Lake Forest College Overview

Lake Forest College is a private not-for-profit institution situated in Lake Forest, Illinois. Lake Forest is located in a safe and convenient suburb.

What Is Lake Forest College Known For?

• The student loan default rate at Lake Forest is 3%, which is significantly lower than the national rate of 10.1%. That's great news for students who are worrying about paying off their student loans.
• Although it may not be available for every major, the master's degree is the highest award a student can attain at Lake Forest.
• For the 2017-2018 academic year, 57% of the faculty were full-time.
• A student who earns a bachelor's degree from Lake Forest makes roughly $50,900 a year. This is 25% more than their peers from other colleges and universities.
• The average Lake Forest student graduates in 4.1 years. That's better than the national average of 4.4 years.

Lake Forest College Rankings

Lake Forest is ranked #347 out of 2,587 schools in the nation for overall quality on our 2022 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 15% of all schools in the nation. Out of the 102 colleges in Illinois, it is ranked at #11.

Our rankings are based on an outcomes-based approach rather than subjective ones used by other media outlets. As such, we utilize data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard, among other sources. Visit our rankings and methodology section to learn more.

Lake Forest has also been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#129	Best Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Program Level Awards

These are highlights of some of the most noteworthy awards granted to specific programs at Lake Forest.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#7	Most Popular Sociology & Anthropology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#36	Best Communication & Media Studies Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#44	Best Communication & Journalism Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#62	Best Teacher Education Grade Specific Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#68	Best Value Teacher Education Grade Specific Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#102	Best Education Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#131	Best Psychology Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#147	Best Value Education Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

The following table lists some notable awards Lake Forest has earned from around the web.

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#48	Best Speech Communication Schools	College Factual
#73	Best Communication & Media Studies Schools	College Factual
#73	Best General Education Schools	College Factual
#86	Best Teacher Education Grade Specific Master’s Degree Schools	College Factual
#95	Best Communication & Journalism Schools	College Factual
#130	Best Schools	Grad Degree

Where Is Lake Forest College?

Contact details for Lake Forest are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	555 N Sheridan Road, Lake Forest, IL 60045-2399
Phone:	847-234-3100
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/lakeforestcollege
Twitter:	http://www.twitter.com/LFCollege

How Do I Get Into Lake Forest?

You can apply to Lake Forest online at: www.lakeforest.edu/admissions/apply/

Admission Requirements for Lake Forest

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	considered but not required
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	required
Recommendations	required
SAT or ACT Scores	recommended
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into Lake Forest?

With an acceptance rate of 58%, Lake Forest does not let just anybody through their doors! Make sure you spend enough time polishing up your application so you will make a great impression.

Approximately 39% of accepted students are men and 61% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 52%, and the acceptance rate for women is 62%.

Can I Afford Lake Forest College?

The overall average net price of Lake Forest is $32,801. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group.

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.

Student Loan Debt

It's not uncommon for college students to take out loans to pay for school. In fact, almost 66% of students nationwide depend at least partially on loans. At Lake Forest, approximately 80% of students took out student loans averaging $7,141 a year. That adds up to $28,564 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Lake Forest is 2.5%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Lake Forest College Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 1,558 undergraduate students at Lake Forest, with 1,526 being full-time and 32 being part-time.

There are also 25 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 1,526 full-time undergraduates at Lake Forest, 41% are male and 59% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Lake Forest College students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	76
Black or African American	63
Hispanic or Latino	270
White	752
International Students	207
Other Races/Ethnicities	158

Geographic Diversity

Illinois students aren't the only ones who study at Lake Forest College. At this time, 32 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 65 countries are represented at Lake Forest. The most popular countries sending students to the school are China, Canada, and Swaziland.

Online Learning at Lake Forest College

In 2019-2020, 1,583 students took at least one online class at the school.

Lake Forest College Undergraduate Concentrations

The table below shows the number of awards for each concentration.

Major	Bachelor’s	Master’s	TOTAL
General Business/Commerce	55	0	55
Child Development & Psychology	34	0	34
Communication & Media Studies	30	0	30
Finance & Financial Management	29	0	29
General English Literature	27	0	27
General Biology	24	0	24
Sociology & Anthropology	22	0	22
Economics	21	0	21
Romance Languages	20	0	20
Neurobiology & Neurosciences	17	0	17
Mathematics	17	0	17
Political Science & Government	17	0	17
Natural Resources Conservation	16	0	16
Fine & Studio Arts	15	0	15
History	12	0	12
Liberal Arts General Studies	10	2	12
Chemistry	12	0	12
Computer Science	11	0	11
General Education	11	0	11
International Relations & National Security	11	0	11
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	10	10
Philosophy	9	0	9
Music	7	0	7
Physics	6	0	6
Drama & Theater Arts	5	0	5
Religious Studies	4	0	4
Teacher Education Subject Specific	3	0	3
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molecular Biology	2	0	2
Area Studies	2	0	2
Ethnic Studies	2	0	2
Computer Information Systems	1	0	1
Statistics	0	0	0
General Psychology	0	0	0
Other Social Sciences	0	0	0
TOTAL	452	12	464

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• Image Credit: By Eudaimonia86 under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.