What are the best colleges and universities in Tennessee if you reward schools for making the best use of their limited resources? Academic Stewardship asks how effectively schools manage their financial and human resources to gain the influence that makes them academically excellent. Schools that are exemplary in Academic Stewardship are doing everything in their power to help students and faculty achieve their full potential.
Colleges and universities in Tennessee deserve to be recognized when they do more with less. It’s impressive when a large wealthy school can spend money lavishly on expensive buildings and programs. But it’s even more impressive when a small school with limited means is able to train and inspire students that the larger wealthier schools tend to ignore.
The American Association of Colleges and Universities reported in late 2021 that almost 75 percent of higher-education professionals at US colleges and universities felt financial constraints prevented their schools from effectively attracting students. Distracted by the size and amenities of larger schools, prospective students tended especially to be overawed by the big research universities.
Tennessee’s smaller colleges, especially its liberal arts colleges, need effective ways of communicating their value to a world that celebrates “bigger is better” and “you need the best.” Unfortunately, most college ranking companies, such as U.S. News & World Report, define “best” in a way that devalues schools with smaller budgets and fewer students even when these schools do remarkable work in advancing their students’ education. By and large, college rankings penalize schools that serve underserved populations.
Inspired by Malcolm Gladwell, who for years now has criticized conventional college rankings for misrepresenting what’s good and valuable in education, we decided to construct a new ranking metric that highlights those schools that do more with less. That metric—called the Academic Stewardship metric—takes away both the size and the wealth advantage of schools, and focuses instead on how well schools use the resources available to them to advance the education of their students.
As a metric, Academic Stewardship is defined by a precise mathematical formula, which can be found in our Academic Stewardship white paper. Measuring the Academic Stewardship of Tennessee’s colleges requires measuring two forms of stewardship: 1) Stewardship of financial resources (using the money they have responsibility without waste) and 2) Stewardship of human resources (doing their best to help students, faculty, and administration to flourish). Together, these two types of stewardship form what we call Academic Stewardship. If you want to learn more about the factors involved in Academic Stewardship, click the more button below.
Academic Stewardship as so defined is connected to keeping tuition and other costs down, but it should not be confused with affordability or frugality. The schools that this metric ranks as exemplary academic stewards tend to be all over the map when it comes to tuition and other costs. At issue is the influence of schools given the financial and human resources they have on hand. If a school is going to charge more for tuition, then that needs to be reflected in the school having proportionately greater influence.
The benefits of attending a school with strong academic stewardship include:
Tuition + fees
$23K
Acceptance
66%
Graduation
51%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1040/21
Fisk University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$27K
Acceptance
61%
Graduation
48%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1045/22
Tennessee Wesleyan University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$25K
Acceptance
54%
Graduation
54%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1005/20
Cumberland University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$51K
Acceptance
51%
Graduation
82%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1325/29
Rhodes College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$49K
Acceptance
56%
Graduation
80%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1245/27
Sewanee: The University of the South’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$36K
Acceptance
58%
Graduation
66%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1170/26
Union University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Graduation
26%
Student body
7K
Tennessee State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$24K
Acceptance
69%
Graduation
53%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1100/22
Lincoln Memorial University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$21K
Acceptance
83%
Graduation
63%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1070/24
Lee University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
65%
Graduation
54%
Student body
6K
University of Tennessee at Martin’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$36K
Acceptance
62%
Graduation
69%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1185/26
Lipscomb University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$57K
Acceptance
12%
Graduation
93%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1510/34
Vanderbilt University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
80%
Graduation
57%
Student body
9K
Median SAT/ACT
1125/24
Tennessee Technological University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
83%
Graduation
50%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1130/23
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
85%
Graduation
52%
Student body
17K
Median SAT/ACT
1120/22
University of Memphis’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
48%
Student body
9K
Median SAT/ACT
1065/21
Austin Peay State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$38K
Acceptance
83%
Graduation
71%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1225/26
Belmont University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
78%
Graduation
50%
Student body
12K
Median SAT/ACT
1075/23
East Tennessee State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
78%
Graduation
71%
Student body
27K
Median SAT/ACT
1240/27
University of Tennessee’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
94%
Graduation
51%
Student body
18K
Median SAT/ACT
1135/23
Middle Tennessee State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$31K
Acceptance
79%
Graduation
52%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1050/24
Carson–Newman University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$35K
Acceptance
50%
Graduation
57%
Student body
2K
Christian Brothers University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
60%
Graduation
50%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1097/22
King University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
98%
Graduation
32%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1050/19
University of Tennessee Southern’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
64%
Graduation
15%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
825/16
LeMoyne–Owen College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
About one third of the higher learning institutes in Tennessee are public schools. Students who attend these schools can expect to pay anywhere between $4,000 to $13,000 in tuition and have the option to pursue degrees in fields such as economics, history, nursing, literature, education, and criminal justice. Tennessee’s largest public school, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, boasts some impressive alumni, including Oprah Winfrey, Kurt Vonnegut, and Cormac McCarthy. The private school alumni are equally as notable. For example, author James Patterson and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Muhammad Yunus both attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
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Tennessee also offers nearly 30 religiously affiliated schools, the largest being Belmont University in Nashville, located just blocks from the famous Music Row. Here, students can study a wide range of fields including Christian leadership, audio engineering technology, and biophysics. Additionally, Tennessee offers students several loan forgiveness programs. Math and science teachers, minority teachers, and registered nurses interested in becoming teachers or administrators who meet certain requirements may be eligible.
Tennessee is home to mouthwatering barbecues, electrified blues, and the sweeping majesty of the Smoky Mountains National Park. And with access to countless historic sites, unique museums, and lush green spaces, students attending one of the more than 60 colleges and universities in The Volunteer State will have plenty to do and see in their downtime.
Discover more about the top programs and higher education learning opportunities available in Tennessee.