School	Eastern Illinois University	Southern Illinois University--Edwardsville	Western Illinois University	Northeastern Illinois University	Chicago State University	Northern Illinois University
Public/Private	Public	Public	Public	Public	Public	Public
Founded	1895	1957	1899	1961	1867	1895
Religious Affiliation	No affiliation	No affiliation	No affiliation	No affiliation	No affiliation	No affiliation
Size	10,174	N/A	10,192	7,892	N/A	16,341
Location
City/State	Charleston, IL	Edwardsville, IL	Macomb, IL	Chicago, IL	Chicago, IL	DeKalb, IL
Setting	City	Suburban	Rural	Major City	Major City	Suburban
Distance from home	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Academics
Student-to-faculty ratio	18/1	15/15	15/1	22/1	30/15	18/1
Full-time faculty	95%	N/A	96%	82%	N/A	92%
Classes taught by TAs	N/A	N/A	6%	N/A	N/A	12%
Classes with under 20 students	30%	N/A	32%	42%4	N/A	44%
Classes with 50+ students	5%	N/A	9%	4%4	N/A	11%
Average graduation rate	68%	32%9	47%	11%9	22%9	52%
Cost
Private tuition and fees	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Public in-state tuition and fees	$3,368	N/A	$3,274	$2,78912	N/A	N/A
Public out-of-state tuition and fees	$7,876	N/A	$5,458	$7,15712	N/A	N/A
Room/Board	$3,932	N/A	$4,292	N/A	N/A	N/A
Financial Aid*
Students receiving:    Need-based grants	N/A	N/A	49%	N/A	N/A	N/A
Need-based self-help aid	32%	N/A	51%	N/A	N/A	N/A
Merit aid	9%	N/A	30%	N/A	N/A	N/A
Students whose need was fully met	76%	N/A	42%	N/A	N/A	N/A
Average financial aid package	$6,438	N/A	$6,896	N/A	N/A	N/A
Average need-based grant	$1,981	N/A	$3,117	N/A	N/A	N/A
Admissions
Selectivity	Selective	Selective	Selective	Least selective	Least selective	Selective
Acceptance rate	71%	86%4	69%	N/A	N/A	70%
Number of applicants	6,555	N/A	8,140	2,610	N/A	13,317
Average high school GPA	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
SAT/ACT (25/75 percentile)	20- 24	19- 244	19- 24	14- 19	16- 195	20- 25
Student Satisfaction
Freshman retention rate	81%	69%4	70%	65%9	63%4	73%9
Alumni giving rate	8%4	N/A	15%	3%8	N/A	9%
Student Body
Diversity**	no	N/A	no	yes	N/A	yes
Fraternity members	19%	N/A	12%	0%	N/A	11%
Sorority members	17%	N/A	10%	0%	N/A	7%
Students living off campus	49%	N/A	47%	100%	N/A	65%

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.