Fisk University

Private · Selective · TN

Photo: Fhaywood25 (CC BY-SA 4.0)

School data & stats

TypePrivate

LocationTN · South

SettingUrban

Undergrads1,035

Student:faculty12:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate24.4%

6-yr grad rate29.9%

Drop-out rate26.2%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$26k

Out-of-state tuition$26k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity99.9%

Gender diversity63.1%

International0%

IdentityHBCU

Overview

Fisk University, founded in Nashville in 1866, is one of the oldest historically Black universities in the country and carries deep cultural and historical significance, both through the Fisk Jubilee Singers, who introduced spirituals to concert stages worldwide, and through alumni like W.E.B. Du Bois and John Lewis, who passed through its classrooms before becoming towering figures in American intellectual and civil rights history.

Academics

Fisk has particular strength in the sciences, supported by the Fisk-Vanderbilt Bridge Program, a well-known partnership that helps Fisk students move into Vanderbilt's PhD programs in the sciences, giving a small college real access to major research-university resources. The Jubilee Singers remain an active, prestigious touring ensemble rather than a historical footnote, and Fisk was one of the founding member institutions of the United Negro College Fund, reflecting its long-standing role at the center of Black higher education nationally.

Campus & student life

Fisk's Nashville location places students in a major music and cultural city, and the university's art holdings, including works from the Alfred Stieglitz collection, give the campus an unusually significant art collection for its size. Jubilee Hall, one of the first permanent buildings constructed for the education of Black Americans in the country, anchors a campus with a strong sense of its own historical weight, and student life is tightly woven into Nashville's broader Black cultural and civil rights history.

Getting in

As a smaller historically Black institution, Fisk's admissions process tends to weigh personal statements and evidence of academic seriousness alongside grades, with less emphasis on the standardized-test-heavy formulas of larger public flagships. The university has long drawn students specifically seeking its HBCU identity and its particular strengths in the sciences and the arts, and demonstrated interest in the Jubilee Singers or the sciences pipeline can meaningfully strengthen an application.

After graduation

Graduates have a strong record of moving into graduate and professional programs, particularly in the sciences through the Vanderbilt bridge partnership, as well as into law, medicine, and civil rights and public-service careers reflecting the university's historical role. The alumni network is disproportionately influential relative to the university's small size, with graduates who have shaped American civil rights history, scholarship, and the arts.

Worth knowing

The Vanderbilt research bridge and the university's art and music legacy, especially the Jubilee Singers, give Fisk cultural and academic resources well beyond what its small size would suggest. Prospective students should know that Fisk's small scale is part of its identity, not a limitation, pairing an intimate campus with connections to a major research university and a genuinely historic civil rights legacy.

fisk.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate37.4%

Enrolled mid-50%SAT 1140–1510 · ACT 19–24

Test policyoptional

Rec letters0

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

Early actionNov 1

Verified from the school’s admissions page ↗

Applying (2026-27 cycle)

Apply through Common App or Own application.

Early Action I (non-binding) is due November 1 and Early Action II is due February 1, both ahead of the July 15 Regular Decision deadline, with priority scholarship consideration tied to the Early Action rounds.

Verified from the school’s admissions pages ↗