Northern Illinois University Business Programs

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

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
#1	Best Value Taxation Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#6	Best Value Marketing Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#8	Best Value Economics Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#9	Best Value Finance & Financial Management Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#15	Best Value Management Sciences & Methods Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#20	Best Value Accounting Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#47	Best Value Business Administration & Management Master’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#83	Most Popular Accounting Bachelor’s Degree Schools	Tweet It - Post It
#103	Most Popular Marketing Bachelor’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
#1	Best Value Graduate Degree Colleges for Other Marketing	College Factual
#4	Best Value Graduate Degree Colleges for Taxation	College Factual
#12	Best Value Colleges for Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	College Factual
#36	Best Value Colleges for Finance & Financial Management	College Factual
#81	Best Value Graduate Degree Colleges for Business, Management & Marketing	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?

The acceptance rate at NIU is 59%, which is a sign that the school is fairly selective. While it may not be as hard to get into as other colleges, you should not take admission for granted.

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

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 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 20th 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
Other Marketing	#4	#4
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 #390 largest growth rate of all schools that are only partially online. This refers to all students at NIU regardless of major.

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
Other Marketing	#2
Marketing	#30

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 Business Concentrations

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

Major	Bachelor’s	Master’s	Doctor’s	TOTAL
General Business Administration and Management	74	143	0	217
Accounting	138	18	0	156
Marketing/Marketing Management, General	125	0	0	125
Management Science	78	28	0	106
Operations Management	100	0	0	100
Finance	77	15	0	92
Other Marketing	0	29	0	29
General Economics	19	3	5	27
Taxation	0	11	0	11
Financial Risk Management	0	0	0	0
Business Statistics	0	0	0	0
TOTAL	611	247	5	863

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.