Although the majority of NIU students are from similar backgrounds, there is a diverse range of nationalities, religions and majors on campus.

Data compiled by the Institutional Research division of the Office of Finance and Planning show the student body to be primarily Caucasian. Whites comprise 87.6 percent of the NIU population, followed by blacks (5.5 percent), Asians (2.5 percent) and Hispanics (2.1 percent).

NIU has 693 international students and 12 international student organizations on campus. Amardeep Bali, South Asia Club president, said this club has students from India, Burma, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan.

Bali said club members are organizing sessions in the fall for new students.

enu Dawar, an NIU freshman from India, said her mother sponsored her immigration to America. Most international students use student visas to immigrate to the United States, she said.

Dawar said she could not decide between an Ohio university, an East Coast university or NIU. She said one of her aunts was studying to receive her master’s degree at NIU, and she recommended Dawar come here.

“Since I want to major in finance, and my aunt said NIU has a good business school, I decided to come here,” Dawar said. “I like NIU very much and the classes are good, but I get homesick.”

Afsham Kham, a native of Pakistan, was a sophomore this past year majoring in interior design. She said she loves NIU.

“It (NIU) has grown on me. I wanted to go to California and just recently decided I want to stay here because I really like it,” she said.

Emran Akhtar, also a Pakistan native, is the South Asia Club vice president. “The reason I came to NIU was because some friends, who were already attending NIU, recommended it to me,” Akhtar said.

Akhtar said he is majoring in international relations. He said he loves NIU because the students are friendly and open.

On campus, women slightly outnumber men. Of the 18,106 undergraduate students at NIU in August, 1986, 9,797 were female and 8,309 were male.

The last year in which NIU had more men than women was 1975. Since that time, the ratio of women to men has risen. In 1981, women outnumbered men by almost 10 percent. Statistics from the fall of 1986 indicate an 8.2 percent higher rate of women than men.

The religious preference of a majority (51.7 percent) of new freshmen in the fall of 1986 was Roman Catholic. Of the remaining freshmen, almost 10 percent were Lutheran and six percent were Methodist.

Three percent were listed as Jewish, 17.5 percent as belonging to other religions and 10.2 percent as having no preference.

Almost 20 percent of NIU undergraduate students commute daily to NIU. Of the students residing on or near campus, 40.6 percent live in the residence halls, 32.1 percent in off-campus housing and 8.9 percent had a permanent home in DeKalb.

Median parental income of NIU students has risen the past ten years. From 1977 to 1979, the median parental income bracket was $20,000 to $25,000. That figure rose to $25,000 to $30,000 in 1980 and 1981. From 1982 to 1984, it was $30,000 to $35,000. The period 1985 to 1986 saw it rise further to $35,000 to $40,000.

Of NIU’s seven colleges, Liberal Arts & Sciences has the most students with 6,558. Next is the College of Business with 6,092 students, followed by the College of Professional Studies with 1,938.

The College of Education has 1,496 students, Visual and Peforming Arts has 1,225 and Engineering and Engineering Technology has 799.

Because students forecasted the need for technical professions in the future, Industry and Technology enrollment has increased 66.4 percent since 1977. The business college had a 26.3 percent increase, and LA&S had a 16.5 percent rise.

The computer science major had the biggest increase, with a 139.1 percent rise since 1977.