In 2005, the United States National Institutes of Health ranked the top medical schools to which it granted awards. Of the 123 schools on that list, four were in Tennessee: Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (#15), the University of Tennessee College of Medicine (#68), Meharry Medical College (#82), and Quillen College of Medicine (#121). The Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners also recognizes five major accredited medical schools in the state in no particular order: Vanderbilt, Meharry College, East Tennessee University (Quillen College of Medicine), the University of Tennessee at Memphis, and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
Expect the competition for medical degrees in Tennessee to be high. Vanderbilt University's School of Medicine reports that from 2000 to 2010, the average GPA of its entering class rose from 3.69 to 3.8, and that from 2006 to 2010, most of its out-of-state students came from universities such as Notre Dame, Yale, Harvard, and Duke. The University of Tennessee admitted only 12% of its applicants in 2010, and the average MCAT score of those enrollees was 30 out of 45, placing them well above the national MCAT average.
If you aim for a professional health care career, expect to be licensed by the Tennessee Department of Health's Board of Medical Examiners. The Board is responsible for granting licenses to health care professionals, accrediting educational institutions, and for investigating complaints or ethical infringements within the Tennessee health care system. Licenses must be renewed through the Board, and medical professionals are required by law to complete 40 hours of continuing medical education in the two years prior to their license renewal year.
With a medical degree and license in hand, your prospects for employment in Tennessee are good, but perhaps not as good as in other states. Between 2008 and 2018, overall employment for physicians and surgeons in Tennessee is expected to grow by 19%, slower than the estimated national rate of 22%. Employment for registered nurses is likewise expected to grow slightly slower than the national average, up by 17% from 2008 to 2018, compared to an increase of 22% in the rest of the country.