Illinois Wesleyan University acceptance rate and your odds of getting in

With an acceptance rate near 39%, Illinois Wesleyan University is a selective private college in Illinois. Because it admits a minority of applicants, admission turns on the strength of your whole profile rather than any one number.

Use this page to see what Illinois Wesleyan University weighs, where it ranks among Illinois schools, and how a profile like yours is likely to land. Admitted students post a 75th-percentile SAT around 1300, a useful checkpoint for where your scores sit, though it is a reference range and not a cutoff.

What are my chances at Illinois Wesleyan University with a 3.5 GPA and a 1230 SAT?

About 52% (Likely), by CollegeCalcAI's deterministic model, for an applicant with a 3.5 unweighted GPA and a 1230 SAT, the middle of Illinois Wesleyan University's admitted range, applying Regular Decision without a hook. A 3.8 GPA with a 1340 SAT comes out near 75%. Courses, activities, essays and the application round move the number; the free calculator includes them.

Estimates, not guarantees. Get yours with your real courses and activities. Assistants and developers can fetch this table from the free API: /api/v1/colleges/illinois-wesleyan-university.

Here is how to get into Illinois Wesleyan University, built from what its admitted class actually looks like and what the school says it weighs.

For the fall 2023 entering class, Illinois Wesleyan University received 6,128 applications and admitted 2,768, an acceptance rate of 45.2%. 441 enrolled. Only about 16% of admitted students enrolled, so the school admits several students for every seat it expects to fill, which is why its acceptance rate reads higher than its selectivity feels. Illinois Wesleyan University enrolls about 1,582 undergraduates in total, 50% of them women, with a student-to-faculty ratio of 12 to 1.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS 2023 admissions and enrollment.

The middle 50% of admitted students at Illinois Wesleyan University scored between 1120 and 1340 on the SAT (average 1275). On the ACT the middle 50% runs from 25 to 30. A score above 1340 puts you in the top quarter of admits and turns the test into an asset; a score below 1120 puts you in the bottom quarter, where the rest of the application has to carry more weight. Illinois Wesleyan University is test-optional: scores are considered if you submit them but not required. Send a score at or above the middle of the admitted range; otherwise apply without one and let your transcript lead.

Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10.

In its review, Illinois Wesleyan University leans most on rigor of secondary school record, academic GPA, and character / personal qualities. Solid grades in a challenging schedule do most of the work here, with the rest of the application providing context. These ratings come from Illinois Wesleyan University's reported Common Data Set, so the full chart below reflects what the school itself says it values, not a generic guess.

Illinois Wesleyan University's published cost of attendance, before any aid, is roughly $70,700 per year. Tuition and fees alone are $57,704. What families actually pay is different: the average net price after grants and scholarships is $28,199 a year, and it ranges from $17,732 for families earning under $30,000 to $37,104 for families earning over $110,000. 26% of undergraduates receive a federal Pell Grant.

Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10. Net price is what students receiving aid paid after grants, by family income.

Ten years after enrolling, the median Illinois Wesleyan University student who received federal aid earns $70,871 a year, up from $56,082 at six years. 75% of first-time, full-time students graduate within six years, and 80% return for a second year. Among graduates who borrowed, median federal debt at graduation is $27,000; 63% of undergraduates take federal loans.

Source: College Scorecard (U.S. Department of Education), release 2026-06-10. Earnings cover students who received federal aid.

Among the 37 Illinois schools we track, Illinois Wesleyan University ranks #3 most selective by acceptance rate. Schools like University of Chicago (4%) and Northwestern University (8%) sit nearby, which makes Illinois a useful frame for calibrating a balanced list.

Build around Illinois Wesleyan University with peers at a comparable selectivity, such as Gettysburg College, Bethany Lutheran College, and Huston-Tillotson University. Running the same profile against each one in the free calculator is the fastest way to see where you are a reach, a match, or a likely.

Acceptance rate, application counts, admitted test ranges, cost, and outcomes reflect publicly reported federal data (U.S. Department of Education: IPEDS 2023 and the College Scorecard) and each school's Common Data Set; figures are rounded and lag the current cycle by one to two years, so confirm deadlines and policies on the school's own site. The typical-admit GPA and SAT are CollegeCalcAI's modeled estimates. Estimates from CollegeCalcAI are a planning tool computed by a fixed, transparent model, not a guarantee of any admission decision.