by our College Data Analytics TeamIn its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.
East Tennessee State University was awarded 131 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is nursing.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
ETSU is ranked #802 out of 2,152 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2025 Best Colleges list. This is an improvement over the previous year, when ETSU held the #851 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
ETSU is also ranked #11 out of 41 schools in Tennessee.
See all of the rankings for East Tennessee State University.
With an acceptance rate of 85%, East Tennessee State University is easier to get into than many other schools. But that doesn't mean you can slack off on your application. Make sure to treat this school like any other when submitting requested materials and documents.
About 9% of students accepted to ETSU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 500 and 610. Math scores were between 480 and 580.
Learn more about East Tennessee State University admissions.
With a student to faculty ratio of 16 to 1, East Tennessee State University is about average in this regard as the nationwide rate is 15 to 1. While this does not translate directly to class size, it's a good indicator of how much time professors will have to spend with their students on a one-on-one basis.
When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.
The full-time faculty percentage at East Tennessee State University is 61%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate tells us what percentage of first-year, full-time students choose to continue on to their sophomore year at a particular school. The rate at East Tennessee State University is 72%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 68%.
The on-time graduation rate is the percent of first-time, full-time students who get their bachelor's degree with four years. At ETSU this rate is 32%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at East Tennessee State University.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 10,705 undergraduates at ETSU with 8,812 being full-time and 1,893 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10,101 | $11,109 | $14,498 | $18,154 | $18,666 |
The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of ETSU, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At ETSU, approximately 38% of students took out student loans averaging $7,420 a year. That adds up to $29,680 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at ETSU is 1.0%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.
Get more details about paying for East Tennessee State University.
See which majors at East Tennessee State University make the most money.
Get more details about the location of East Tennessee State University.
Contact details for ETSU are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 1276 Gilbreath Drive, Johnson City, TN 37614 |
| Phone: | 423-439-1000 |
| Website: | https://www.etsu.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Nursing | 638 | $64,459 |
| Business Administration & Management | 237 | $37,041 |
| General Psychology | 170 | $26,403 |
| Health & Physical Education | 161 | $25,768 |
| Social Work | 134 | $32,514 |
| Public Health | 110 | $38,435 |
| Teacher Education Grade Specific | 108 | $40,276 |
| General Biology | 107 | $28,138 |
| Computer Information Systems | 103 | $52,008 |
| Liberal Arts General Studies | 96 | $32,474 |
Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.
In 2022-2023, 8,168 students took at least one online class at East Tennessee State University. This is a decrease from the 8,178 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 8,168 | 2,026 |
| 2021-2022 | 8,178 | 2,306 |
| 2020-2021 | 8,168 | 2,026 |
| 2018-2019 | 7,955 | 2,060 |
Learn more about online learning at East Tennessee State University.
If you’re considering East Tennessee State University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against ETSU? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!
Footnotes
*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.