this week. The freshman class has an average ACT score of 27 and a high school GPA of 3.89. About 49 percent of the class has a high school GPA of 4.0 or higher.
Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek said that while the talents and qualifications of UT’s students go well beyond just numbers, the freshman profile has improved every year for more than a decade.
“Each year we talk about our new students’ impressive academic qualifications and we use the words ‘best and brightest.’ We recognize that it is hard to believe that we’ve been able to improve the profile every year, but we are attracting first-rate students from Tennessee and around the world,” Cheek said.
About 7,000 students will live on campus this fall. Move-in day begins at 8:00 a.m. Saturday.
A record year in applications and a steady climb in UT’s graduation rate have resulted in a larger freshman class. The class is about twenty students larger than last year’s.
“We always enjoy the start of every academic year and sharing this experience with our new Volunteers,” Cheek said. “Our new students arrive full of excitement and are eager to start this new chapter of their lives. We are honored they chose to become Volunteers.”
UT has increased its six-year graduation rate to 70 percent, up from 60 percent in just five years.
“As more of our students graduate on time, our capacity to take in new students grows. This is great for the university and for our state, which is striving to increase the number of college-educated students through its ‘Drive to 55’ effort,” he said.
The Class of 2019 represents students from forty-six states and thirteen countries. Roughly 85 percent are from Tennessee and about 18 percent are minority students.
About 12 percent of the freshmen are enrolled in UT honors programs.
About 95 percent of in-state incoming freshmen qualify for the state’s lottery-funded HOPE Scholarship, which provides up to $3,500 in the first year toward tuition and fees. More than 31 percent of all UT students are eligible for federal Pell grants.
Access remains a high priority for UT, and to ensure that money is not a stumbling block for the state’s academically qualified students, UT provides several need-based scholarship programs. About 63 percent of institutional scholarship dollars—those awarded by UT—are merit-based and about 37 percent are need-based.
Enrollment numbers are not finalized until the fourteenth day of class.
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CONTACT:
Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)