Northern Illinois University Overview

Northern Illinois University is a public institution located in Dekalb, Illinois. The suburban atmosphere of Dekalb makes it a great place for students who want the amenities of city life without actually living in the middle of a constant hustle and bustle.

What Is Northern Illinois University Known For?

• The highest award offered at NIU is the doctor's degree.
• In 2021-2022, 70% of the faculty were full-time.
• After graduation, NIU bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $55,380 a year. That's about 36% more than their peers at other schools.

Where Is Northern Illinois University?

Contact details for NIU are given below.

	Contact Details
Address:	1425 W. Lincoln Hwy., Dekalb, IL 60115-2828
Phone:	800-892-3050
Website:	www.niu.edu

How Do I Get Into NIU?

You can apply to NIU online at: www.niu.edu/admissions/apply/index.shtml

Admission Requirements for NIU

Submission	Required?
High School GPA	1
High School Rank	1
High School Transcript	1
College Prep Program	1
Recommendations	3
SAT or ACT Scores	3
TOEFL	1

How Hard Is It To Get Into NIU?

The acceptance rate at Northern Illinois University is 71%. This means that is not quite as selective as some schools, but you'll still need to submit a good application if you want to be considered by the admissions department.

Approximately 40% of accepted students are men and 60% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 68%, and the acceptance rate for women is 73%.

Can I Afford Northern Illinois University?

The overall average net price of NIU is $22,828. 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

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At NIU, approximately 59% of students took out student loans averaging $6,236 a year. That adds up to $24,944 over four years for those students.

Northern Illinois University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 11,834 undergraduate students at NIU, with 9,994 being full-time and 1,840 being part-time.

There are also 4,400 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 9,994 full-time undergraduates at NIU, 46% are male and 54% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

The racial-ethnic breakdown of Northern Illinois University students is as follows.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	599
Black or African American	2,145
Hispanic or Latino	2,184
White	4,472
International Students	129
Other Races/Ethnicities	465

Geographic Diversity

Illinois students aren't the only ones who study at Northern Illinois University. At this time, 20 states are represented by the student population at the school.

Over 78 countries are represented at NIU. The most popular countries sending students to the school are India, China, and Saudi Arabia.

Online Learning at Northern Illinois University

In 2022-2023, 10,521 students took at least one online class at the school.

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

This school is the 34th most popular in Illinois for online learning according to the online graduations recorded by the Department of Education for the academic year 2022-2023.

Northern Illinois University Undergraduate Concentrations

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

Major	Bachelor’s	Graduate Certificate	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
Business Administration & Management	149	0	199	0	348
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	94	0	129	0	223
General Psychology	193	0	13	15	221
Nursing	166	0	33	6	205
Computer Science	132	0	37	0	169
Marketing	125	0	35	0	160
Mechanical Engineering	115	0	38	0	153
Health/Medical Prep Programs	153	0	0	0	153
Teacher Education Grade Specific	127	0	8	0	135
Accounting	122	0	12	0	134
Health & Physical Education	106	0	28	0	134
Teacher Education Subject Specific	37	0	90	0	127
Communication & Media Studies	114	0	4	0	118
Educational Administration	0	22	41	44	107
Law	0	0	0	104	104
Fine & Studio Arts	88	0	11	0	99
General Biology	80	0	6	4	90
Special Education	40	0	49	0	89
Human Development & Family Studies	72	0	9	0	81
Liberal Arts General Studies	75	0	0	0	75
Political Science & Government	67	0	5	2	74
Music	37	11	24	0	72
Communication Sciences	47	0	20	4	71
General English Literature	43	0	13	7	63
General Engineering Technology	58	0	0	0	58
History	46	0	6	1	53
Computer Information Systems	0	0	52	0	52
Drama & Theater Arts	34	0	17	0	51
Student Counseling	0	0	43	7	50
Electrical Engineering	35	0	15	0	50
Sociology	44	0	6	0	50
Finance & Financial Management	48	0	0	0	48
Industrial Engineering	21	0	24	0	45
Mental & Social Health Services	45	0	0	0	45
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	0	0	6	33	39
Mathematics	29	0	4	4	37
Chemistry	30	0	2	5	37
Dietetics & Clinical Nutrition Services	26	0	9	0	35
Natural Resources Conservation	35	0	0	0	35
Economics	28	0	4	3	35
Public Health	0	0	34	0	34
Instructional Media Design	0	0	30	3	33
Public Administration	0	0	33	0	33
Curriculum & Instruction	0	0	17	7	24
General Education	0	0	23	0	23
Geological & Earth Sciences	13	0	8	2	23
Romance Languages	19	0	3	0	22
Philosophy	12	0	9	0	21
Physics	10	0	4	6	20
Hospitality Management	19	0	0	0	19
Journalism	19	0	0	0	19
Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science	19	0	0	0	19
Geography & Cartography	13	0	4	1	18
Engineering-Related Fields	0	0	15	0	15
Statistics	11	0	3	0	14
Applied Mathematics	0	0	13	0	13
Anthropology	8	0	4	0	12
Human Services	11	0	0	0	11
Textile & Apparel Studies	10	0	0	0	10
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	0	4	1	3	8
Educational Assessment	0	0	7	0	7
Biomedical Engineering	7	0	0	0	7
Atmospheric Sciences & Meteorology	7	0	0	0	7
Other Health Professions	0	0	0	6	6
Taxation	0	0	4	0	4
Germanic Languages	2	0	0	0	2
Criminology	2	0	0	0	2
Ethnic Studies	1	0	0	0	1
Education Philosophy	0	0	0	0	0
Allied Health Professions	0	0	0	0	0
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	2,844	37	1,204	267	4,352

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 Andy McMurray under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.