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National Louis University Data & Information Overview

427 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
97% Acceptance Rate
Find out more about how National Louis University ranks, how diverse it is, what majors it offers, and other essential facts below.
Want to know more about a specific stat? Just click on its tile, and you’ll go to a page that goes more in-depth on that subject. You can also use the links below to go directly to any section on this page.

How Well Is National Louis University Ranked?

#393 Best Colleges in Nation
#17 Best Colleges in IL
Culinary Arts Highest Ranked Major
Value Badge

2024 Rankings

College Factual recognizes the best colleges and universities in its annual rankings. These rankings include categories for best overall colleges, best colleges for each major, best value schools, and much more.

National Louis University was awarded 427 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is culinary arts.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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Overall Quality

NLU landed the #393 spot in College Factual's 2024 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,217 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This is an improvement over the previous year, when NLU held the #490 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

NLU also holds the #17 spot on the Best Colleges in Illinois ranking.

See all of the rankings for National Louis University.

Is It Hard to Get Into NLU?

97% Acceptance Rate
53% Of Accepted Are Women

Acceptance Rate

National Louis University has an acceptance rate of 97%, so it is easier to gain admission to this school than some others. Still, the admissions staff will examine your application closely to make sure you're a good fit for NLU.

Learn more about National Louis University admissions.

National Louis University Faculty

16 to 1 Student to Faculty
100% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

With a student to faculty ratio of 16 to 1, National Louis University is about average in this regard as the nationwide rate is 15 to 1. While this does not translate directly to class size, it's a good indicator of how much time professors will have to spend with their students on a one-on-one basis.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

In addition to the student to faculty ratio, some people look at what percentage of faculty members are full-time as a sign of how much time professors will be able to spend with their students. This is because part-time teachers may not be be on campus as much as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at National Louis University is 100%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  100 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at National Louis University

61% Freshmen Retention
11% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate is a sign of how many full-time students like a college or university well enough to come back for their sophomore year. At National Louis University this rate is 61%, which is a bit lower than the national average of 68%.

Freshmen Retention Rate  61 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate is the percent of first-time, full time students who obtain their bachelor's degree in four years or less. This rate is 11% for first-time, full-time students at NLU, which is lower than the national rate of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  11 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at National Louis University.

National Louis University Undergraduate Student Diversity

2,564 Full-Time Undergraduates
80.8% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
70.1% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 3,604 undergraduates at NLU with 2,564 being full-time and 1,040 being part-time.

How Much Does National Louis University Cost?

$14,584 Net Price
14% Take Out Loans
$19,736 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of NLU is $14,584. 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 NLU

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$14,190 $14,042 $16,487 $17,913 $20,956

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 NLU, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

Almost 66% of college students who graduated with the class of 2018 took out student loans, but that percentage varies from school to school. At NLU, approximately 14% of students took out student loans averaging $4,934 a year. That adds up to $19,736 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at NLU is 5.1%. 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 National Louis University.

How Much Money Do NLU Graduates Make?

$45,402 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from NLU with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $45,402 in their early years. That's great news for NLU students since it is 7% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at National Louis University make the most money.

Location of National Louis University

Illinois State
2,564 Full-Time Undergraduates
Large City Campus Setting
Located in Chicago, Illinois, National Louis University is a private not-for-profit institution. The location of the school is great for students who enjoy the amenities of city life.

Get more details about the location of National Louis University.

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Contact details for NLU are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 122 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60603
Phone: 800-443-5522
Website: www.nl.edu/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NationalLouisU

National Louis University Majors

34 Majors With Completions
807 Undergraduate Degrees
1,234 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 34 majors graduated from National Louis University. Of these students, 807 received undergraduate degrees and 1,234 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 168 $31,957
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies 86 $36,633
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods 77 $56,800
Human Development & Family Studies 74 $34,034
Business Administration & Management 63 NA
Criminology 57 $33,099
Hospitality Management 45 $40,761
General Psychology 38 NA
Other Public Administration 30 $27,130
Health & Medical Administrative Services 26 $49,720

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

Online Learning at NLU

60% Take At Least One Class Online
44% Take All Classes Online

Online learning options are becoming more and more popular at American colleges and universities. Online classes are great for students who have busy schedules or for those who just want to study on their own time.

In 2020-2021, 4,387 students took at least one online class at National Louis University. This is an increase from the 4,054 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 4,387 3,197
2019-2020 4,054 2,531
2018-2019 3,311 2,110
2017-2018 3,432 1,946
2016-2017 2,359 1,484

Learn more about online learning at National Louis 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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