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Western Illinois University Data & Information Overview

428 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
72% Acceptance Rate
Get the facts about Western Illinois University. Learn how it ranks, what majors it offers, how diverse it is, and much more.
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How Well Is Western Illinois University Ranked?

#880 Best Colleges in Nation
#39 Best Colleges in IL
Liberal Arts Highest Ranked Major

2024 Rankings

In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.

Western Illinois University was awarded 428 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is liberal arts.

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Overall Quality

College Factual ranked WIU as #880 out of 2,217 colleges and universities in the country on its 2024 Best Colleges list.

Out of the 85 colleges in Illinois, WIU is ranked at #39.

See all of the rankings for Western Illinois University.

Is It Hard to Get Into WIU?

72% Acceptance Rate
65% Of Accepted Are Women

Acceptance Rate

Western Illinois University has an acceptance rate of 72%, which makes it somewhat selective. Make sure it's not the only school you apply to, even if it's your school of choice. Whether you get in or not will largely depend on how you compare to other applicants.

Learn more about Western Illinois University admissions.

Western Illinois University Faculty

13 to 1 Student to Faculty
88% 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 Western Illinois University, this ratio is 13 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

When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at Western Illinois University is 88%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  88 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Western Illinois University

72% Freshmen Retention
33% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

The freshmen retention rate tells us what percentage of first-year, full-time students choose to continue on to their sophomore year at a particular school. The rate at Western Illinois University is 72%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 68%.

Freshmen Retention Rate  72 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

The on-time graduation rate is the percent of first-time, full-time students who get their bachelor's degree with four years. At WIU this rate is 33%, which is about average when compared to the national rate of 33.3%.

On-Time Graduation Rate  33 out of 100
0
100

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

Western Illinois University Undergraduate Student Diversity

4,999 Full-Time Undergraduates
41.0% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
55.4% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 5,854 undergraduates at WIU with 4,999 being full-time and 855 being part-time.

How Much Does Western Illinois University Cost?

$15,305 Net Price
51% Take Out Loans
$24,696 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of WIU is $15,305. 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 WIU

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$12,265 $12,112 $15,794 $19,476 $21,051

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

Student Loan Debt

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At WIU, approximately 51% of students took out student loans averaging $6,174 a year. That adds up to $24,696 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at WIU is 7.9%. 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 Western Illinois University.

How Much Money Do WIU Graduates Make?

$49,631 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
The pay for some majors is higher than others, but on average, students who graduate with a bachelor's degree from WIU make about $49,631 a year during their first few years of employment after graduation. That's great news for WIU 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 Western Illinois University make the most money.

Location of Western Illinois University

Illinois State
4,999 Full-Time Undergraduates
Town Campus Setting
Western Illinois University is a public institution situated in Macomb, Illinois. The surrounding location of Macomb is ideal for students who enjoy the charms of a college town.

Get more details about the location of Western Illinois University.

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Contact details for WIU are given below.

Contact Details
Address: 1 University Circle, Macomb, IL 61455
Phone: 309-298-1414
Website: www.wiu.edu/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wiu.edu
Twitter: https://twitter.com/WIUNews

Western Illinois University Majors

78 Majors With Completions
1,478 Undergraduate Degrees
589 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 78 majors graduated from Western Illinois University. Of these students, 1,478 received undergraduate degrees and 589 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
Criminal Justice & Corrections 258 $38,130
Liberal Arts General Studies 167 $36,956
Communication & Media Studies 70 $36,104
Business Administration & Management 68 $46,347
General Psychology 63 $28,046
Teacher Education Grade Specific 59 $34,318
General Biology 54 $29,129
Accounting 48 $42,063
Social Work 45 $32,654
Nursing 40 $60,966

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

Online Learning at WIU

80% Take At Least One Class Online
23% Take All Classes Online

Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.

In 2020-2021, 5,947 students took at least one online class at Western Illinois University. This is a decrease from the 6,495 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 5,947 1,744
2019-2020 6,495 1,790
2018-2019 3,688 1,061
2017-2018 3,454 959
2016-2017 3,218 922

Learn more about online learning at Western 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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