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University of Northern Iowa Data & Information Overview

429 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
86% Acceptance Rate
Get the facts about University of Northern Iowa. Learn how it ranks, what majors it offers, how diverse it is, and much more.
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How Well Is University of Northern Iowa Ranked?

#199 Best Colleges in Nation
#4 Best Colleges in IA
Elementary 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.

University of Northern Iowa was awarded 429 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is elementary education.

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Overall Quality

UNI is ranked #199 out of 2,217 schools in the nation for overall quality on College Factual's 2024 Best Colleges list. This puts it in the top 10% of all schools in the nation.

UNI also holds the #4 spot on the Best Colleges in Iowa ranking.

See all of the rankings for University of Northern Iowa.

Is It Hard to Get Into UNI?

86% Acceptance Rate
63% Of Accepted Are Women
3% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

With an acceptance rate of 86%, UNI has a fairly liberal admissions policy. However, don't just assume you'll get in! Put together a good application and make sure you include all requested documents and materials.

Average Test Scores

About 3% of students accepted to UNI submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 490 and 580. Math scores were between 490 and 610.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for University of Northern Iowa  ( 490 to 580 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for University of Northern Iowa  ( 490 to 610 )
200
800
UNI received ACT scores from 66% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 20 and 26.

ACT Composite Scores for University of Northern Iowa  ( 20 to 26 )
1
36

Learn more about University of Northern Iowa admissions.

University of Northern Iowa Faculty

16 to 1 Student to Faculty
80% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

With a student to faculty ratio of 16 to 1, University of Northern Iowa 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

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 University of Northern Iowa is 80%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  80 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at University of Northern Iowa

81% Freshmen Retention
43% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate of 81% tells us that most first-year, full-time students like University of Northern Iowa enough to come back for another year. This is a fair bit higher than the national average of 68%. That's certainly something to check off in the good column about the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  81 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 UNI for first-time, full-time students is 43%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  43 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at University of Northern Iowa.

University of Northern Iowa Undergraduate Student Diversity

7,632 Full-Time Undergraduates
11.3% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
61.2% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 8,289 undergraduates at UNI with 7,632 being full-time and 657 being part-time.

How Much Does University of Northern Iowa Cost?

$16,438 Net Price
47% Take Out Loans
$25,668 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of UNI is $16,438. 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 UNI

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$10,513 $13,175 $15,287 $18,318 $19,089

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 UNI, 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 UNI, approximately 47% of students took out student loans averaging $6,417 a year. That adds up to $25,668 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at UNI is 2.8%. 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 University of Northern Iowa.

How Much Money Do UNI Graduates Make?

$49,563 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from UNI with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $49,563 in their early years. That's great news for UNI students since it is 17% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at University of Northern Iowa make the most money.

Location of University of Northern Iowa

Iowa State
7,632 Full-Time Undergraduates
Small City Campus Setting
Located in Cedar Falls, Iowa, University of Northern Iowa is a public institution. The surrounding area of the school is a good match for students who enjoy city life.

Get more details about the location of University of Northern Iowa.

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Contact details for UNI are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 1227 W 27Th St, Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0005
Phone: 319-273-2311
Website: https://www.uni.edu/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/universityofnortherniowa
Twitter: http://twitter.com/northerniowa

University of Northern Iowa Majors

74 Majors With Completions
2,513 Undergraduate Degrees
460 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 74 majors graduated from University of Northern Iowa. Of these students, 2,513 received undergraduate degrees and 460 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 378 $38,627
Finance & Financial Management 141 $52,123
Business Administration & Management 139 $48,934
Teacher Education Subject Specific 133 $39,744
General Psychology 117 $29,766
General Biology 87 $32,840
Social Work 86 $31,930
Accounting 84 $52,695
Marketing 79 $47,222
Liberal Arts General Studies 68 $29,615

Learn more about the majors offered at University of Northern Iowa along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at UNI

54% Take At Least One Class Online
8% 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, 4,979 students took at least one online class at University of Northern Iowa. This is a decrease from the 7,858 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 4,979 767
2019-2020 7,858 909
2018-2019 2,732 559
2017-2018 2,754 636
2016-2017 2,618 588

Learn more about online learning at University of Northern Iowa.

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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