School	Northern Illinois University	University of Illinois--Urbana-Champaign	Northwestern University	University of Chicago
Public/Private	Public	Public	Private	Private
Founded	1895	1867	1851	1892
Religious Affiliation	No affiliation	No affiliation	No affiliation	No affiliation
Size	16,341	27,452	7,805	3,809
Location
City/State	DeKalb, IL	Urbana, IL	Evanston, IL	Chicago, IL
Setting	Suburban	City	Suburban	Major City
Distance from home	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Academics
Student-to-faculty ratio	18/1	15/1	8/1	4/1
Full-time faculty	92%	98%	93%	95%
Classes taught by TAs	12%	30%	4%	N/A
Classes with under 20 students	44%	29%	66%	65%
Classes with 50+ students	11%	17%	10%	4%
Average graduation rate	52%	78%	90%	83%
Cost
Private tuition and fees	N/A	N/A	$23,496	$24,234
Public in-state tuition and fees	N/A	$4,746	N/A	N/A
Public out-of-state tuition and fees	N/A	$11,838	N/A	N/A
Room/Board	N/A	$5,560	$7,114	$7,970
Financial Aid*
Students receiving:    Need-based grants	N/A	32%	46%	54%
Need-based self-help aid	N/A	42%	44%	56%
Merit aid	N/A	N/A	5%	N/A
Students whose need was fully met	N/A	49%	100%	100%
Average financial aid package	N/A	$7,600	$18,110	$20,993
Average need-based grant	N/A	$5,000	$12,936	$15,555
Admissions
Selectivity	Selective	More selective	Most selective	Most selective
Acceptance rate	70%	71%	33%	61%
Number of applicants	13,317	17,961	15,301	5,520
Average high school GPA	N/A	3.59	N/A	N/A
SAT/ACT (25/75 percentile)	20- 25	25- 30	1280-1460	1250-1460
Student Satisfaction
Freshman retention rate	73%9	92%	96%	93%
Alumni giving rate	9%	23%	30%	36%
Student Body
Diversity**	yes	yes	yes	yes
Fraternity members	11%	21%	40%	12%
Sorority members	7%	22%	39%	5%
Students living off campus	65%	67%	24%	34%

N/A indicates that the school did not provide data to U.S. News in a certain area, or that the data is not applicable
to a particular school, such as in-state or out-of-state tuition for private schools.

*All financial aid data is based on the total number of undergraduates who applied for aid.
**A school is considered diverse if the minority population is greater than the national average of 17 percent.