What do a retired NFL football player, a research technician at Cornell Medicine, a native of Zambia and a former Knoxville police officer have in common? Each is a member of this year’s full-time MBA class in the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The cohort brings an average of three years of work experience to their continuing academic careers, as well as engineering, military and Fulbright honors. Incoming MBA students also boast an average GPA of 3.53 and a GMAT score of 657, positioning them in the top 76th percentile nationally.

“We are thrilled to officially welcome 223 new master’s students to Haslam,” says Mary Goss, executive director of graduate business programs. “This class brings a wealth of diversity in experiences that will enhance the classroom environment and attract corporate recruiters to our graduate business programs.”

Haslam’s undergraduate class also shows solid academic talent, with average scores ranging from a 3.8 high school GPA to an ACT score of 26 and an SAT score of 1197.

Of the estimated 1,245 freshmen Haslam students, some 38 percent are declaring majors in either supply chain management or marketing. Management, business analytics and statistics, finance and accounting also continue in popularity, with nine to 19 percent of incoming students entering into each program. Economics, business exploratory, public administration and human resource management make up an additional nine percent of the incoming student group.