This is the official thread for those applying EA to University of Tennessee.
List your unweighted GPA, any SAT /ACT scores, and ECs. What majors are you going into?
Ask your questions, the CC community is here to help!
S25 applied today!
GPA 3.98 u/w; 4.4w (I think for UTK GPA conversion); 31 ACT (taking again in Sept); 10 APs, 3 DE. 1 honors as honors isn’t really a thing at our school.
EC/volunteering/work: mostly revolve around sports (football and basketball (captain)), founder/president of film analysis club
Major: Business Analytics in Haslam
Good luck to all!
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S25
OOS
GPA: 4.3 W (+1 APs, +.5 honors); 4.0 UW; School doesn’t rank
1240 SAT
School related: Model UN, Varsity sports, a few social clubs
Part-time job; Volunteers some at church & school
Major: Engineering
Good luck to everyone!
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F25
OOS
GPA: 3.88 W (3 APs, 6 Dual Credits, 3 Honors) school doesn’t rank
1200 SAT
Academic: National Honor Society, National Beta Club, President’s List
Sports: Varsity soccer all 4 yrs, state champs, regional personal honorable mention, and MVP award for junior year. Varsity basketball, varsity basketball manager ; club soccer
Volunteer all years 2 consistently at 2 places, including mission volunteer trips twice
Extra: Photo/Video of school’s sports team for social media accounts
Part time jobs x 2 – one is career-related
Major: Haslam – Business mgmnt and marketing combo
Applying EA but concerned that 1200 SAT and 3.88 GPA will not meet threshold for OOS. Might consider Reg Admission if we get enough feedback.
Good luck to every family!
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S25 applied this weekend.
In State
GPA: 3.84 u/w; 4.88 w; 1490 SAT
9 APs and 1 DE
National Merit Semifinalist
ECs include band, one sport, and tutoring math
Major: Math
Good luck!
I can’t speak to how the SAT might be impact but the GPA you want to pay attention to is the one that gets generated from their SRAR - which calculates based on their required courses for admission (which is mostly/only core classes).
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I wouldn’t change to regular in my opinion. My son applied EA last year with similar stats (OOS) and was deferred, waitlisted and then accepted. Last year they said they received so many applications that they deferred anyone that didn’t meet a scholarship level (think was Volunteer) to regular. Not sure if they are changing anything this year based on how last year went but based on our experience I wouldn’t change. Just keep showing interest (tours, events, etc).
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OOS DS24 applied EA to Haslam with similar stats, duel credit and APs, part time job,etc…
last year was a mess due to SRAR updates…resetting your application date if too close to 01 NOV… pushed some out of EA…a lot of noise on the board about this…hope it’s fixed for this year. anyway, he was deferred and continued to show interest but the “portal astrology” had a few false flags that gave many of us false hope…background changing to different artwork means something? able to sign up for Big Orange day? I forget (blocked) all the turmoil… he had another acceptance offer to Big10 school so committed in the spring… wound up waitlisted and then finally offered a spot in late May?.. once the high stat kids committed “elsewhere”… I think he would have enjoyed UTK and Haslam, but wasn’t in the cards… good luck.
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For folks who have already applied, about how long after submitting did it take to get a response from the school to set up the portal and the link for the SRAR?
My son applied Friday night, so it hasn’t been too long yet, but I want to make sure he’s watching his email and does the next step when it’s time (or emails an admissions rep if he doesn’t hear anything, just in case something went awry).
I’m also reminding him that (1) it’s not always next day or next few days; (2) there was a weekend in there, and that doesn’t count; and (3) we don’t know if admissions staff or others were affected by the flooding from Helene, so we need to give a little extra grace time.
Thank you!
It was about a week maybe a day or two more. The link to connect his SRAR was on his portal.
Thank you - this is helpful!
[Didn’t intend for this to be a direct response to OctoberKate rather than a general response to the thread, sorry!]
S25’s application has gone out to UTK. Superscored ACT of 30 reported; solid grades at a low grade inflation, fairly competitive Jesuit high school that’s seen applications to Knoxville soar in the last three years - he’ll finish around the top 40% of his class at around a 3.75 if memory serves (translated from 1-100 scale); high level individual sport athlete; decent EC’s but not those of a kid who would be applying to a T30 school; we expect solid letters of rec.
5 years ago I would have thought it ludicrous to even discuss whether he would be accepted to Tennessee instead of what sort of merit he might be offered. But now very much in question due to at least 3 or 4 factors: he wants to be in Haslam (and probably would choose somewhere else over trying to transfer internally if he isn’t directly accepted into the business program); UTK’s explicit change in prioritization of in-state students; explosion in applications to southern schools generally; downgrading of GPA based on the university looking only at select “core” courses, although I suppose that probably affects just about everyone the same way.
Good news is that based on his high school’s Naviance scattergram for UTK, it appears that solid test scores carry substantial weight historically. No one marked as TO has been accepted there, and although I suspect we’re probably missing 1/3 of the overall data in the scattergram, no one on that graph with his ACT score or better has been flat denied. Wouldn’t be shocked, given what happened last year with lots and lots of publics just deferring everyone who wasn’t a slam dunk/honors/scholarship level applicant, if we don’t have an answer until April or May.
Either way, he came home from a road trip down there last week and had his new hoodie on several times in the following days, and went out of his way to watch the 'Bama game on Saturday. So not sure exactly where it sits on his list, but I’d guess top 5.
I’m always happy for any replies, it makes it more fun to go see what’s out there. 
We’re wondering some of the same things. Being an out of state student, with the greater preference now for in-state applicants and the noted increase in applicants to southern schools, what does that mean for my child. I know he likes UTK and another big southern state school (not our state) more than the similar in-state option. A few years ago it would’ve been more appealing to me for him to go to those out-of-state schools because I would’ve guessed he’d get some pretty solid merit aid, that would bring the cost closer to our in-state choice. But that seems increasingly less and less likely.
I’m waiting not-so-patiently for December while, at the same time, trying hard to not wish this last year with my guy away.
@ OITB1 What do you mean by “downgrading of GPA based on the university looking only at select “core” courses”? I feel like most schools only look at Core classes. UTK specifies 1 visual or performing arts as a core class, where it seems many don’t include any arts. Also, do you know how they translate GPAs on a 100 point scale to the 4.0 scale? I know some schools are transparent, and others it’s a mystery. I read they use the self reported core GPA to determine eligibility for admission, but they only recalculate after the 8th semester to finalize admissions & scholarship eligibility in June. My son’s portal shows his calculated self-reported GPA, and then there’s a line below it for Official UTK core GPA. The wording makes it sound like they don’t recalculate until after admitted, and all final grades are submitted. I guess the SRAR calculates everyone equally, or I hope so. It’s crazy how it varies so much from school to school.
Interesting, thanks for the insights. I have not yet dug into this too much, just noticed that I hadn’t seen similar notes at other schools to which he’s applying (though as you note, it could be the norm and just not noted as prominently on other sites). The one performing arts class inclusion might help my kid. Although I suspect the vast majority of students have a Core class GPA lower than their overall, my fear is I feel like other than that one music course the gap between our S25’s gym, general electives and theology (mandatory all 4 years at his Jesuit college prep school) grades might be higher than the norm. May be unfounded, though - I don’t really have any data whatsoever on the question, and I might have a skewed vision because our D23 was in a different cross-section of students. It may just be the case that he’s along a normal distribution, with the falloff for kids applying to uber selective colleges really low, and growing as you move down the class rankings.
The fact there have now been a couple hundred applicants from his high school over the last several years will be helpful in providing context in any event, so that he’s viewed in part compared to those others from his school. Not sure how the self-reporting/translating works for a 1-100 to 4.0 scale, but I’m guessing his college counselor took care of it for him.
Feeling this so much! I’m so anxious for December. But I’m not ready to be there!
We are in CA-S25 wants big sports, and an undergrad business school. It makes most CA schools unappealing, and he just isn’t interested in the UCs and really wants out of CA. And the one he has the most interest in (CalPoly) is a huge reach for everyone. And with the Southern schools even harder to get into, there’s a lot of anxiety.
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You (and your S25, with his excellent resume) have nothing to worry about! I’m just a little concerned that he’s probably applied to half of the schools on our S25’s list, and y’all are gonna crowd us out with all the acceptances you’ll be getting. 
One interesting aspect for us will be to see how our kid reacts to the possible deferrals and even waitlists at some of the places that, were he not in the massive 2006 birth year and applying in the age of test-optional and the Common App and kids spraying out a thousand applications apiece, he’d expect to have answers from one way or the other before winter break. That, and figuring out how much he cares about getting directly admitted to a business program vs. earning his way in as a freshman vs. there’s a whole world of academic studies with solid job prospects awaiting outside the b school. May depend on which places have a definitive response for him when, I guess.
The upside being that we all need not fear December is coming too soon - we’ll be at this until two weeks before they graduate!
You can say that again! Last year we had a number of friends get late merit aid offers, or be pulled off the wait list pretty late in the game. So we’ll see how this goes!
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Thank you Fingers crossed for your son! It’s a crazy time to be applying. There is so much to consider once the acceptances come in. To go with a direct admit or work for it once in school is also on our minds. And who knows if they’ll change their mind and decide to major in something completely different. A big reason, I don’t like Cal Poly (or SDSU) for him even if he was lucky enough to get in.
He applied to 12 schools total. We told him to expect deferrals in December. But crossing our fingers for an acceptance in the bunch! His list (12 schools) is kind of all over the country.