University of Tennessee Knoxville ACT Scores: the 25 to 31 Middle 50%

Enrolled students at the University of Tennessee Knoxville who submitted an ACT reported a composite middle 50% of 25 to 31, with a reported midpoint of 28. That band is 6 points wide, and the university admitted 42% of applicants overall in the most recent reported data. None of those numbers is a cutoff, and none of them is a personal chance of admission. Everything on this page comes from one source, the US Department of Education College Scorecard, and anything not in that source is not on this page.

The 25 to 31 band at Knoxville, line by line

Three ACT composite figures are reported for the University of Tennessee Knoxville, and each one counts something different. Read them as a description of the class that enrolled, not as a set of hurdles.

Two limits are built into those rows. First, the figures describe enrolled students who submitted an ACT. They leave out applicants who were turned down, students who were admitted and chose another university, and anyone who enrolled without sending a score. Second, no figure in the table is a minimum. A percentile marks a position in a list of scores, and the fact that a quarter of the reported class sat at or below 25 is the plainest evidence available that 25 was not a floor.

Six points wide, and why 30,418 is a separate fact

The distance between the 25th and 75th percentiles is 6 points, and the reported midpoint sits exactly 3 points from each edge. On a 1 to 36 scale that is a wide middle. It says the reported scores did not stack up on one number. Half of them are spread across 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 and 31, and the other half fall outside that span in both directions.

For a student reading this, the practical consequence is that your composite does not have to be 28 to be an ordinary score at Knoxville. A 25 and a 31 sit at opposite edges of the same reported middle half. A 26 is inside the band. A 30 is inside the band. A 6 point band describes variety, not a bullseye.

Keep the enrollment figure in its own box. The 30,418 is total undergraduate enrollment, and all it tells you is that this is a large university. The 25 to 31 band describes only entering students who submitted an ACT, which is a smaller group than the full undergraduate body. Blending the two produces a false statement: it is not the case that 30,418 students scored between 25 and 31.

Where your current composite lands inside the band

Use the score you have right now, not the one you are hoping for. Every row below is a statement about position in a distribution of reported scores. No row is a prediction about a decision.

Two rows deserve a note. At 24 or lower you are outside the band on the low side, and the gap to the 25 edge is one composite point, which is the smallest move the ACT scale allows. At 32 or higher you are past the top edge, which is a strong position relative to this data and still not an assurance of anything, because the data records scores rather than outcomes.

42% is a whole-university average, and four things it is not

The overall admission rate in this data is 42%. Read literally: across the entire institution, 42 of every 100 applicants were admitted in the most recent reported data. Here is what that number is not.

• Not your probability. An institution-wide rate is an average over every applicant. It does not know anything about you, and it cannot be read as your odds.
• Not a per-program figure. This data set carries one rate for the whole university. It has no breakdown by college, major or program, so a per-major rate did not come from here.
• Not a partner to the score band. The 42% counts applicants. The 25 to 31 band counts enrolled students who submitted a score. Two different groups, so the two numbers cannot be multiplied or combined into a chance.
• Not a testing policy. Whether an ACT score is required, optional or recommended at Knoxville is not in this data set, and this page will not guess. Check the university's own admissions page for the year you apply.

One more absence is worth naming out loud. There is no section-level ACT data here. No English, Math or Reading figure is reported for this school, which means any per-section Knoxville target you find has been invented somewhere. Composite only, from 25 to 31.

The arithmetic of a 3 point climb to 28 or a 6 point climb to 31

Distances first. Find your composite and read across.

Now the mechanics, which the Enhanced ACT format sets. Since 2025 the composite is the average of English, Math and Reading only. Science is optional and reported separately, so it stays out of the composite. English is 50 questions in 35 minutes, Math is 45 questions in 50 minutes, Reading is 36 questions in 40 minutes, and there is no penalty for a wrong answer, so an empty bubble is a pure loss.

Because three scores are averaged, one composite point costs roughly three scale points spread across those sections: one on each, or two in one and one in another, or three in a single section. That is why the 3 point climb from the 25 edge to the 28 midpoint is a project and not a weekend. Test your own combinations in the free ACT score calculator, read what changed in the Enhanced ACT, and if you plan to sit the test twice, learn how a superscore is built. Whether a given university uses one is that university's policy and is not in this data set.

Free practice sized to the gap you just measured

Everything listed here is free on Prep36 and needs no card.

• 1,026 original practice questions, each with an instant explanation the moment you answer. They are Prep36 questions written to the Enhanced ACT format, not official ACT material.
• Six full-length timed forms, two of them free. A timed form is the honest way to find out whether your gap to 28 is a content problem or a pacing problem. Start with how to use a practice test.
• Study plan builder and score forecast. Enter your current composite and a target, 28 or 31 in this case, and get a week by week plan plus a forecast based on your own inputs.
• The Enhanced ACT Cram Kit if your date is close, and ACT test dates if you are still picking one.

For method, read how to improve an ACT score and how to study for the ACT. For percentiles in general, see the ACT scores guide, and for other schools reported the same way, see college ACT scores. When you are ready to answer questions, open the app. Prep36 is not affiliated with ACT, Inc.

What these composites cost in raw questions

A composite is not a number you score directly. On the Enhanced ACT it is the average of English, Math and Reading, so reaching one means hitting that scaled score across three sections. Science is optional and reported separately, so it is left out here.

Below is what each scaled score actually costs in correct answers, and how many questions you can afford to miss to still land on it.

Read this correctly. These are not section targets for this school. The College Scorecard reports composite percentiles only, with no section-level data, so nobody can tell you what English or Math score this school expects. What the table shows is the raw cost of a 25 and a 31 in each section, whoever you are aiming at. Build your own section goals from your own practice results.

Turn your practice raw scores into a composite with the free ACT score calculator, then drill the sections costing you the most in the free question bank.

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