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Illinois State University Data & Information Overview

452 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
92% Acceptance Rate
Get the facts about Illinois State University. Learn how it ranks, what majors it offers, how diverse it is, and much more.
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How Well Is Illinois State University Ranked?

#231 Best Colleges in Nation
#8 Best Colleges in IL
Special Education Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2024 Rankings

College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities in its annual rankings and ranks them in a variety of ways, including most diverse, best overall quality, best for non-traditional students, and much more.

Illinois State University was awarded 452 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is special education.

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Overall Quality

College Factual ranked Illinois State as #231 out of 2,217 colleges and universities in the country on its 2024 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 15% of all schools in the nation.

Illinois State also holds the #8 spot on the Best Colleges in Illinois ranking.

See all of the rankings for Illinois State University.

Is It Hard to Get Into Illinois State?

92% Acceptance Rate
62% Of Accepted Are Women
51% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

Because it has a high acceptance rate of 92%, some consider Illinois State to be a safety school. But don't just assume that admittance is in the bag. Make sure to spend enough time on your application so that it is in tip-top shape.

Average Test Scores

About 51% of students accepted to Illinois State submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 510 and 610. Math scores were between 490 and 590.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Illinois State University  ( 510 to 610 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Illinois State University  ( 490 to 590 )
200
800
Illinois State received ACT scores from 19% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 21 and 27.

ACT Composite Scores for Illinois State University  ( 21 to 27 )
1
36

Learn more about Illinois State University admissions.

Illinois State University Faculty

19 to 1 Student to Faculty
78% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

At Illinois State University, the student to faculty ratio is 19 to 1. Compared to the national average of 15 to 1, this is somewhat high. This could mean that class sizes may be larger than they are at other colleges or universities or that professors may be required to teach more classes.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

Another measure that is often used to estimate how much access students will have to their professors is how many faculty members are full-time. The idea here is that part-time faculty tend to spend less time on campus, so they may not be as available to students as full-timers.

The full-time faculty percentage at Illinois State University is 78%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  78 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Illinois State University

83% Freshmen Retention
50% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

Illinois State University has a freshmen retention rate of 83%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  83 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at Illinois State for first-time, full-time students is 50%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  50 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Illinois State University.

Illinois State University Undergraduate Student Diversity

16,666 Full-Time Undergraduates
27.8% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
57.5% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 17,987 undergraduates at Illinois State with 16,666 being full-time and 1,321 being part-time.

How Much Does Illinois State University Cost?

$20,830 Net Price
48% Take Out Loans
$29,060 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Illinois State is $20,830. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for Illinois State

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$13,783 $14,982 $19,293 $24,998 $26,767

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Illinois State, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

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 Illinois State, approximately 48% of students took out student loans averaging $7,265 a year. That adds up to $29,060 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Illinois State is 3.6%. 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.

Get more details about paying for Illinois State University.

How Much Money Do Illinois State Graduates Make?

$55,457 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Yearly salaries vary depending on what you major in, but on average, bachelor's degree recipients from Illinois State make around $55,457 per year during the early years of their employment. This is good news for future Illinois State graduates since it is 31% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at Illinois State University make the most money.

Location of Illinois State University

Illinois State
16,666 Full-Time Undergraduates
Suburb Campus Setting
Located in Normal, Illinois, Illinois State University is a public institution. Illinois State is located in a safe and convenient suburb.

Get more details about the location of Illinois State University.

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Contact details for Illinois State are given below.

Contact Details
Address: North And School Streets, Normal, IL 61790-1000
Phone: 309-438-2111
Website: illinoisstate.edu/
Facebook: http://illinoisstate.edu/Facebook
Twitter: https://twitter.com/IllinoisStateU

Illinois State University Majors

69 Majors With Completions
4,836 Undergraduate Degrees
878 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 69 majors graduated from Illinois State University. Of these students, 4,836 received undergraduate degrees and 878 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Teacher Education Grade Specific 470 $39,193
Marketing 283 $45,387
Nursing 217 $63,829
Finance & Financial Management 202 $52,313
Accounting 188 $54,480
Communication & Media Studies 182 $37,645
General Agriculture 172 $41,426
Mathematics 163 $49,334
Special Education 160 $43,480
Business Administration & Management 158 $41,050

Learn more about the majors offered at Illinois State University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at Illinois State

42% Take At Least One Class Online
5% Take All Classes Online

Online learning is becoming popular at even the oldest colleges and universities in the United States. Not only are online classes great for returning adults with busy schedules, they are also frequented by a growing number of traditional students.

In 2020-2021, 8,409 students took at least one online class at Illinois State University. This is a decrease from the 19,814 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 8,409 945
2019-2020 19,814 14,568
2018-2019 5,706 600
2017-2018 4,402 507
2016-2017 3,793 432

Learn more about online learning at Illinois State University.

Notes and References

Footnotes

*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.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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