The profile of the typical college student is changing at universities across America and at NIU as well.

Colleges around the country reported dramatic increases in the number of graduate, part-time and transfer student enrollments over the past several years, according to an American Council on Education report. The numbers of international students and students aged 25 and older also increased, the report stated.

Almost 70 percent of colleges in the United States reported an increase in the number of enrolled graduate students from the fall of 1990 to the fall of 1991. NIU also experienced a sharp increase during this period.

Nick Noe, NIU director of Institutional Research, said one of the reasons for the increase is “students are realizing the economic return of a graduate degree.”

Noe pointed to NIU’s master’s in business administration program as one reason for the school’s increase.

Predictably, the numbers of students aged 25 and older has increased, although this trend is not restricted to the graduate level.

“Over time, the enrollment of women aged 30 and older has increased at NIU,” he said. “Although the increase is not as dramatic as you might see in an urban area with a junior college nearby.”

The increase in enrollment of graduate students and students ages 25 and older also explains NIU’s steep increase in the number of commuting students. In the fall of 1980, 15 percent of NIU students commuted. The number is now around 22 percent, Noe said.

The number of transfer students at NIU has started to increase again during the last four years.

“In the fall of 1987 and the fall of 1988 we actually restricted the number of transfer students we took into the university,” Noe said.

By the fall of 1991 there were 2,206 transfer students on campus, the highest total since 1978. Noe said, however, the numbers of transfer students have been “relatively stable” since the fall of 1990.

Noe also pointed to NIU’s location as a big reason for the changing student profile. As a large university close to Chicago’s northwest suburbs, NIU is easily accessible to commuters and graduate students, namely school teachers working on master’s degrees.