Tennessee Colleges: Tuition, Debt & Earnings (2026 stats)

Analysis & insights

EDsmart Data aggregates institution-level College Scorecard data for this profile. Highlights below compare local medians to U.S. and regional benchmarks.

Costs & borrowing

Tennessee median public in-state tuition is $4,998, about -9.3% vs the national median. Versus the Southeast region, tuition is +0.1%.

Median graduate debt is $14,825 (+10.4% above the U.S. median of $13,432, and +4.6% vs the Southeast regional median of $14,173). Low sticker prices do not always mean low borrowing—living costs, time-to-degree, and aid mix matter.

Student debt rank: #31 nationally of 48 (lower debt = better rank); #7 in Southeast of 12 (1 = lowest median debt).

On published in-state tuition, Tennessee ranks #17 nationally (1 = lowest median sticker among states with data).

Earnings, employment & retention

Among bachelor's-predominant campuses with ≥200 students, median 10-year earnings in Tennessee are $48,480, about -10.8% vs the U.S. campus median ($54,323).

The median campus reports 90.5% of its 8-year cohort as working and not enrolled—our closest federal proxy to a placement rate. The U.S. campus median is 87.9% (+2.6 pp). Formal job-placement statistics are not published in Scorecard; treat this as a comparative outcome indicator, not a hire guarantee.

First-year, full-time retention at the median campus is 74.9% vs a U.S. median of 76.3%—a leading indicator for completion and time-to-degree.

Loan repayment indicators at the median campus: 2-yr default 6.3% (U.S. 5.0%); 3-yr repayment progress 71.2% (U.S. 73.7%). 3-yr default is omitted when most campuses report suppressed zeros.

Nationally, Tennessee ranks earnings #39 and employment proxy #13 on these outcome medians (1 = best).

Top employment-outcome campuses in this extract include Baptist Health Sciences University (93.9%), Milligan University (93.7%), Union University (93.2%), Christian Brothers University (92.4%), The University of Tennessee-Knoxville (92.2%), Tennessee Technological University (92.0%), The University of Tennessee-Chattanooga (91.9%), King University (91.8%), Cumberland University (91.8%), Carson-Newman University (91.7%)—useful anchors for local reporting on where graduates are most often working rather than still enrolled.

Completion & workforce context

Within Tennessee, sector medians diverge: Private nonprofit median 10-yr earnings $49,378 (27 campuses); Public median 10-yr earnings $48,458 (11 campuses). Public campuses often dominate enrollment while private nonprofits can show higher earnings medians at selective institutions.

Average institution-level completion rate across all sectors in Tennessee is 49.8% (national institution average about 50.3%).

National Student Clearinghouse data cite roughly 602,412 residents with some college but no credential in Tennessee (YoY change 2.30%). That stock of incomplete credentials sits alongside the completion and employment metrics above.