Ranked, compared, and filtered by real data: costs, outcomes, and admissions
Vanderbilt in Nashville operates at a level that regularly surprises people unfamiliar with it. Its medical center, law school, and undergraduate college compete with institutions that cost considerably more and are considerably better known outside the South.
The University of Tennessee system and the Tennessee Promise scholarship program, which covers community college tuition for recent high school graduates, have made post-secondary access a genuine policy priority in a state that has put real money behind the commitment.
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See how Tennessee's colleges compare to the national average on the four measures most students and families weigh when deciding where to go: cost, acceptance rates, graduate earnings, and graduation rates.
The colleges in Tennessee that rank highest by UCD Score, and those that deliver above-national graduate earnings at a below-average net price, two of the strongest signals when choosing a school.
Not every student is looking for the same thing. These six panels rank Tennessee's colleges by the data that matters most for each path.
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by annual graduates
Ranked by net price
Ranked by enrollment
Ranked by grad earnings
Which colleges give you the most for what you spend? These eight schools rank highest in Tennessee by the ratio of 10-year graduate earnings to annual net price.
| # | College | Net Price / yr | Earnings (10yr) | Ratio | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roane State Community College Harriman | $4,270 | $39,407 | 9.2× | Excellent |
| 2 | Columbia State Community College Columbia | $4,734 | $40,256 | 8.5× | Excellent |
| 3 | Dyersburg State Community College Dyersburg | $4,612 | $36,132 | 7.8× | Excellent |
| 4 | Pellissippi State Community College Knoxville | $4,983 | $38,440 | 7.7× | Excellent |
| 5 | Southwest Tennessee Community College Memphis | $4,754 | $34,071 | 7.2× | Excellent |
| 6 | Chattanooga State Community College Chattanooga | $5,283 | $37,598 | 7.1× | Excellent |
| 7 | Walters State Community College Morristown | $5,387 | $37,085 | 6.9× | Excellent |
| 8 | Baptist Health Sciences University Memphis | $11,212 | $72,529 | 6.5× | Excellent |
ROI Ratio = median earnings 10 years after enrollment ÷ annual net price. Higher is better.
The six fields of study with the most annual graduates across all colleges in Tennessee, based on IPEDS completion data.
The specific degree programs producing the most graduates across Tennessee's colleges. A more granular view than the Popular Majors above, useful when you already know roughly what you want to study and want to see where the volume is.
Careers with a strong employment footprint in Tennessee. What graduates from local colleges actually go on to do. State-level employment is shown where the BLS publishes it; national wage + growth shown alongside.
The cities in Tennessee with the most colleges, ranked by number of institutions.
Utah crowds 14,137 students into each of its colleges, four times the national norm. These are the states where college options are scarcest per student.
There are 170 colleges that operate a medical school, and they cluster hard. Texas leads with 14, three states hold a fifth of them, and four states have none.
Northeast college graduates earn about $12,700 more a decade out than Southern ones, but they also pay thousands more to get there. The regional split, by the numbers.
Browse our full directory: every college, major, program, and career we track, all built from verified government data.
Scout uses AI and can make mistakes. Verify important numbers on the page.
