Northern Illinois University Overview

Northern Illinois University is a public institution located in Dekalb, Illinois. Dekalb is a good match for students who enjoy the safety and convenience of the suburbs.

What Is Northern Illinois University Known For?

• The highest award offered at NIU is the doctor's degree.
• In 2017-2018, 75% of the faculty were full-time.
• After graduation, NIU bachelor's degree recipients go on to jobs where they make $45,500 a year. That's about 12% 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.

NIU has been awarded the following overall awards by our latest rankings.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#160	Most Popular Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#168	Most Popular Bachelor’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 NIU.

Rank	Ranking Name	Share
#1	Best Value Physical Sciences Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#1	Best Value Taxation Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#4	Best Value Social Sciences Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#4	Best Value Mathematics & Statistics Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#12	Best Value Communication & Journalism Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#13	Best Value Visual & Performing Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#15	Best Value History Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#20	Best Value English Language & Literature Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#31	Best Value Business, Management & Marketing Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#145	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
#6	Best Value Colleges for Physical Sciences	College Factual
#11	Best Value Colleges for Health Professions	College Factual
#14	Best Value Colleges for History	College Factual
#23	Best Value Colleges for Psychology	College Factual
#41	Best Health Professions Colleges for Veterans	College Factual
#98	Best Colleges for Health Professions	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	required
TOEFL	required

How Hard Is It To Get Into NIU?

NIU has an acceptance rate of 53%, 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 43% of accepted students are men and 57% are women. The acceptance rate for men is 52%, and the acceptance rate for women is 55%.

Average Test Scores

About 0% of students accepted to NIU submitted their SAT scores.NIU received ACT scores from 97% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT English scores ranged between 18 and 24. Math scores were between 18 and 25. Composite scores were between 19 and 24.

Can I Afford Northern Illinois University?

The overall average net price of NIU is $22,638. 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 NIU, approximately 72% of students took out student loans averaging $7,177 a year. That adds up to $28,708 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at NIU is 7.8%. 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.

Northern Illinois University Undergraduate Student Diversity

There are 12,131 undergraduate students at NIU, with 10,567 being full-time and 1,564 being part-time.

There are also 4,478 graduate students at the school.

Gender Diversity

Of the 10,567 full-time undergraduates at NIU, 48% are male and 52% are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

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

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	607
Black or African American	1,984
Hispanic or Latino	2,041
White	5,274
International Students	221
Other Races/Ethnicities	440

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 2017-2018, 2,027 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.

Online Growth Rankings of NIU

The average growth rate over the last four years of online students at Northern Illinois University was 9.1%. This is the #1,397 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at NIU regardless of major.

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	178	0	206	0	384
Accounting	167	0	110	0	277
Computer Science	150	0	72	0	222
General Psychology	187	0	17	18	222
Mechanical Engineering	170	0	43	0	213
Communication & Media Studies	192	0	9	0	201
Health/Medical Prep Programs	172	0	0	0	172
Marketing	163	0	0	0	163
Nursing	136	0	22	0	158
Teacher Education Subject Specific	23	0	118	0	141
General Biology	118	0	15	6	139
Human Development & Family Studies	124	0	15	0	139
Teacher Education Grade Specific	112	0	7	0	119
Educational Administration	0	19	73	16	108
Health & Physical Education	74	0	26	0	100
Electrical Engineering	81	0	18	0	99
General Engineering Technology	98	0	0	0	98
Special Education	46	0	46	0	92
Computer Information Systems	0	0	91	0	91
Fine & Studio Arts	77	0	11	1	89
Law	0	0	0	85	85
Political Science & Government	73	0	6	5	84
Industrial Engineering	28	0	55	0	83
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	82	0	0	0	82
Sociology	75	0	7	0	82
General English Literature	63	0	14	3	80
Finance & Financial Management	78	0	0	0	78
Liberal Arts General Studies	75	0	0	0	75
Communication Sciences	41	0	24	8	73
Mathematics	60	0	9	3	72
Dietetics & Clinical Nutrition Services	58	0	12	0	70
Music	31	8	28	0	67
History	58	0	5	2	65
Chemistry	44	0	3	10	57
Public Health	34	0	22	0	56
Mental & Social Health Services	55	0	0	0	55
Economics	36	0	8	5	49
Public Administration	0	0	45	0	45
Instructional Media Design	0	0	32	12	44
Student Counseling	0	0	40	4	44
Drama & Theater Arts	27	0	17	0	44
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions	0	0	11	30	41
Romance Languages	35	0	1	0	36
Natural Resources Conservation	30	0	0	0	30
Clinical/Medical Laboratory Science	29	0	0	0	29
Human Services	27	0	0	0	27
Journalism	26	0	0	0	26
Anthropology	14	0	12	0	26
Geography & Cartography	15	0	3	4	22
Philosophy	13	0	8	0	21
Geological & Earth Sciences	13	0	7	1	21
Physics	9	0	4	7	20
Taxation	0	0	17	0	17
Curriculum & Instruction	0	0	8	9	17
Allied Health Professions	16	0	0	0	16
Atmospheric Sciences & Meteorology	15	0	0	0	15
General Education	0	0	12	0	12
Engineering-Related Fields	0	0	12	0	12
Textile & Apparel Studies	10	0	0	0	10
Statistics	0	0	9	0	9
Clinical, Counseling & Applied Psychology	0	0	3	4	7
Applied Mathematics	0	0	6	0	6
Educational Assessment	0	0	4	0	4
Other Health Professions	0	0	0	4	4
Germanic Languages	2	0	0	0	2
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies	1	0	0	0	1
Education Philosophy	0	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	3,441	27	1,343	237	5,048

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.