Southern Illinois University acceptance rate and your odds of getting in

With an acceptance rate near 87%, Southern Illinois University is an accessible public university in Illinois. Because it admits most qualified applicants, admission turns on the strength of your whole profile rather than any one number.

Use this page to see what Southern Illinois 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 1150, a useful checkpoint for where your scores sit, though it is a reference range and not a cutoff.

What are my chances at Southern Illinois University with a 3.1 GPA and a 1030 SAT?

About 97% (Safety), by CollegeCalcAI's deterministic model, for an applicant with a 3.1 unweighted GPA and a 1030 SAT, the middle of Southern Illinois University's admitted range, applying Regular Decision without a hook. A 3.4 GPA with a 1160 SAT comes out near 98%. 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/southern-illinois-university.

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

For the fall 2023 entering class, Southern Illinois University received 10,401 applications and admitted 9,407, an acceptance rate of 90.4%. 1,621 enrolled. Only about 17% 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. Southern Illinois University enrolls about 8,494 undergraduates in total, 52% of them women, with a student-to-faculty ratio of 11 to 1.

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

The middle 50% of admitted students at Southern Illinois University scored between 900 and 1160 on the SAT (average 1055). On the ACT the middle 50% runs from 18 to 25. A score above 1160 puts you in the top quarter of admits and turns the test into an asset; a score below 900 puts you in the bottom quarter, where the rest of the application has to carry more weight. Southern Illinois 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, Southern Illinois University leans most on academic GPA and standardized test scores. Solid grades in a challenging schedule do most of the work here, with the rest of the application providing context. These ratings come from Southern Illinois University's reported Common Data Set, so the full chart below reflects what the school itself says it values, not a generic guess.

Southern Illinois University's published cost of attendance, before any aid, is roughly $28,329 per year. Tuition and fees alone are $13,334. What families actually pay is different: the average net price after grants and scholarships is $13,297 a year, and it ranges from $9,415 for families earning under $30,000 to $23,254 for families earning over $110,000. 39% 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 Southern Illinois University student who received federal aid earns $53,390 a year, up from $43,087 at six years. 62% of first-time, full-time students graduate within six years, and 67% return for a second year. Among graduates who borrowed, median federal debt at graduation is $21,543; 45% 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, Southern Illinois University ranks #32 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. As a public university, residency matters: in-state applicants generally see meaningfully better odds than the headline rate suggests.

Build around Southern Illinois University with peers at a comparable selectivity, such as Boise State University, George Mason University, and North Carolina Central 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.