National Louis University Overview

Located in Chicago, Illinois, National Louis University is a private not-for-profit institution. The city atmosphere of Chicago makes it a great place for students who enjoy having lots of educational and entertainment options.

What Is National Louis University Known For?

• Although it may not be available for every major, the doctor's degree is the highest award a student can attain at NLU.
• For the 2017-2018 academic year, 99% of the faculty were full-time.
• After graduation, NLU bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $44,600 a year. That's about 9% more than their peers at other schools.

National Louis University Rankings

These rankings may look different from those published by other outlets, because we use an outcomes-based approach rather than a subjective one. We get our data from a number of places, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the College Scorecard. For more information, check out our rankings and methodology page.

Program Level Awards

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#9	Best Value Management Sciences & Methods Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#9	Best Value Family, Consumer & Human Sciences Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#18	Best Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#24	Best Value Health/Medical Admin Services Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#26	Best Personal & Culinary Services Associate Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#40	Best Health/Medical Admin Services Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#64	Best Value Health Professions Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#86	Best Value Social Sciences Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#99	Best Health Professions Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#117	Best Value Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#5	Best Child Care & Support Services Management Schools	College Factual
#6	Best Baking & Pastry Arts/Baker/Pastry Chef Schools	College Factual
#7	Best Culinary Arts/Chef Training Schools	College Factual
#10	Best Culinary Arts Schools	College Factual
#17	Best Personal & Culinary Services Schools	College Factual
#70	Best Healthcare Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Healthcare Degree Search

Where Is National Louis University?

Contact details for NLU are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	122 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60603
Phone:	800-443-5522
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/NationalLouisU

How Do I Get Into NLU?

You can apply to NLU online at: www.nl.edu/applyonline/

Admission Requirements for NLU

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	required
High School Rank	neither required nor recommended
High School Transcript	required
College Prep Program	neither required nor recommended
Recommendations	neither required nor recommended
SAT or ACT Scores	neither required nor recommended
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into NLU?

Since NLU has an acceptance rate of 97%, it is not too hard to gain acceptance into the school. Still, you need to be sure you complete your application in full and send in any other requested documents.

Approximately 42% of accepted students are men and 58% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 98%, and the acceptance rate for women is 97%.

Can I Afford National Louis University?

Student Loan Debt

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At NLU, approximately 12% of students took out student loans averaging $5,102 a year. That adds up to $20,408 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at NLU is 6.8%. Although this is lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, you'll still want to keep this in mind when taking out student loans.

National Louis University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 3,604 undergraduate students at NLU, with 2,564 being full-time and 1,040 being part-time.

There are also 3,798 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 2,564 full-time undergraduates at NLU, 30% are male and 70% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of National Louis University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	58
Black or African American	439
Hispanic or Latino	1,542
White	303
International Students	47
Other Races/Ethnicities	175

Geographic Diversity

Illinois students aren't the only ones who study at National Louis University. At this time, 2 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 19 countries are represented at NLU. The most popular countries sending students to the school are India, South Korea, and Kyrgyzstan.

Online Learning at National Louis University

There are 13 bachelor’s degree and 14 master’s degree programs available online at NLU. In 2019-2020, 4,054 students took at least one online class at the school.

The following chart shows how the online learning population at NLU has changed over the last few years.

This school is the 16th most popular in Illinois for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of NLU

The following table shows how NLU is ranked for affordability for both in-state and out-of-state students among colleges and universities that are not mostly online.

Major	Tuition for In-State Students	Tuition for Out-of-State Students
Other Public Administration	#12	#4
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	#13	#4
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	#13	#7
Public Policy	#14	#1
Human Services	#19	#7
Educational Assessment	#33	#6
Criminology	#33	#4
Mental & Social Health Services	#37	#4
General Psychology	#40	#7
Human Development & Family Studies	#43	#10
Management Information Systems	#55	#10
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences	#70	#7

Online Growth Rankings of NLU

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at National Louis University was 19.6%. This is the #1,080 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at NLU regardless of major.

The following table shows the 1-year growth rate of NLU majors that offer at least one online course. This table only includes majors with positive growth.

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
Business Administration & Management	41%
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	47%
Communication & Journalism	20%
Communication & Media Studies	20%
Curriculum & Instruction	1%
Education	5%
Educational Assessment	67%
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences	26%
Human Development & Family Studies	26%
Human Services	59%
Other Public Administration	64%
Psychology	40%
Public Administration	58%
Public Administration & Social Service	40%
Teacher Education Grade Specific	23%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at NLU ranks compared to all other partially online schools that offer a specific major. Note that the majors may or may not be offered online at NLU.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Public Policy	#8
Other Public Administration	#12
Educational Assessment	#22
Management Information Systems	#48
Human Services	#48
Social Work	#59
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	#77
Communication & Media Studies	#85
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	#96
Public Administration	#106
Mental & Social Health Services	#114
Curriculum & Instruction	#138
Communication & Journalism	#155
General Psychology	#162
Human Development & Family Studies	#169
General Business/Commerce	#179
Human Resource Management	#180
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences	#199
Computer Information Systems	#209
Public Administration & Social Service	#219
Educational Administration	#241
Psychology	#255
Teacher Education Grade Specific	#293
Health & Medical Administrative Services	#451
Computer & Information Sciences	#491

When we speak of partially online, we are referring to schools whose online population is less than 50% of its total student body. Mostly online refers to those with online populations greater than or equal to 50%.

National Louis University Undergraduate Concentrations

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

Major	Associate’s	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Teacher Education Grade Specific	0	156	0	266	0	422
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	0	12	30	168	41	251
Educational Administration	0	0	86	50	55	191
Curriculum & Instruction	0	0	3	172	1	176
Human Development & Family Studies	0	81	0	42	0	123
Business Administration & Management	0	36	0	46	13	95
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	0	94	0	0	0	94
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	0	84	0	0	0	84
Culinary Arts	60	8	0	0	0	68
Teacher Education Subject Specific	0	0	0	63	0	63
Special Education	0	6	0	55	0	61
Health & Medical Administrative Services	0	39	0	20	0	59
Hospitality Management	0	44	0	0	0	44
General Psychology	0	26	2	8	0	36
Criminology	0	29	0	0	0	29
Other Public Administration	0	28	0	0	0	28
Human Resource Management	0	0	0	18	0	18
Human Services	0	0	0	17	0	17
Social Work	0	17	0	0	0	17
Writing Studies	0	0	0	14	0	14
Public Administration	0	0	0	12	0	12
Communication & Media Studies	0	10	0	0	0	10
General Business/Commerce	0	9	0	0	0	9
Management Information Systems	0	7	0	0	0	7
Mental & Social Health Services	0	0	0	6	0	6
Computer Information Systems	0	5	0	0	0	5
Student Counseling	0	0	0	1	4	5
Educational Assessment	0	0	0	3	0	3
Ethnic Studies	0	0	0	0	2	2
Instructional Media Design	0	0	0	1	0	1
Public Policy	0	0	0	1	0	1
Liberal Arts General Studies	0	0	0	0	0	0
General Social Sciences	0	0	0	0	0	0
Political Science & Government	0	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	60	691	121	963	116	1,951

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 TonyTheTiger under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.