Applied OOS in Late August, no emails like that yet
My twins are OOS and both received this same email late Aug/early Sept. I think those emails are saying the same thing though and maybe the slight wording difference is based on time that the application was received. I wouldnât worry about this at all!
I think this is the email received when an application is complete. Not a new one. Or at least thatâs how it was for my D. She said she has not received anything like that recently.
My D received the âeach application is holistically reviewedâ version of the email in late August, shortly after submitting and setting up her portal.
A little late to respond, but I just thought Iâd log in and see what the discussion is this year. Mine is a freshman at UTK that is in the nursing major and is an Honors program. She is carrying 18 credits this semester, is in a club travel sport, 3 other extracurriculars and is not having any problem maintaining excellent grades. Keep in mind that for the first 2 years they are mostly taking general eds anyway, so she could do the Honors program and then not continue in future years if it turned out to be too much.
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Jumping in here- my D26 also applied to their BSN program and is really on the fence about the two honors programs she was invited to apply for. Neither seem to have much benefit to her as a nursing student and she is worried about the extra workload. Does your student find the honors program relevant to her studies?
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Mine was looking for more of a challenge than the standard coursework. The opportunity to engage in more thought-provoking discussions in smaller classes. And she likes the quieter dorm in Dogwood Hall (must live there as a freshman).
Is the honors coursework ârelevantâ? Other than expanding her perspectives and engaging with others, I guess the answer is no. The coursework isnât about nursing, or engineering, or business, or whatever. But hardly any of the courses the first 2 years are directly relevant to nursing. In fact, sheâs not even taking the ones they recommend that they take. For example, she is choosing to take higher level bio and chem classes than are required for a nursing major. She didnât think the â101â classes would be remotely rigorous and are probably duplicative of what she had in HS.
She does think that the Honors program, plus the higher rigor she is taking than the nursing program standard, plus what she is doing in âextracurricularsâ will be a more rewarding undergrad experience for her, and that they will help her standout more later when she applies to graduate school for her CRNA.
But everyoneâs journey is different, and they can get as much or as little out of any of it as they choose.
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My daughter didnât get any of these emails. She did get one from her admissions counselor saying they had all the required materials. Also, not sure if it makes a difference but she had her transcript and stars app completed before submitting the app. The items just showed up and the app was in good order. She just activated her vols account the day after submitting without getting an email. She also received an email that she qualified and to apply for honors and a separate one for Halslam leadership scholars.
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For families with a good amount of community college credits, are you ordering transcripts to be sent to colleges for the application review or will you wait until acceptance to send the community college transcript for course credit? The cost adds up to send it to every school my kiddo applied to. Curious if anyone knows what colleges prefer. I thought it was like self-reported test scores and you only send college transcript after acceptance and commitment but someone was telling me this week they were going ahead and sending to all the colleges theyâre applying to. Any advice or experience?
Iâd only send if the college specifically asks for them. You can likely find out on their admissions page or just wait until after you submit the application and see if they ask. Auburn required it for dual enrollment courses on the high school transcript. I think colleges just want to reconcile to the gpa. Therefore, youâll likely just need to send it to the one school you end up choosing in order to get college credit.
Thank you for the response! Thatâs good advice.
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Is there someone here whose child applied to Grand Cook(engineering) Honors and Chancellorâs honors? My kid did, but oddly, in his portal under Just For You, chancellorâs shows submitted but the Grand Cook completely disappeared. Iâm trying to figure out if this is normal for others after submitting Grand Cook or if he should reach out to someone about it no longer appearing in his portal. Thank you in advance if anyone knows.
Hi. Have a daughter who has UTK as a top two school with UGA. We are OOS, from Nevada. I think she is going to have a hard time due to her test scores. She has major test anxiety.
Stats: 3.75 UW/4.4W, 24ACT, All AP classes pretty much. 4 years Varsity golf, Sr class VP, track and field, 2 yrs Honor society.
Wants to major in History.
I feel bad. Sheâs a smart kid, but she had to follow her all star sister. Sister got in everywhere she applied a few years ago, except got a waitlist from UNC and chose against it. Came down to UF, UGA, and Clemson and chose Clemson because it felt right to her.
I donât think sheâll get into UGA, but hoping she has a puncherâs chance at UTK. Any thoughts? Thanks!
I would manage her expectations for sure 
I hope I am wrong and her course rigor and GPA will carry her but OOS has just gotten tough. In fact we are in state and my daughterâs guidance counselor is managing expectations for any of the kids who arenât getting in on the guaranteed path for in state students with a 24 ACT.
As an in state family that has had kids applying to UTK for ten years now this upswing in admissions standards is staggering to us.
UGA is so tough too. Mine applied there too but she is almost certainly going to UTK. I hope your daughter gets good news.
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Yep, 5 years ago she would have gotten in, imo. Hoping Clemson will want more OOS money from us and that helps her get in there. Although, she wonât make it easy on us, as she has repeatedly stated she does not want to attend the same University as her sister, hahaha⊠We will see UTK (along with Univ South Carolina)for the first time at Thanksgiving- going out to visit the oldest at Clemson for some turkey and take a few side trips to colleges.
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I am sure it means nothing. Maybe the words were edited at some point and you vs others were placed onto an email journey at different point?
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The âsomeâ is almost certainly a typo, which they noticed and corrected in subsequent distributions. Itâs typical to do a phased roll-out of emails precisely so errors like this can be identified and fixed.
Certainly nothing Iâd lose a secondâs sleep over.
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My son received that invite as well as an invite for the honors breakfast last Saturday before Big Orange preview day which we attended. But he never received an invite to apply for honors and its not in his portal either. His stats are 1300 SAT and 4.14 GPA.
The requirements used to say 4.0 GPA and 29 ACT (1330 SAT) but now it just says 4.0 GPA and you will be invited. He did apply to UTK in August so maybe it was before they changed what was required and took out the test score requirements but then why was he invited to the honors events?
Big Orange preview day was amazing and my son fell in love with the school and campus!
I have a child who was a UTK honors grad in 2025 and one applying to honors this year.
(As well as kids that applied but didnât attend in 2016 and 2018). UTK just doesnât seem to have its footing regarding honors and keeps seeming to change what they are doing. My kid who just graduated is pushing his sister there and throws shade when she mentions other SEC schools but he does admit the other ones seem to have their honors programs rolling in a way UTK doesnât really.
My daughter applied for honors and wants it but all that to say I wouldnât make it a deal breaker or worry too much. Weâll be a little annoyed if she doesnât get it (of course we think she is exceptional 
) but it really isnât the robust honors program some other schools seem to have and I wouldnât worry too much about it. But it is hard not to read too much into everything when you are waiting for decisions.
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Thank you so much for the response! Very helpful! It is definitely hard not to read too much into things!
Did she receive an invite to apply for honors? Mine did not but was invited to scholars day and an honors breakfast at big orange preview. He has a 1300 and 4.14. He applied in August. And the requirements used to state at least a 29 and 4.0 GPA. However, it seems that they updated their website and now states that anyone with the 4.0 gets invited to apply for honors.