Admissions & selectivity
East Tennessee State University Acceptance Rate & Admissions
What is the acceptance rate at East Tennessee State University?
East Tennessee State University’s reported acceptance rate is 86.2%.
- Acceptance rate · Fall 2024
- 86.2%
Source: College Scorecard · Fall 2024 admissions. Acceptance rates can change from year to year; this figure does not predict the current or next admission cycle.
How to interpret the acceptance rate
East Tennessee State University admitted most applicants in its reported pool, at an admission rate of 86.2%. The rate is above the median of 78.1% for comparable institutions (same type and size).
What SAT and ACT scores do East Tennessee State University students report?
Submitted scores provide a reference point for recent enrollees at East Tennessee State University, rather than a set of admission thresholds. They describe enrolled students who chose to send scores, not every member of the entering class.
Applicants should compare their results with the university’s 980 through 1,200 SAT range, which covers the middle half of enrolled SAT submitters. The corresponding ACT range for enrolled submitters was 19 through 26.
The SAT and ACT ranges offer separate context for applicants using either test. Neither range is a stated minimum for admission, and both describe the score submissions of enrolled students rather than a prediction of an individual decision.
The ranges below describe enrolled students who submitted test scores at East Tennessee State University. Use them as academic context, then check the university’s current testing policy for your application cycle.
- Approximate lower endpoint
- 980
- Approximate upper endpoint
- 1200
Enrolled students who submitted scores. This range is not an admission cutoff. The endpoints add section percentiles; they are not verified composite-score percentiles. A separate SAT-equivalent average is not plotted as a median. Source: College Scorecard; sum of section 25th/75th percentiles; enrolled score-submitters.
- 25th percentile
- 19
- 75th percentile
- 26
Enrolled students who submitted scores. This range is not an admission cutoff.
Figures cover fall 2024.
Who enrolls at East Tennessee State University?
- Pell Grant recipients
- 34.8%
- Entering students outside the first-time, full-time group
- 31.8%
- First-year retention
- 75.7%
Retention source: College Scorecard; full-time first-year retention.
About these student measures
The entering-student group includes part-time entrants as well as other attendance patterns.
East Tennessee State University draws undergraduates through both direct and transfer routes, with federal grant aid part of that mix. Undergraduate enrollment is 10,004, and 34.8% receive Pell Grants, a measure of financial access.
An estimated 31.8% of undergraduates entered as transfers or part-time students, so the student body includes people continuing coursework begun elsewhere. These figures describe an undergraduate body that includes aid recipients and transfer entrants, not admission priorities or any applicant's odds.
Students should view progress from the first year through graduation as an outcome with room for caution at East Tennessee State University. For the first-time full-time cohort, the six-year graduation rate is 53.2%, against a comparable-institution peer median of 65.0%.
Returning for a second year is more common, with a first-year retention rate of 75.7% compared with 83.1% at peer institutions. Pell recipients in that cohort complete within six years at 46.9%, below the overall rate by 6.3 percentage points.
Enrolled students can expect these figures to describe prior cohorts rather than any individual course through college. The retention and completion comparisons both sit below their peer benchmarks.
Data & methodology
Sources and reporting periods: methodology.
Analysis and methodology by Daniel Rogers, founder of College Azimuth.
Explanatory text is AI-assisted drafting checked against those figures; it is not an additional data source.
Admission rates describe past applicants, not an individual’s chance of admission; confirm requirements and deadlines with the institution.
Figure notes link to sources and limitations. About College Azimuth.