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Community-college Pell-grant share in Tennessee

Community colleges in Tennessee ranked by Pell-grant share — the percentage of undergraduates who received a federal Pell Grant in the most recent reporting year. Pell share is a useful proxy for the share of the student body from lower-income households and for the institution's experience serving students who depend heavily on need-based federal aid.

  1. Miller-Motte College-ChattanoogaChattanooga, TN86%
  2. Fortis Institute-CookevilleCookeville, TN78%
  3. South CollegeKnoxville, TN49%
  4. Galen Health Institutes-Nashville CampusNashville, TN46%
  5. Jackson State Community CollegeJackson, TN42%
  6. Southwest Tennessee Community CollegeMemphis, TN41%
  7. John A Gupton CollegeNashville, TN40%
  8. Northeast State Community CollegeBlountville, TN36%
  9. Chattanooga State Community CollegeChattanooga, TN36%
  10. Dyersburg State Community CollegeDyersburg, TN34%
  11. Volunteer State Community CollegeGallatin, TN33%
  12. Nashville State Community CollegeNashville, TN33%
  13. Walters State Community CollegeMorristown, TN30%
  14. Columbia State Community CollegeColumbia, TN30%
  15. Motlow State Community CollegeTullahoma, TN28%
  16. Roane State Community CollegeHarriman, TN28%
  17. Pellissippi State Community CollegeKnoxville, TN24%

How to interpret Pell share

The federal Pell Grant is the largest need-based grant program in U.S. higher education. Eligibility is determined by the FAFSA and is based primarily on family income and assets relative to the cost of attendance. A community college with a high Pell-grant share is, by construction, an institution whose student body skews toward lower-income households. That is not a quality signal in either direction on its own — many of the strongest community-college transfer pipelines in Tennessee run through institutions with high Pell shares — but it does indicate where institutional services such as emergency aid, child-care subsidies, food pantries, and need-based scholarships are most likely to be developed and well-resourced.

If you are eligible for the Pell Grant, the practical implication is that several of the community colleges on this list will be tuition-free for you after the grant is applied, with state aid and institutional aid often covering most of the remaining cost of attendance. File the FAFSA as early as possible in the academic year — it determines eligibility for all major federal need-based programs, and many state aid programs in Tennessee use the FAFSA as their qualifying application as well.