Prospective Incoming Students
Why choose UTC
What makes coming to UTC and Chattanooga a great idea?
FOOD: Moon Pies; Little Debbies; Chattanooga Choo Choo; Double Cola; Coca Cola --Chattanooga bottled the first coke and is the home of the famous Little Debbie food cakes. ENVIRONMENT: More than 300 kinds of trees and 900 varieties of wildflowers—more than anywhere except central China-- The Tennessee River Gorge--the Grand Canyon of the Tennessee; HISTORY: the start of the Cherokee Nation’s Trail of Tears and the numerous Civil War battlefields and monuments, including the Chickamauga Battlefield—the site of the bloodiest battle of the Civil War; FUN: a hand-built carrousel in Coolidge Park; The Incline, the steepest passenger railway in the world; and you can’t forget Rock City and Ruby Falls. EDCUATION: UTC moved from 43rd to 40th among colleges in the South that offer primarily master’s degrees as their highest degree. The rankings distinguish between campuses such as UTC—which now offers three doctoral programs—and major research universities offering multiple doctorates.
That’s just some of what you can see, do, eat, and drink in Chattanooga, the best mid-sized city in America. There’s also boating—sail, motor, or kayak—on the Tennessee River and its lakes, created by a series of locks above and below Chattanooga. If that doesn’t “float your boat,” then travel about 35 miles away to whitewater raft or kayak the Ocoee River where the 1996 Olympic kayaking course is still up and flowing. If that’s too difficult, go west and float quietly down the Hiawassee River through some of the most beautiful countryside south of the Shenandoah Valley. Walk or jog downtown from campus on the “8 mile river walk,” or walk across the Walnut Street Bridge to the north side of the river to shop or eat or stay on the south side to eat at one of the 60 restaurants in the downtown area. Visit the Tennessee Aquarium, IMAX Theatre, or Bijou Theatre, or go by the sculpture garden on the way to the Hunter Art Museum, one of the best collections of American art museums for a city our size. Spend Friday evening at Miller Plaza at a “Nightfall Concert” or head to the Tivoli or Memorial Auditoriums for a symphony concert or viewing a Broadway hit. If it’s summertime, head down to Ross’s Landing and the new Riverfront Park for “Riverbend,” a nine day festival of all kinds of music, eats, and fellowship. All of these are just a few of the reasons that National Public Radio has called Chattanooga “one of the most livable cities in the world.”
You can also rock climb, hang glide, go spelunking, hiking, and camping just minutes away from campus. If you’re interested in history Chattanooga is full of it--from De Soto’s finding one of the last capitals of the great Cherokee nation on the river around Chattanooga, to the Civil War-- names like Signal Mountain, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and Chickamauga should stir some thought.
But if you want to “get out of town,” we’re just about 200 miles from anywhere important in the Southeast U.S. You can get to the Smoky Mountains, run down to Atlanta to see the Braves, Hawks, or Falcons, to Birmingham to climb up Vulcan, or over the Nashville to hear the music of the Grand Ole Opry. It takes a little longer to get to Memphis, New Orleans, the nearest ocean or gulf, but we’ve had students make those trips.
If you’re interested in academics, you’ll find small classes taught by full-time faculty—no graduate students. Over 80% of the UTC faculty has completed the terminal degree in their discipline. The whole university, all four colleges, has adopted a new “community classroom” idea—learning, teaching, working, and making the Chattanooga area a better place to live and work. The city has made amazing progress re-inventing itself over the past several years—a new pride in its looks and what is has to offer visitors. Some of the reasons for Chattanooga’s successes are being taught, learned, and worked and thought out by our students. The College of Education, for example, has completed a major overhaul to its curriculum, and now offers one of the best “in-local-schools” curricula for junior and senior education majors.
The College of Business Administration is noted for its accounting faculty and graduates, and it has added a major in entrepreneurship with classes taught by one of our Chairs of Excellence. Our Chemistry and Biology/Environmental Sciences departments have excellent faculty, and an excellent track record for placing UTC graduates in professional and graduate schools. And the Biology/Environmental Science departments have access to area land trusts that act as their field labs. One of our biology professors, Dr. Hill Craddock, is working on trying to re-institute the American Chestnut tree into the area. Another has been cataloging the fish population in all of the area streams that flow into the Tennessee River.
And there’s much more, just not enough space. Check out our website: www.utc.edu or go to Chattanooga’s: http://www.chattanoogafun.com/
If you have questions about UTC, Chattanooga, or our NSE Program, please contact:
- About UTC
- Diversity - UTC's approximately 8,600 students represent about 45 states and 53 foreign countries.
- Facilities - UTC has excellent educational, recreational, and residential facilties including:
- UTC Fine Arts Center
- DeSales Harrison Racquet Center
- McKenzie Arena: a 12,000-seat arena
- A newly renovated student center
- A new engineering/mathmematics/computer science building ("A $28.8 million structure that houses office space, computational laboratory facilities, with some of them being on-line labs operational on the Internet, state of the art classrooms, and auditoriums... Advanced teaching resources and research facilities were included in the design... New technology, developed at UTC, will allow students the option of doing their work on campus or at home through a continuous Internet connection.")
- Several new dormitory complexes
- Notable UTC Programs and Facts include:
- Majors, Faculty, & Class Size: UTC offers more than 70 undergraduate degree programs. Classes are kept relatively small and are taught by faculty (not graduate students) and over 80% of the faculty has completed a terminal degree.
- Top Programs: UTC is particularly strong in chemistry, pre-medical studies, creative writing, fine arts as well as both graduate and undergraduate programs in UTC's School of Business.
- The Physical Sciences: The Biolgy/Environmental Sciences and Chemistry departments have an excellent track record of placing UTC graduates in professional and graduate schools.
- Biology/Environmental Sciences Department- has access to area land trusts and uses them as field labs. Professors in the department are leading programs and reasearch including: re-instituting the American Chestnut tree and cataloging the fish population in the streams that flow into the Tennessee River.
- UTC Chemistry Department- Ranked #2 in the U.S. for the Percentage of Undergraduate Female Chemists Produced; listed among the top 100 schools in the country in the number of male and female chemistry graduates)
- Southeast Center for Education in the Arts - (Recipient of one of the 2003 TN Governor's Awards in the Arts)
- Center of Excellence for Computer Applications
- Challenger Space Center
- Computational Simulation and Design - (a computational research center)
- UTC Begins Doctoral Programs: UTC has three doctoral programs: physical therapy, educational leadership, and computational engineering.
- Community Accolades: UTC was named Corporate Business of the Year by the 2002 Minority Enterprise Development Week Award Committee.
- High Speed Internet Connection: As a result of a partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, UTC has a high speed network connection "that will link it with Oak Ridge National Laboratory 200,000 times faster than the average Internet dialup...It places UT Chattanooga among an elite few higher education institutions with computational power necessary to perform 21st century high tech research.Two ways it will be used: enhanced research opportunities for a new UTC computational engineering and design team, and by the UTC College of Business Administration to analyze the stock market."
- Industrial Engineering Students earn gold from IIE - The Industrial Engineering Student Chapter has garnered national recognition for the second consecutive year with the Gold Award from the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE), honoring student achievement during the 2004-2005 academic year.
- UTC accounting programs earn distinction with AACSB accrediatation - "UTC's accounting programs have received AACSB accreditation, a distinction representing the highest standard of achievement for business schools and accounting programs... AACSB accreditation is the hallmark of excellence in business education. One in six business schools worldwide have earned this prestigious accreditation; one in seventeen accounting programs have earned this distinction. These accredited institutions are able to attract excellent faculty and provide students with the highest quality education."
- Location - Chattanooga, TN
- History - UTC was originally founded as a private university in 1886 and merged with The University of Tennessee in1969.
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