Liberal arts colleges are a great option for students seeking a well-rounded education in an intimate campus setting. The best liberal arts colleges in Tennessee offer a diverse selection of degree programs with opportunities for a highly individualized educational experience.
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.
Related: Differences between research universities and teaching colleges
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great. This is why, at the undergraduate level, we rank the best colleges and universities based on what we call “Concentrated Influence”. Concentrated Influence takes the combined influence score of a college or university’s top academic influencers (including faculty and alums) and divides it by the school’s total number of undergraduates.
Using concentrated influence gives small and mid-sized schools an opportunity to shine by taking away the size advantage of larger universities. A small school with proportionately more influential faculty than a large school, whose influence in absolute terms may be bigger, will nonetheless score higher in a concentrated influence ranking. Our approach highlights undergraduate schools that truly rank for excellence, regardless of size.
If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence.
Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is free from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
A liberal arts college is a school that puts a premium on undergraduate studies and offers a broad range of subjects for students to study. A college of liberal arts typically provides smaller class sizes, more direct engagement with professors, and, most importantly, the opportunity to sample a wide range of subject areas on the way to a bachelor’s degree. We’ve identified a total of 22 liberal arts colleges and universities in Tennessee, 14 of which satisfy our criteria, the top 2 have graduation rates above 70%. The list below of the best liberal arts schools in the state satisfies the following four conditions:
Tuition + fees
$51K
Acceptance
51%
Graduation
82%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1325/29
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Rhodes College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$47K
Acceptance
56%
Graduation
80%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1245/27
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Sewanee: The University of the South’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$22K
Acceptance
66%
Graduation
51%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1040/21
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Fisk University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$17K
Acceptance
51%
Graduation
47%
Student body
1K
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Bryan College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$23K
Acceptance
74%
Graduation
53%
Student body
3K
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Southern Adventist University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$36K
Acceptance
62%
Graduation
45%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1141/24
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Maryville College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
65%
Graduation
54%
Student body
6K
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University of Tennessee at Martin’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$32K
Acceptance
60%
Graduation
50%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1097/22
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King University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$26K
Acceptance
67%
Graduation
36%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1050/20
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Tusculum University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$20K
Acceptance
83%
Graduation
63%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1070/24
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Lee University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$25K
Acceptance
54%
Graduation
54%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1005/20
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Cumberland University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$35K
Acceptance
50%
Graduation
57%
Student body
2K
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Christian Brothers University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$23K
Acceptance
81%
Graduation
66%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1130/24
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Freed–Hardeman University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$26K
Acceptance
61%
Graduation
48%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1045/22
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Tennessee Wesleyan University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
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