The portal has gone through several changes for us – and not an email on any of them. I would expect to have had at least one email saying that the status of your application has been updated. Zilch. Had the SRAR issue.
S24 was admitted today to Haslam with Volunteer scholarship after SRAR issue. Thankful for this outcome after a confusing and stressful 24 hours. OOS, 3.6 UW GPA and 1330 SAT.
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We experienced the SRAR issue last night.
While DS did not get an email or request to fill out a form, he did get a text around 7pm tonight telling him there was an update to his portal. Logged in to see he was accepted into Haslam School with his selected major of Public Administration and received the Volunteers Scholarship offer for $13k a year.
We are OOS, stats are as follows:
94/100 UW GPA (unsure what his UTK gpa is)
SAT 1400 (super score 700/700)
6 APs
6 Dual Enrollments
Average ECs
NY is home state
2 sport athlete
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It is without question strictly SAT/ACT score cutoff based on everything in this thread. They are not holistically evaluating course work, rigor, number of AP’s etc or anything to do with the students EC’s etc. We were deferred with a higher core TN/SRAR GPA than anyone has posted here (publicly), and 14 AP’s, 5 DE’s, and as full a list of EC’s as a student can have. However not meeting the magic Test score cutoff apparently. We wish they would not have wasted our time with EA and given us an actual decision.
Time to move on, we will not likely wait on this one. Last year our son was accepted by UT with half the resume as our daughter this year. Huge turnoff.
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Not sure if/who this helps, but to an extent, i think extracurriculars and mainly leadership can benefit you. Have a 1270 SAT and around 7 APs which is pretty on par and on the lower end of the sat range, but very good ECs with leadership in almost all. got accepted for oos business. Got deferred from UGA in state though so honestly i don’t know. college admissions is such a random and weird process.
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We had the EXACT same thing happen . Then while many people were getting you’ve been accepted now messages, we stayed deferred. With very high stats I might add. Terrible process for these kids
Congrats to your student ! We had everything they wanted and still deferred after we got an email asking us about the SRAR issue but my son was honest . ( not saying people weren’t )
It’s messy and leaves quite the bad look .
We are moving on to our #1 choice where we were accepted . Good luck to all !
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Totally understand and agree. It is so disheartening.
Congratulations on your number one choice! I don’t think they have it together this year. I didnt even get an email asking about the SRAR which I never got. I haven’t gotten any emails from UTK acutally except like to go on tours or things that are sent to everyone.
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Good luck to you !!
I dont know. I am not sure what they want -it feel random. In reading about the Stats of people accepted after the SRAR glitch I have a highter GPA and SAT a lot of volunteer work, varsity sports, etc… I dont know how they are selecting people. I am not saying no one who got in didnt deserve to - i am 10000% happy for them but it is hard to bolster when you dont know what - this whole EA process has been depressing tbh
Here’s my two cents of what I think is happening. UTK has grown too big too fast. From comments I see on Reddit etc. this is an overarching issue that goes beyond admissions with other things like parking housing etc. I’ve heard that they were overwhelmed with applications, and also for purposes of “equity” moved anyone with certain stats on their SAT GPA threshold to regular decision. Unfortunately, from their own website, it looks like this means almost 75% of out-of-state kids don’t have any decision at the moment. That’s really unfortunate to leave that many students unknowing until late February. Interestingly, a lot of the students they just admitted are probably seeing Tennessee as a safety school and simultaneously a lot of the strong students they deferred are not going to want to wait so long and will move on. I’m sure Tennessee will hit their yield rate, but either way, just based on the current stats they still have to admit a decent percentage of those deferred At the end of the day I think the worst part of the situation is that you have all of these students who submitted early action and did the work to complete it and are left without any decision for two more months. It doesn’t feel good to any student to feel like a number. Communication is always that secret ingredient in life. Their lack of transparency, or maybe just their inability to communicate their processes effectively, or maybe even just not being able to efficiently handle the number of apps—-whatever the root cause- the end result is a lack of trust. Unfortunately this may be reflective of other issues with their growth I previously mentioned…so it’s something to keep in mind. Hopefully they’ll work to ensure trust is restored and communication and processes improved. Hang in there girl!!
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Thank you… Your reply was worth way more than 2 cents just so you know 
I think you totally nailed it - the EA process was supposed to be to show that interest and I like harrassed my teachers to get all my stuff over asap since most kids didnt even start looking at my school until recently. I am lucky that my prinicipal is awesome so he would send direct official transcripts to schools too when neededl. I dont know how to bolster anything at this point. I have an UW 4.0 - 1320 lowest SAT and they super score, varsity sports and have had a part time job for almost all of HS. I got all 100 in this semester except for one class which is a 98. It doesnt move the gpa much becuase it’s one semester. I know i sound bitter prob but after my AC made it sound like nothing happened and I just was deferred and deal with it - not sure I want to continue here. Feels crappy
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He just said - you were deferred and totally didnt address the SRAR thing - just basically you were deferred - need to work on improving your application. no text email google form. my gpa and sat are well within their ranges so… not sure whats going on
I wonder if this is part of the issue:
In my opinion, if they are trying to retain the “best and brightest” of in-state students, they have to do everything they can to make sure they not only admit them but then ensure they enroll. It seems nuts to me that 3/4 of their applicants are from OOS. I think they have a much less stringent “cut-off” for the in-state kids and OOS is MUCH harder. Once they get to RD they will likely admit a lot more OOS. It still does not explain the kids with lower stats being accepted and those with higher being denied. But it could also be by major- I know some are super competitive. Just my .02
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Someone once told me “go where you are celebrated, not merely tolerated .” it was literally one of the most poignant pieces of advice I’ve ever received. I’m actually sharing this with some of my daughters older friends who also ironically were deferred from Tennessee. Maybe that place will still end up being Tennessee for you… you just never know…life is so strange that way. but regardless, I know you will find a place that makes you feel like you are wanted. Every human wants to be wanted in any relationship, even with matching a college 
You sound like a wonderful young lady that many places will be thrilled to celebrate!
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Perfectly said ! She sounds like an amazing young lady . This whole college application process is not for the faint of heart !
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It really isn’t- there are so many amazing and deserving kids and this process is brutal.
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I really think part of the problem is this feeding frenzy that has been created around college admissions because of the common app and people applying to 20 schools… The schools really have very little way to know who is interested and who is not so they end up deferring a huge chunk to make them prove that they are interested….this causes people to Only apply to more and more schools, which is what we have seen over the past several years…. I do not blame the universities at all here when they get 60,000 applications and maybe 20,000 actually want to go there…. I think there was someone on here who said they applied to 60 schools crazy
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Yes/No - Lots of states are putting in programs to incentivize in-state kids to go to the in-state school. Some states (Texas/North Carolina) have hard cut-offs that they have to be X% in-state kids. Some states are auto-admitting based on certain cut-offs.
One would think most of those kids if they wanted to go to the in-state option - with their stats, just need to apply and they would have been an admit anyhow. The thing that’s absent in what you posted is it’s not guaranteed admission to the PROGRAM YOU WANT - just to the school (looks to be similar to what Texas does).
No doubt UTenn has seen an incredible increase in OOS applications over the last 2-3 years. Yes, they are likely to have differing criteria for IS v OOS - most state schools do. And again, within different programs it can be super-easy or super difficult for an admit so comparing your GPA/SAT/ACT to some other kid can be an exercise in frustration.
The whole SRAR thing seems to be a complete cluster. They’re scrambling to address it but no, they’re not likely to EVER say HOW they’re addressing it. Frustrating but it is what it is and being aggravated about it doesn’t solve it.
Love the school that loves you back… good luck to everyone - at UTK and elsewhere.
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