College Factual  by our College Data Analytics Team
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Tennessee State University Data & Information Overview

96 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
11% Student Loan Default Rate
This overview covers the essential stats on Tennessee State University, including its rankings, majors, diversity, and more.
If you’re interested in learning more about a particular stat, just click on its tile to go to a new page that covers the topic more in-depth. Also, you can jump to any section of this page by clicking one of the links below.

How Well Is Tennessee State University Ranked?

#1,425 Best Colleges in Nation
#28 Best Colleges in TN
Health Professions Highest Ranked Major

2024 Rankings

In 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.

Tennessee State University was awarded 96 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is health professions.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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Overall Quality

College Factual ranked Tennessee State University as #1,425 out of 2,217 colleges and universities in the country on its 2024 Best Colleges list.

Tennessee State University is also ranked #28 out of 45 schools in Tennessee.

See all of the rankings for Tennessee State University.

Is It Hard to Get Into Tennessee State University?

Open Admissions Policy

Acceptance Rate

As long as you meet basic requirements, you should not have any trouble getting into Tennessee State University since the school has an open admissions policy. Still, be sure to submit any requested materials and that your application is completed in full.

Learn more about Tennessee State University admissions.

Tennessee State University Faculty

14 to 1 Student to Faculty
100% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio at Tennessee State University is about average at 14 to 1. This ratio is often used to gauge how many students might be in an average class and how much time professors will have to spend with their students on an individual level. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

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 Tennessee State University is 100%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  100 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Tennessee State University

53% Freshmen Retention
13% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate is a sign of how many full-time students like a college or university well enough to come back for their sophomore year. At Tennessee State University this rate is 53%, which is a bit lower than the national average of 68%.

Freshmen Retention Rate  53 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate is the percent of first-time, full time students who obtain their bachelor's degree in four years or less. This rate is 13% for first-time, full-time students at Tennessee State University, which is lower than the national rate of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  13 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Tennessee State University.

Tennessee State University Undergraduate Student Diversity

4,816 Full-Time Undergraduates
90.1% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
65.9% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 6,000 undergraduates at Tennessee State University with 4,816 being full-time and 1,184 being part-time.

How Much Does Tennessee State University Cost?

$11,867 Net Price
45% Take Out Loans
$25,476 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Tennessee State University is $11,867. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for Tennessee State University

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$10,636 $11,505 $12,563 $16,216 $17,852

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 Tennessee State University, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

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 Tennessee State University, approximately 45% of students took out student loans averaging $6,369 a year. That adds up to $25,476 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Tennessee State University is 11.4%. This is higher than the national default rate of 10.1% so you should proceed with caution when taking out student loans.

Get more details about paying for Tennessee State University.

How Much Money Do Tennessee State University Graduates Make?

$40,509 Avg Salary of Grads
Average Earnings Boost
The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor's degree from Tennessee State University make about $40,509 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. This is right on par with the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year. Also, graduates in your major field may make more.

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See which majors at Tennessee State University make the most money.

Location of Tennessee State University

Tennessee State
4,816 Full-Time Undergraduates
Large City Campus Setting
Tennessee State University is a public institution located in Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville is a great location for students who prefer city over country life.

Get more details about the location of Tennessee State University.

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Contact details for Tennessee State University are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 3500 John A. Merritt Blvd, Nashville, TN 37209-1561
Phone: 615-963-5000
Website: www.tnstate.edu/
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/TSUnewsroom
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TSUedu

Tennessee State University Majors

44 Majors With Completions
1,043 Undergraduate Degrees
379 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 44 majors graduated from Tennessee State University. Of these students, 1,043 received undergraduate degrees and 379 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Business Administration & Management 142 $38,743
General Psychology 65 $30,184
Liberal Arts General Studies 65 $34,561
Communication & Media Studies 65 $28,280
Criminal Justice & Corrections 62 $30,977
Teacher Education Grade Specific 57 $33,244
Other Health Professions 57 $30,839
Health & Physical Education 47 $26,208
General Biology 45 $31,151
Health & Medical Administrative Services 36 $34,111

Learn more about the majors offered at Tennessee State University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at Tennessee State University

49% Take At Least One Class Online
16% Take All Classes Online

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 2020-2021, 3,926 students took at least one online class at Tennessee State University. This is a decrease from the 3,954 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 3,926 1,275
2019-2020 3,954 861
2018-2019 1,889 456
2017-2018 7,655 438
2016-2017 1,791 495

Learn more about online learning at Tennessee State University.

If you’re considering Tennessee State University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against Tennessee State University? 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!

Notes and References

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.

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