Do North Carolina Residents Get In-State Tuition in Tennessee? (Undergraduate, 2026)
No — North Carolina residents pay full non-resident undergraduate tuition in Tennessee, about $33,700 a year at University of Tennessee, Knoxville against $14,100 for residents. There is no exchange program between North Carolina and Tennessee; the only route to the in-state rate is establishing Tennessee residency, which takes 12 months.
- You would pay
- $33,700/yr
- Resident pays
- $14,100/yr
- Over 4 yrs
- No saving available
Tuition and mandatory fees only, compiled from published rates and rounded. Excludes housing, books and course differentials. Eligibility is decided by the institution, not by this page.
Open this pair in the checker to switch level, compare other states, or copy a link to the result.
This is the common case, and the honest answer is no. Tennessee charges North Carolina residents its full non-resident undergraduate rate of $33,700, and no regional program bridges the two states.
The comparison that matters is with home: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill charges a North Carolina resident $9,000 a year. No compact or state agreement in our data reaches North Carolina residents at undergraduate level in any state.
The discount most often missed here is institutional. Individual public universities run their own non-resident scholarships, and several effectively convert a strong out-of-state applicant to something near the in-state rate. Those sit outside every state agreement and are invisible on comparison sites.
Every route from North Carolina to Tennessee
No exchange program or bilateral agreement connects these two states at undergraduate level, so the route table is empty.
Where North Carolina residents pay less
Staying home, a North Carolina resident pays $9,000 a year for in-state undergraduate tuition at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The cheapest Tennessee option for you is $33,700 at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, which is $24,700 a year more than staying home, or $98,800 over 4 years.
North Carolina belongs to none of the four regional tuition compacts at undergraduate level, and no state or campus agreement in our data reaches North Carolina residents at this level.
| State | Reference campus | Non-resident, per year |
|---|---|---|
| North Carolina to South Dakota | University of South Dakota | $13,600 |
| North Carolina to District of Columbia | University of the District of Columbia | $16,700 |
| North Carolina to North Dakota | University of North Dakota | $16,700 |
| North Carolina to Wyoming | University of Wyoming | $21,000 |
| North Carolina to Nevada | University of Nevada, Las Vegas | $26,000 |
North Carolina's neighboring states, compared
What a North Carolina resident pays for undergraduate tuition in each state that borders North Carolina, cheapest first:
- Georgia$32,000/yr · non-resident
- Tennessee$33,700/yr · non-resident
- South Carolina$36,300/yr · non-resident
- Virginia$60,000/yr · non-resident
Compare all 50 states from North Carolina in the checker. Each figure is one reference campus per state, not a state average.
Tennessee residency, in brief
Tennessee grants in-state tuition after 12 months of domicile before the term begins (Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0240-02-02), and a financially dependent student takes the parents' domicile. Moving to Tennessee to enroll does not by itself start the clock.
Tennessee residency requirements in full · how long every state requires
Step by step
- Budget for the non-resident rate at University of Tennessee, Knoxville: $33,700 a year against $14,100 for residents.
- Check whether the specific campus you want offers its own non-resident scholarship or a border-county waiver — those are institutional, sit outside the state agreements, and are the most commonly missed discount.
- If you plan to stay, price the residency route: Tennessee requires 12 months of domicile, and a financially dependent student takes the parents' domicile, so the family would need to move.
- Read the Tennessee Higher Education Commission rules in full before you enroll — classification is decided once, and re-classification later in a degree is the hardest version of this problem.
Official links
Related
Asked and answered
›Do North Carolina residents get in-state tuition in Tennessee?
No. North Carolina residents pay the full non-resident rate of $33,700 at University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The only route to the $14,100 in-state rate is establishing Tennessee residency.
›How long does it take to get in-state tuition in Tennessee?
Tennessee requires 12 months of domicile before the term begins (Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0240-02-02), and a financially dependent student takes the parents' domicile.
›How much would undergraduate study in Tennessee actually cost a North Carolina resident?
About $33,700 a year in tuition and mandatory fees at University of Tennessee, Knoxville, against $14,100 for a Tennessee resident. Figures are compiled 2025–26 published rates and exclude housing, books and course-specific differentials.
›Where can North Carolina residents get reduced undergraduate tuition?
Nowhere through a compact or state agreement: none reaches North Carolina residents at undergraduate level in our data. The lowest published non-resident rates are in South Dakota ($13,600), District of Columbia ($16,700), North Dakota ($16,700), and campus scholarships remain worth checking.
›Is studying in Tennessee cheaper than staying in North Carolina?
No. North Carolina's in-state undergraduate rate is $9,000 a year at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the cheapest Tennessee option for a North Carolina resident is $33,700, so Tennessee costs about $24,700 more a year, or $98,800 over 4 years, in tuition and fees alone.
Sources
Every eligibility rule on this page is checked against the operating compact commission or the state's own residency authority. Last verified 2026-08-07.
Tuition figures on this page are compiled 2025–26 published rates (basis: published compiled), rounded to the nearest $100 and refreshed each June. Eligibility rules are checked against the cited compact commission or residency authority.
- Tennessee Higher Education Commission — residency for tuition purposes ↗Accessed 2026-08-07
- University of Tennessee, Knoxville — tuition and fees ↗Accessed 2026-08-07
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — tuition and fees ↗Accessed 2026-08-07
How this page was made
Compiled and checked by Billy Reiner, editor of In-State Check. Last verified 2026-08-07.
- Compiled from published rate pages
- The in-state and non-resident figures are tuition and mandatory fees for one full-time year, read from University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s own 2025–26 rate page and rounded to the nearest $100. Housing, books, travel and course-specific differentials are not included in them.
- Checked against the administering body
- Compact membership at this level was checked against the commission that runs the program (SREB). The residency test — the durational requirement, the domicile evidence and the dependent-student rule — was checked against Tennessee Higher Education Commission, Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0240-02-02. Nothing here is taken from another comparison site.
Not advice. In-State Check is independent of every college, compact and state agency named here. Residency classification and award decisions are made by the institution you apply to. Found an error? Send the page URL and the source that contradicts it to [email protected], and the page is corrected and re-dated. Full methodology.