Record Enrollment
The new freshman class is the largest class we’ve ever welcomed, leading to the highest total enrollment in our history.
At the same time, we’re serving more in-state students than ever before.
- 9,008 new freshman, the largest new class in our history
- 37,140 undergraduate students
- 20,765 graduate students
- 59,238 total enrollment, including online students
- We’re the largest provider of undergraduate education in our state: 6,429 of our first-year students are from Illinois, making up 71% of the class.
Access and Affordability
Illinois is leading the conversation on how to make transformative learning experiences more affordable.
- We announced an expansion of the Illinois Commitment scholarship program that guarantees four years of free tuition to Illinois residents from low- and moderate-income families. Beginning in fall 2025, this program will be available to any in-state student with a family income of less than $75,000, increased from the previous threshold of $67,100.
- More than 22% of incoming Illinois residents received Illinois Commitment during the 2023-2024 school year — meaning they paid no tuition or fees.
- Over 5,700 families were impacted by Illinois Commitment in the last academic year.
- Our campus invested $16.3 million in Illinois Commitment last year alone, and $90 million since the start of the program.
- For the last 20 years, Illinois Promise has helped eligible students cover the estimated cost of tuition, fees, food, housing, books and supplies in combination with a minimal employment expectation.
- More than half of our undergraduates will leave with no debt.
Institutional Excellence
With more students and more opportunities than ever, Illinois continues to deliver on its promise of excellence at scale — and is trending upward. Illinois ranked as the 9th best public university in the country, three spots higher than the previous year.
This is in large part due to recent success in measurable areas like:
- Citations per publication
- Faculty salary
- Citation impact
- Graduation rate
- Publications share in top 25% of journals
- Standardized test scores
- Student-to-faculty ratio
Source: U.S. News Best Colleges
Illinois’ individual programs are top-tier as well.
If you look at all of our current graduate and undergraduate rankings, we have:
- 4 programs ranked No. 1 in the nation
- 36 programs ranked among the Top 5 in the nation
- 65 programs ranked among the Top 10 in the nation
- 94 programs ranked among the Top 20 in the nation
Successful Graduates
Our graduates continue to find jobs, enroll in graduate school or begin volunteer programs at a truly impressive level.
- 91% of our 2022-2023 graduates secured a job, enrolled in a graduate program or took a volunteer opportunity within six months of graduation.
- 78% of in-state graduates who began a job or graduate program said they stayed in Illinois for those opportunities.
- And for those who took full-time jobs, they did so with an average starting salary of $76,000.
- 88% of our graduates reported participating in experiential learning opportunities while at Illinois — and 40% of those students said they received a full-time job offer as a direct result.
Much of this success is possible because of our ability to meet the demand for increased career development support and services. The Career Center experienced remarkable student engagement in the last year, with 16,000 students participating in one-on-one services, group programs, workshops and events.
