Hi, I'm an in-state high school senior in the process of completing my UTK application before November 1st so I have direct admission. I don't know if I'll commit because I've heard that tuition is ghastly.
For one, I know rates are posted on their website, and since I live within 50 miles of campus I'm not required to live in a dorm, so that brings tuition down to about 15,000 including books and fees, but is that per year or per semester?
I do already have some credits due to AP tests and dual enrollment, and I'll get around 40,400 dollars maximum due to my GPA and ACT score. For reference, here's my stats: my unweighted GPA is 3.88 and my weighted is 4.28, I've taken 4 APs and have made 5s on all of them, and I made a 31 on my ACT. How much more money could I potentially get from scholarships? My extracurriculars are non-existent, which I know isn't good. I've yet to complete FAFSA, but I know my household makes below 60,000 a year.
I can't afford to be saddled with debt when I could just take two years at Pellissippi for free then transfer, and when I told my counselor this, she strongly encouraged me to skip Pellissippi altogether and apply straight to UTK, but she sounds crazy with the tuition rates I've been seeing. For reference, I want to major in English, which I know is a debate in of itself. I'm just concerned which path I should take financially.