Tennessee State University
58%
Acceptance rate
$22,416
Tuition/yr
8,000
Enrollment
12:1
Student:Faculty
About Tennessee State University
HBCU in Nashville, Tennessee. Strong engineering, business, and education programs.
Tennessee State University (TSU) is a public historically Black university and 1890 land-grant institution founded in 1912 in Nashville, Tennessee. It holds an R2 Carnegie classification for doctoral universities with high research activity and enrolls approximately 6,000 students across undergraduate and graduate programs.
TSU offers over 40 bachelor's degree programs with particular strengths in engineering, health sciences, agriculture, business, aviation, and cybersecurity. Its aviation program is one of a small number housed at an HBCU and maintains partnerships with major airlines. The social work program carries Council on Social Work Education accreditation.
The main campus sits on the north side of Nashville, giving students access to one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States with a large healthcare, technology, and music industry job market. TSU's acceptance rate is approximately 93 percent, and the student-to-faculty ratio is reported at 12:1.
World University Rankings
Campus & Location
TN
Suburban
Optional Practical Training (OPT)
All graduates qualify for 12-month OPT. STEM-designated programs (CS, Engineering, Data Science, Mathematics, Sciences) qualify for 24-month STEM OPT extension — 36 months total work authorisation.
For Nepali students
- TSU's engineering, health sciences, and cybersecurity programs align well with fields where Nepali students have strong academic backgrounds, and graduates in STEM disciplines are eligible for a 24-month OPT STEM extension on top of the standard 12-month OPT, providing up to three years of US work authorization after graduation.
- International undergraduate students are eligible for three merit scholarships, the TSU Renaissance ($8,500/year out-of-state), the 1912 Heritage ($6,500/year), and the TSU Torch Scholars ($4,500/year), each renewable for four years provided a 3.0 GPA is maintained, which can meaningfully offset the roughly $22,400 annual out-of-state tuition.
- Nashville's expanding healthcare, technology, and logistics sectors offer practical internship and post-graduation employment opportunities; the city's cost of living, while rising, remains lower than major US coastal metros, making TSU a relatively affordable option for Nepali families.
- TSU's public HBCU status means it has a long institutional commitment to supporting students from under-resourced backgrounds, and its Office of International Affairs provides dedicated advising on visa, I-20, and financial documentation, an important support structure for first-time international students from Nepal.
Admission requirements — Nepali equivalents
A rough translation of the published minimums for Nepali applicants:
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