“Public metropolitan university founded in 1886 in the University of Tennessee System.”
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) is a public metropolitan research university founded in 1886 and one of the flagship campuses of the University of Tennessee System, enrolling 11,775 students — about 10,202 undergraduates and 1,573 graduate students — on a 442-acre campus that sits directly inside downtown Chattanooga. UTC offers more than 140 undergraduate majors and concentrations, over 50 minors, and nearly 100 graduate programs and concentrations, with nationally visible strengths in Industrial/Organizational Psychology (home to one of the country's most highly ranked I/O master's programs), Computational Engineering (PhD program), Physical Therapy (DPT), Engineering, Computer Science, Business Analytics, and Nursing. The university is deeply tied to Chattanooga's innovation economy — particularly the city's reputation as a US 'Gig City' with some of the country's fastest municipal broadband — and partners closely with regional employers like Volkswagen Chattanooga, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Unum, McKee Foods, and Erlanger Health. Campus life is set against one of the Southeast's most-loved outdoor cities: the Tennessee River runs along downtown, the Walnut Street Bridge and Riverwalk sit minutes from campus, and Lookout Mountain, Signal Mountain, and Chickamauga Lake give students immediate access to hiking, climbing, paddling, and trail running. NCAA Division I Mocs athletics compete in the Southern Conference (with football moving to the FCS's United Athletic Conference), Greek life is active, and more than 200 student organizations drive campus culture. UTC's traditions — Scrappy the Mockingbird mascot, the Fall Homecoming bonfire, and the Student Alumni Council's campus-wide events — mix with a vibrant downtown art and music scene that extends campus far beyond its official acres. For international students, UTC is a compact but well-resourced option: English-proficiency requirements are reasonable (TOEFL iBT 79 / IELTS 6.0 / Duolingo 100 for direct admission, with a pathway track at TOEFL 61 / IELTS 5.5 / Duolingo 85), there is an on-campus ESL Institute for conditional pathways, and the Center for Global Education issues I-20s, advises on F-1 status, and runs CPT and OPT processing. UTC enrolls roughly 139 international students across 40+ countries, with the largest contingents from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and India. International freshmen are eligible for an automatic scholarship of up to $5,000 per year, and STEM-OPT-designated majors in computer science, engineering, and analytics create natural on-ramps into Tennessee's growing technology and healthcare H-1B sponsorship market.
Visa, OPT, H-1B alumni outcomes, and acceptance rates by country — sourced from FOIA, USCIS H-1B Hub, and DHS SEVIS.
National Universities
US News 2026
Top Public Schools
US News 2026
Affiliations
Wikipedia
Test Required — All applicants must submit SAT or ACT scores.
Official SourceInternational Fall
Final international deadline for fall semester
International Spring
Final international deadline for spring semester
Int'l Scholarship
International Freshman Scholarship application deadline
The deep admissions playbook beyond the headline acceptance rate — round-by-round breakdowns, nationality data, requirements, and contact paths.
Domestic
$10,448
/yr
Out-of-State / Intl
$18,512
/yr
Beyond the sticker price — every named scholarship, the financial aid policy, need-aware notes, and a personalized net-cost estimate.
How life on campus actually feels — clubs, sports, traditions, housing realities, and how the school integrates with its city.
UTC's largest STEM division, with ABET-accredited programs in civil, chemical, electrical, and mechanical engineering plus computer science, data science, and the nationally respected PhD in Computational Engineering.
AACSB-accredited business college offering accounting, finance, economics, management, marketing, entrepreneurship, and analytics, with close ties to Chattanooga's corporate base.
Home to nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, health and human performance, athletic training, education, criminal justice, and social work.
UTC's liberal-arts core — biology, chemistry, mathematics, physics, psychology, English, history, political science, and the Industrial/Organizational Psychology master's program.
A university-wide honors program offering smaller seminar classes, funded research opportunities, and the Brock Scholars program for top admits.
2 years
One of the most nationally visible I/O Psychology master's programs, with a long track record of placing graduates into Fortune 500 HR analytics and talent-management roles.
5 years
One of only a handful of Computational Engineering PhD programs in the US, focused on high-performance computing, CFD, and modeling for aerospace, automotive, and energy applications.
4 years
ABET-accredited program with concentrations in cybersecurity, data science, and software systems, benefitting from Chattanooga's Gigabit broadband infrastructure for research and internships.
Where alumni go after graduation — top industries, grad-school continuation, and the qualitative outcomes story.
Sticker price (annual, out-of-state): $18,512
Net-cost estimate is US-resident-only — international applicants are typically excluded from need-based aid at most schools and should treat the sticker price as the planning baseline.
