University to Guarantee Admission to Top Students to Increase Inner City, Rural Enrollment

Ayres Hall at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Anming Hu, a former associate professor at the university, was accused of lying about his affiliation with a Chinese university. (Nightryder84/ CC-BY-3.0/Wikimedia Commons)

High-achieving high school students in Tennessee will get guaranteed admission to the University of Tennessee (UT) system in a plan expected to pass at a Board of Trustees meeting on Friday, September 8.

The fresh proposal seeks to redefine the pathways to higher education in the state, with the proposal (pdf) led by UT System President Randy Boyd. The program could apply to current high school seniors applying for college admission in the fall of 2024.

“Typically, we’re underrepresented in some of our inner city schools and some of our rural schools. And this, we think, will be an equalizer in giving students and those schools a better chance,” Boyd told the Knox News newspaper. “That’s one of the things that we’re striving for is that our student body reflects the population of the state. If you admit [the] top 10% of every high school across the state—or they’re eligible—it gives us a better chance to be more representative.”

Deep Dive Into Admission Nuances

The proposal, detailed in length, offers three specific avenues by which local high school students can guarantee their undergraduate spot at one of UT’s campuses: by graduating in the top 10 percent of their high school class, hitting or surpassing a GPA of 4.0, or a combination of a 3.2 GPA and an ACT score of 23 or higher or an SAT score of 1130-1150.

Boyd’s proposal was clear in its messaging that while the guarantee serves as an open door, it doesn’t lead directly into specialized departments or programs.

“Guaranteed admission means an offer of undergraduate admission to the University of Tennessee campus to which the applicant has applied (subject to satisfaction of the applicable eligibility requirements),” a footnote in the proposal notes. “Such an offer does not guarantee acceptance into a particular college, school, department, major, or program.”

FILE - In this Oct. 3, 2009, file photo, the University of Tennessee’s Pride of the Southland Band performs before an NCAA college football game in Knoxville, Tenn. The band will perform in its 15th presidential inaugural parade since 1953 on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017, a decades-old tradition its band director said transcends politics and the nation’s divisions. (AP Photo/Wade Payne, File)

The proposal notes that UT campuses in Chattanooga, Pulaski and Martin admit the majority of applicants who meet the criteria in the proposed system-wide policy, a “public promise” of admission is likely to “have a positive effect on applications and the number of enrolled Tennesseans at each campus.”

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Boyd also told Knox News he hopes the policy would help fight any misconception that prospective students can’t even get into the UT system’s flagship campus in Knoxville by ensuring a spot for Tennessee’s most prepared students.

Addressing the Brain Drain

The policy proposals note that in 2021, a significant 28 percent of Tennessee’s top-tier public high school students chose institutions outside the state for their post-secondary education.

“By offering automatic admission to its top high school graduates, prospective students will know earlier in the college selection process that there is a place for them at their state’s top public university system. They will only be an application away from being admitted.”

Boyd, in the proposal, said if passed, the UT system would join public institutions in at least a dozen other states such as Arizona, Florida, and Texas, that offer similar guaranteed admission to eligible students.

He added that the results of the initiative would be reviewed annually by the Board of Trustees to ensure effectiveness and make adjustments as needed.

Projecting from 2022’s high school graduation numbers, the university anticipates that this new policy could directly benefit approximately 6,400 students in its inaugural 2024 year.

Anticipated Impact Across All Campuses

While the limelight often shines brightest on Knoxville, UT’s flagship campus, the broader UT ecosystem stands to gain significantly from this proposal. Campuses in Chattanooga, Pulaski, and Martin, are also expected to see an increase in applications.

Analysts predict that the Knoxville campus might witness a surge, with projections indicating a 5-10% increase in applications from Tennessee residents.

Breaking it down further, this could mean an influx of approximately 250 more local students by the Fall of 2024.

Boyd said his optimism is further fueled by a study by Lincove and Cortes, which discovered that policies of guaranteed admission can spur a substantial increase in applications. Their research revealed that a top 10% eligibility guarantee could correlate with a rise of up to 22-percentage-point in applications, especially among academically adept low-income students.