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Eastern Illinois University Data & Information Overview

193 awards Ranking Badges
Fair Price Value for Your Money
72% Acceptance Rate
Want the scoop on Eastern Illinois University? We’ve put together a comprehensive report on the school that covers what majors EIU offers, how the school ranks, how diverse it is, and much more.
If you’re interested in learning more about a particular stat, just click on its tile to go to a new page that covers the topic more in-depth. Also, you can jump to any section of this page by clicking one of the links below.

How Well Is Eastern Illinois University Ranked?

#1,112 Best Colleges in Nation
#51 Best Colleges in IL
Art Studies Highest Ranked Major

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.

Eastern Illinois University was awarded 193 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is art studies.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

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Overall Quality

EIU landed the #1,112 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.

EIU is also ranked #51 out of 85 schools in Illinois.

See all of the rankings for Eastern Illinois University.

Is It Hard to Get Into EIU?

72% Acceptance Rate
63% Of Accepted Are Women
56% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

The acceptance rate at Eastern Illinois University is 72%. That's higher than the rate at many schools, but still low enough to be considered somewhat selective. If you want to get in, you'll need good grades and to be able to show that EIU is a good fit for you.

Average Test Scores

About 56% of students accepted to EIU submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 460 and 580. Math scores were between 440 and 560.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Eastern Illinois University  ( 460 to 580 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Eastern Illinois University  ( 440 to 560 )
200
800
EIU received ACT scores from 66% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 17 and 23.

ACT Composite Scores for Eastern Illinois University  ( 17 to 23 )
1
36

Learn more about Eastern Illinois University admissions.

Eastern Illinois University Faculty

14 to 1 Student to Faculty
77% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used to estimate how much interaction there is between professors and their students at a college or university. At Eastern Illinois University, this ratio is 14 to 1, which is on par with the national average of 15 to 1. That's not bad at all.

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 Eastern Illinois University is 77%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  77 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Eastern Illinois University

74% Freshmen Retention
36% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

Eastern Illinois University has a freshmen retention rate of 74%. 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  74 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

When it comes to finishing their studies on time, those seeking a bachelor's degree from EIU have a four-year graduation rate of 36%. This is comparable to the national average of 33.3%

On-Time Graduation Rate  36 out of 100
0
100

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

Eastern Illinois University Undergraduate Student Diversity

4,082 Full-Time Undergraduates
37.0% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
60.8% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 6,969 undergraduates at EIU with 4,082 being full-time and 2,887 being part-time.

How Much Does Eastern Illinois University Cost?

$13,098 Net Price
63% Take Out Loans
$24,660 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of EIU is $13,098. 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 EIU

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$11,015 $10,056 $12,675 $17,594 $20,021

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 EIU, 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 EIU, approximately 63% of students took out student loans averaging $6,165 a year. That adds up to $24,660 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at EIU is 6.1%. 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.

Get more details about paying for Eastern Illinois University.

How Much Money Do EIU Graduates Make?

$47,991 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from EIU with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $47,991 in their early years. That's great news for EIU students since it is 13% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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

Location of Eastern Illinois University

Illinois State
4,082 Full-Time Undergraduates
Town Campus Setting
Eastern Illinois University is a public institution situated in Charleston, Illinois. Charleston is a great place for students who enjoy small town life.

Get more details about the location of Eastern Illinois University.

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Contact details for EIU are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 600 Lincoln Avenue, Charleston, IL 61920
Phone: 217-581-5000
Website: https://www.eiu.edu/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/iameiu
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/eiu

Eastern Illinois University Majors

62 Majors With Completions
1,070 Undergraduate Degrees
619 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 62 majors graduated from Eastern Illinois University. Of these students, 1,070 received undergraduate degrees and 619 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
General Psychology 103 $28,549
Liberal Arts General Studies 100 $33,984
Teacher Education Grade Specific 73 $35,177
Health & Physical Education 67 $31,035
General Biology 49 $28,027
General Family & Consumer Sciences 48 $29,815
Other Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies 37 $35,479
Nursing 35 $59,362
Communication & Media Studies 33 $32,917
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods 32 $42,684

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

Online Learning at EIU

45% Take At Least One Class Online
17% 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, 3,908 students took at least one online class at Eastern Illinois University. This is a decrease from the 5,422 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 3,908 1,459
2019-2020 5,422 1,706
2018-2019 2,639 1,086
2017-2018 2,495 985
2016-2017 2,304 779

Learn more about online learning at Eastern Illinois 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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