Many students choose NIU because of its proximity and distance plays an important role when choosing a college away from home.

Terry McCoy, a counselor for DeKalb High School, 1515 S. Fourth St., said that in 1990, 23 out of 270 students in the senior class stayed in DeKalb and attended NIU last fall.

McCoy said every year the school does a one-year follow-up on its students. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, questionnaires will be sent out to the graduates of the class of 1991. Students are asked to answer what colleges they are currently attending. About 70 to 80 percent of the students reply, McCoy said.

He said the students who don’t go to NIU attend Kishwaukee Community College and other Illinois universities.

Junior transfer student Julie Canale said she chose NIU because of its education department and its closeness to home. It’s about a 25 minute drive to her hometown of Geneva and she will return about once a month, she said.

Freshman Jessie Cohen chose NIU for many reasons, but being close to home was not one of them. Cohen liked the reputation of NIU’s special education department. Cohen said she plans on coming home on the holidays, even though she lives an hour away.

In 1990, about 8,600 students lived in residence halls, NIU married student housing or had local addresses in DeKalb. About 4,000 students were commuters and 1,327 students had permanent addresses in DeKalb, research associates from the Department of Institutional Research said.

Research associates said in the fall of 1990, 93.8 percent of undergraduates were from the market area, the northern 23 counties of Illinois.