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 2019-2020, 76% of the faculty were full-time.
• After graduation, NIU bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $52,792 a year. That's about 29% more than their peers at other schools.

Northern Illinois 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 NIU.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#5	Best Value Foreign Languages & Linguistics Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#9	Best Value Engineering Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#10	Best Value Mathematics & Statistics Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#14	Best Value Biological & Biomedical Sciences Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#15	Best Curriculum & Instruction Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#24	Best Value Visual & Performing Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#36	Best General Biology Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#48	Best Educational Administration Doctor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#60	Best Biological & Biomedical Sciences Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#138	Best Business Administration & Management Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It

Awards From Around the Web

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

Rank	Ranking Name	Source
#12	Best Value Colleges for History	College Factual
#24	Best Value Colleges for English Language & Literature	College Factual
#26	Best Value Colleges for Psychology	College Factual
#27	Best Value Colleges for Biological & Biomedical Sciences	College Factual
#27	Best Value Colleges for Communication & Journalism	College Factual
#182	Best Accounting Schools	College Factual

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
Facebook:	https://www.facebook.com/NorthernIllUniv
Twitter:	https://twitter.com/NIUlive

How Do I Get Into NIU?

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

Admission Requirements for NIU

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

How Hard Is It To Get Into NIU?

NIU has an acceptance rate of 59%, which means it is fairly selective. Take that into account when you are working on your application and gathering requested materials. Do what you can to stand out among other applicants.

Approximately 40% of accepted students are men and 60% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 58%, and the acceptance rate for women is 60%.

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 69% of students took out student loans averaging $6,741 a year. That adds up to $26,964 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at NIU is 5.9%. 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.

Northern Illinois University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 12,277 undergraduate students at NIU, with 10,472 being full-time and 1,805 being part-time.

There are also 4,492 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 10,472 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	596
Black or African American	2,139
Hispanic or Latino	2,206
White	4,927
International Students	156
Other Races/Ethnicities	448

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 2019-2020, 2,489 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 2019-2020.

Online Affordability Rankings of NIU

During the most recent year for which we have data, the full-time undergraduate tuition at Northern Illinois University was $12,352 for both in-state and out-of-state students. The following table shows how NIU 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
Marketing	#16	#13

Online Growth Rankings of NIU

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Northern Illinois University was 84.2%. This is the #468 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at NIU regardless of major.

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

Major	1-Year Growth Rate
Education	16%
Educational Administration	27%

The table below shows how the average growth rate over 4 years at NIU 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 NIU.

Major	Growth Rate Rank
Marketing	#30
Educational Administration	#58
Education	#214
Business, Management & Marketing	#313

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%.

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	174	0	143	0	317
General Psychology	189	0	22	14	225
Nursing	185	0	27	4	216
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	78	0	108	0	186
Communication & Media Studies	160	0	14	0	174
Computer Science	128	0	42	0	170
Health/Medical Prep Programs	164	0	0	0	164
Accounting	138	0	18	0	156
Marketing	125	0	29	0	154
Teacher Education Grade Specific	133	0	9	0	142
Mechanical Engineering	120	0	15	0	135
Teacher Education Subject Specific	40	0	94	0	134
Special Education	54	0	60	0	114
Educational Administration	0	19	60	33	112
Health & Physical Education	71	0	27	0	98
Finance & Financial Management	77	0	15	0	92
General Biology	83	0	6	1	90
Human Development & Family Studies	79	0	10	0	89
Liberal Arts General Studies	88	0	0	0	88
Electrical Engineering	66	0	19	0	85
General Engineering Technology	82	0	0	0	82
Fine & Studio Arts	73	0	8	0	81
Sociology	69	0	11	0	80
Computer Information Systems	0	0	76	0	76
Political Science & Government	67	0	5	3	75
Law	0	0	0	73	73
Industrial Engineering	28	0	42	0	70
Dietetics & Clinical Nutrition Services	49	0	16	0	65
Music	34	7	23	0	64
Public Health	46	0	16	0	62
Communication Sciences	33	0	20	7	60
General English Literature	48	0	7	3	58
History	41	0	9	1	51
Mathematics	41	0	5	5	51
Chemistry	38	0	3	3	44
Drama & Theater Arts	37	0	6	0	43
Instructional Media Design	0	0	29	10	39
Student Counseling	0	0	32	6	38
Public Administration	0	0	35	0	35
Natural Resources Conservation	31	0	0	0	31
Romance Languages	26	0	4	0	30
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	0	0	6	24	30
Economics	19	0	3	5	27
Curriculum & Instruction	0	0	18	7	25
Philosophy	14	0	11	0	25
Engineering-Related Fields	0	0	19	0	19
Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science	18	0	0	0	18
Mental & Social Health Services	18	0	0	0	18
Journalism	17	0	0	0	17
Statistics	11	0	6	0	17
Textile & Apparel Studies	15	0	0	0	15
Human Services	15	0	0	0	15
General Education	0	0	14	0	14
Anthropology	11	0	3	0	14
Educational Assessment	0	0	12	0	12
Geography & Cartography	8	0	2	2	12
Taxation	0	0	11	0	11
Allied Health Professions	11	0	0	0	11
Geological & Earth Sciences	5	0	5	0	10
Physics	2	0	5	2	9
Biomedical Engineering	8	0	0	0	8
Atmospheric Sciences & Meteorology	8	0	0	0	8
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	0	4	1	2	7
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	3	0	0	0	3
Germanic Languages	2	0	0	0	2
Other Health Professions	0	0	0	2	2
Applied Mathematics	0	0	1	0	1
Education Philosophy	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	3,080	30	1,182	207	4,499

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.