First-year Applicants

• No application fee or a qualified application fee waiver form.
• Official high school transcript (this can be requested from your registrar's office or from your high school counselor).
  • If you anticipate a delay with the submission of your official high school transcript, we will accept them transcripts as a PDF via email directly from your counselor's email address. Your counselor should send transcripts to admissions@niu.edu.
• Official ACT or SAT score report (request online for ACT or SAT) is only required for admission to the Nursing program. 
• Official college transcript(s) (if applicable).

Please note: You don't need to submit your ACT or SAT score for general admission, merit scholarship consideration or acceptance to the University Honors program. Read more about test-blind admission requirements for fall 2021.

Transfer Applicants

• No application fee or a qualified application fee waiver form.
• Official transcript(s) from all colleges attended.
  • New transfer students must provide official transcript(s) from each institution attended which were printed within a year of their date of application and which are inclusive of all completed work at that institution.
  • Previous applicants who applied, but did not enroll and submitted official transcript(s), must provide official transcript(s) from each institution attended which were printed within a year of their most recent date of application.  Those transcripts must be inclusive of all completed work at each institution. If transcripts supplied to NIU in support of a previous application, are less than a year old and are inclusive of all work completed at the time of application, they may be used for admission purposes.  Transcripts more than one year old, at the time of a student’s most recent application, cannot be used for admission purposes.

• Official high school transcript (if applicable).

Please note the following:

• If you're applying for admission in 2021 and have earned 24 or more transferable credit hours, your high school transcript and ACT/SAT score is not required.
• You don't need to submit your ACT or SAT score. Read more about test-blind admission requirements for fall 2021.

Immigrant Applicants

• No application fee.
• Academic documents listed under the freshman applicant sections.
• A course-by-course match evaluation report of all international academic records prepared by Educational Credential Evaluators at the student's expense.
• A clear photocopy of the front and back of your Alien Registration Card and/or other appropriate INS documentation.

International (Nonimmigrant) Applicants

• No application fee.
• Official English translations of academic records from secondary and all colleges and universities attended.
• All test scores, including TOEFL.
• Documentation of financial resources.

Please note: You don't need to submit your ACT or SAT score. Read more about test-blind admission requirements for fall 2021.

Document Retention 

Please note that all documents submitted to Northern Illinois University for admission purposes become the property of the university. Documents will not be released to students nor will they be forwarded to other educational institutions or agencies.