Prior to 1890 the sole requirement for entrance was that male students must be at least 16 years old to enter the Collegiate Department (as opposed to the Preparatory Department) and pass the entrance examination. In 1890 the faculty authorized graduates of accredited high schools to enter the university without examination. When women were officially readmitted in 1893, they were required to be at least 17 years old. The age requirement was officially lowered to 16 in 1901. The first instance of qualified students being denied admission occurred in 1943, when President Brehm refused to admit any freshmen or sophomores for winter quarter because of the massive influx of veterans attending UT under the GI Bill.
In 1960 the university entered the American College Testing Program (founded in 1959). It was a new procedure for testing high school students who were prospective college applicants. In 1962 a minimum ACT score of 15 (with 2.0 high school average) was required for admission. Applicants who had an ACT score of 15, but with a high school GPA of less than C, were not allowed to enroll for fall quarter 1963, although high school graduates with less than a C average could still enroll in summer, winter, or spring quarters. In 1965 the minimum ACT score was raised to 17, and a 2.25 high school GPA was required for admission.
The board of trustees established an enrollment ceiling for UT Knoxville of 27,500 full-time equivalent students at its meeting on June 17, 1971. This cap was implemented by accepting students on a first-come, first-served basis with rolling admission and continuing to admit students even during fall registration if the cap had not been reached.
In November 1980, the board of trustees approved, at a called meeting, a reduction of one thousand students due to the impoundment by the state of $2.7 million. This reduction marked the first time that selective admission was implemented. The reduction was managed by (1) becoming more stringent in application of the readmissions policy for students on academic probation; (2) encouraging community college students to get their associate degrees before transferring and requiring a 2.0 minimum GPA for transfer students; (3) implementing a strict late summer deadline for fall quarter admission; and (4) utilizing a screening committee to review the applications of the bottom 15 percent of academic credentials presented by applicants, considering factors such as ACT score and high school GPA to determine which of the applicants would be admitted.
In 1984 UT adopted a policy of automatic admission for any Tennessee applicant with at least a 2.75 high school grade point average, an 18 on the ACT, or 860 on the SAT. In 1999 UT changed its admissions policy to one based on standardized test scores, the quality of the student’s high school academic experience (as indicated by the completion of core academic subjects comprising the existing 14 units required for college admission), GPA in core subjects, rank in class, and a writing sample.
On January 25, 1985, the UT Board of Trustees unanimously approved a controversial set of higher entrance requirements for freshmen. Effective in 1989 incoming freshmen were required to have completed the following high school units in order to be eligible for enrollment: English, 4; algebra, 2; geometry, trigonometry, advanced mathematics or calculus, 1; natural science, 2; American history, 1; European or world geography, 1; and a single foreign language, 2. Applicants with foreign language deficiencies were allowed admission if the high school attended did not offer foreign languages. The proposal as passed listed several situations in which the new regulations would not necessarily apply, including international students, reentry students, and early admission students.
A cap on enrollment of freshmen of 3,800 was imposed for fall 2000 because of financial uncertainties. To implement this cap, the postmark deadline for applications was moved from June 1 to January. In 2001 applicants were required to submit essays in addition to high school transcripts and test scores.
Automatic admission was discontinued in 2002 and was replaced by a holistic review of applicants’ records and most admissions being made in mid-March.
For fall 2013 the board of trustees passed entrance requirements at its June 23, 2013, meeting that required that high school students would need to present four years of high school math instead of the three years previously required, and three years of natural science instead of the previously required two years. Math applicants were specifically required to present Algebra I and Algebra II, plus a class of geometry or higher, and one additional math class.