The University of Tennessee at Knoxville offers online graduate degree programs through Vols Online, which is the online branch of the university. There are 14 degree programs available from seven departments. The College of Arts and Sciences offers a Master of Mathematics. It offers research opportunities for those who want to study math more in-depth and can help students become licensed teachers in Tennessee. In the information sciences program through the university’s College of Communication and Information Sciences, students look at how information flows between groups and individuals.
University of Tennessee at Knoxville appears in our ranking of the Top 20 Most Affordable Accelerated Master’s in Educational Psychology Online.
One of the only Master of Social Work (MSW) programs available online in Tennessee is at this university. It is available as a full-time program or an advanced standing program for those with social work experience. The advanced standing program lets students graduate in 12 to 24 months. The university also offers an extended study version of the program that students can complete over four years. Students must choose a concentration in organizational leadership or evidence-based interpersonal practice and do a field practicum.
Through the Tickle College of Engineering, online graduate students can earn degrees in civil engineering with a concentration in public works or transportation. This college also offers programs in environmental engineering, reliability and maintainability engineering or industrial systems engineering, which includes concentrations in automotive manufacturing, engineering management, and systems engineering. The education psychology program available from the university’s College of Education includes concentrations in adult education or applied educational psychology.
Other programs available online from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville include majors in educational administration and agricultural leadership, education and communications.
About the University of Tennessee at Knoxville
The University of Tennessee at Knoxville is a large public university located in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is both the oldest campus in the University of Tennessee System and serves as its flagship location. Founded as Blount College in 1794, it had an enrollment of just 13 students in its first year. Enrollment never really grew beyond this point, which eventually led to the college changing its name to East Tennessee College around the turn of the 19th century. The new school only accepted male students and struggled with finances, which led to it closing and opening again as East Tennessee University. It kept this name until 1879 when it adopted the University of Tennessee name. Known by the official name of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, it uses a number of nicknames that include UT and UT Knoxville to distinguish the campus from all the other UT branches.
UT ranks highly on a number of different lists in terms of both academic programs and recreational opportunities. While Playboy named it one of the nation’s top party schools, PopCrunch called its student body one of the most attractive in the world. U.S. News and World Report ranks the university as a top national and global university and ranks its graduate program in social work as one of the world’s best. UT also gained national recognition through Vols Online, which grew from the old distance education programs that were once available. Those online programs helped graduate enrollment at UT climb to more than 6,000 students.
The University of Tennessee at Knoxville Accreditation Details
Both the online and the traditional degree programs offered by UT have the same accreditation that the university has. This is regional accreditation that comes from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The university allows students to transfer into an online graduate program after earning credits from another school and can accept their transfer credits because of this accreditation. It is also what allows students to use the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to get the financial aid they need to pay for an online program.
The University of Tennessee at Knoxville Application Requirements
Though UT will accept students into its graduate programs who have a bachelor’s degree in any field, it recommends that students have a strong background in the fields they hope to study. UT allows each department to set an application deadline but asks that students choose a start date on the application. If the university does not accept a student for that semester, it will hold the application until the following semester or the next year. Students usually need to submit their applications by the first of February to start in the fall. The deadlines for the spring and summer semesters are June 15 and October 15. UT usually gives students up to 45 days to submit all their required documents.
Those documents vary between programs but will include transcripts that show students have bachelor’s degrees and took prerequisite courses in the same subject area. Students applying to the MSW and other social science programs need to submit transcripts that show at least 75% of the courses they took as undergrads were in the social science fields, including psychology and humanities. Most programs have a minimum grade point average requirement of between 2.7 and 3.0. UT online graduate programs can also ask for letters of recommendation, writing samples and/or other information.
Tuition and Financial Aid
Between the maintenance and other fees charged by UT, graduate students will pay $700 per credit hour for their online classes if they are also Tennessee residents. Full-time students take nine credits and pay $6,278 per semester. All nonresidents taking online classes pay $775 per credit hour at UT. Those who take a full nine credits will pay $6,953 per semester.
Financial aid for traditional graduate students will often include an assistantship, which asks students to work between 10 and 20 hours every week. These positions provide students with stipends based on how often they work. Online graduate students do not qualify for these positions but can get federal loans when they complete the FAFSA. The government has unsubsidized loans of $20,500 each year. Students can only borrow a maximum limit while in college and graduate school. They can also apply for PLUS loans from the government that often require a co-signer if the applicant has a low or poor credit score. Alternative loans can help students afford their costs at UT but may also require a co-signer. The online graduate degree programs available at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville also accept external scholarships and military benefits.
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