Northern Illinois University
Visit Northern Illinois University | Contact Administration

Northern Illinois University is a comprehensive teaching and research institution with a student enrollment of more than 25,000.

Its main campus is located in DeKalb, 65 miles (104 km) west of Chicago. NIU also operates satellite centers in Hoffman Estates, Naperville, Rockford, and Oregon, Illinois.

The university is composed of seven degree-granting colleges that together offer 52 undergraduate majors and 74 graduate programs, including 10 Ph.D. programs, doctoral degrees in Education and the Juris Doctorate.

NIU is an NCAA Division I school and the NIU Huskies compete in the Mid-American Conference.

Northern is a member of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC).

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching recognizes Northern Illinois University as an elite institution of higher education, based on breadth of research and academic programs. Carnegie categorizes Northern as: "RU/H: Research Universities (high research activity)."

Northern is a full member of the Universities Research Association (URA), a group of 90 top research universities from around the globe. Illinois has only five members: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Illinois Institute of Technology, and Northern Illinois University. Membership in URA places Northern among the top 4% of universities in the United States.

The Northern Illinois University Department of Chemistry and BioChemistry was cited in the American Chemical Society's trade journal Chemical & Engineering News on September 26, 2005 as one of the top 25 producers of Bachelor of Science degrees in chemistry in the United States.

Northern Illinois University's Accountancy program is nationally prominent. In 2005, Public Accounting Report ranked NIU's graduate program 10th in the nation, while undergraduate ranked 11th. According to Public Accounting Report, NIU has remained in the top twenty programs for 18 consecutive years. In the 2006 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked the Accountancy program in the top 25, out of 450 programs nationwide.

According to Donald Trump, "Northern Illinois is really doing a terrific job, I hear it’s a hot school. I want to hand it to Northern Illinois University’s College of Business. They are just a little bit ahead of the pack."