By Glyn Caddell, BSME · Author of Digital SAT Math Secrets · Tutoring since 2008 — Updated October 6, 2026
Twelve Illinois colleges with pre-med programs, what they cost, and the SAT scores of the students they admit.
Illinois has eight MD programs, six of them in the Chicago area, and one that accepts Illinois residents only. Those come after the table.
Scores are given by section rather than as a single total, because a student at 680 Reading & Writing and 590 Math is in a different position from a student at 590 and 680.
Table of Contents
- Illinois Pre-Med Colleges by SAT Score
- Illinois Has Eight Medical Schools and Six Are in Chicago
- Does Illinois Have a Scholarship Tied to SAT Scores?
- What If Your Scores Are Below the Range You Want?
Illinois Pre-Med Colleges by SAT Score
| College | Reading & Writing | Math | Cost of attendance | Undergraduates | Admit rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Chicago | 740 to 780 | 770 to 800 | $90,360 | 7,569 | 4% |
| Northwestern University | 740 to 770 | 770 to 800 | $91,250 | 9,201 | 8% |
| University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | 650 to 740 | 660 to 780 | $33,642 | 36,258 | 42% |
| Wheaton College | 650 to 740 | 610 to 730 | $59,263 | 2,121 | 87% |
| Illinois Institute of Technology | 590 to 720 | 590 to 720 | $68,164 | 2,833 | 55% |
| Loyola University Chicago | 600 to 690 | 570 to 670 | $67,408 | 11,737 | 82% |
| DePaul University | 580 to 670 | 560 to 660 | $63,052 | 14,090 | 76% |
| University of Illinois Chicago | 570 to 670 | 560 to 680 | $27,521 | 22,170 | 77% |
| North Central College | 530 to 650 | 525 to 660 | $57,219 | 2,428 | 77% |
| Augustana College | 520 to 630 | 510 to 640 | $63,553 | 2,490 | 63% |
| Illinois State University | 500 to 620 | 490 to 590 | $34,309 | 19,057 | 88% |
| Northern Illinois University | Does not report SAT data | Does not report SAT data | $28,851 | 11,301 | 70% |
Each range covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted scores. A quarter scored below the lower number, and the top quarter scored at or above the upper one. Being under the lower number does not rule a student out, and being just above it is not as safe as it looks.
Three things in that table deserve attention.
Illinois has the widest cost range of any state covered so far. Northwestern is $91,250 and the University of Chicago is $90,360, against the University of Illinois Chicago at $27,521 and Northern Illinois at $28,851. That is better than a three-to-one spread inside one state.
The selectivity range is almost as wide. Chicago admits 4% of applicants and Illinois State admits 88%. Whatever a student’s record looks like, Illinois has colleges in his band, which is not true everywhere.
Wheaton College is the clearest example in this whole series of why admit rates and score ranges measure different things. It admits 87% of applicants and reports a Reading & Writing range of 650 to 740, which is the same upper figure as the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a school admitting 42%. A high admit rate paired with a strong range normally means a self-selecting applicant pool. Students who are not a fit for a particular college do not apply to it, so the college admits most of who applies and still enrolls a strong class.
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University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is in Hyde Park with 7,569 undergraduates and is the most selective institution in the state. It runs the Pritzker School of Medicine.
Reading & Writing 740 to 780, Math 770 to 800. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 780 and 800, which means at least a quarter earned a perfect Math score. Cost of attendance $90,360, with tuition and fees at $70,662 and substantial need-based aid available. 7,569 undergraduates, 4% admitted.
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is in Evanston with 9,201 undergraduates and runs the Feinberg School of Medicine in downtown Chicago.
Reading & Writing 740 to 770, Math 770 to 800. The top quarter scored at or above 770 and 800. Cost of attendance $91,250, with tuition and fees at $68,322. 9,201 undergraduates, 8% admitted.
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is the state flagship with 36,258 undergraduates, the largest school on this page, and it is where Carle Illinois College of Medicine sits.
Reading & Writing 650 to 740, Math 660 to 780. The top quarter scored at or above 740 and 780. Cost of attendance $33,642, with tuition and fees at $16,004 in-state and $35,124 out-of-state. 36,258 undergraduates, 42% admitted.
Its Math range runs higher than its Reading & Writing range at both ends, which fits a campus known for engineering and computing.
Wheaton College
Wheaton College is a private Christian liberal arts college in Wheaton with 2,121 undergraduates.
Reading & Writing 650 to 740, Math 610 to 730. The top quarter scored at or above 740 and 730. Cost of attendance $59,263, with tuition and fees at $45,546. 2,121 undergraduates, 87% admitted.
Illinois Institute of Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology is in Chicago with 2,833 undergraduates and a STEM focus.
Reading & Writing 590 to 720, Math 590 to 720. The top quarter scored at or above 720 in both sections. Cost of attendance $68,164, with tuition and fees at $52,386. 2,833 undergraduates, 55% admitted.
Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University Chicago is a Jesuit university with 11,737 undergraduates and runs the Stritch School of Medicine in Maywood.
Reading & Writing 600 to 690, Math 570 to 670. The top quarter scored at or above 690 and 670. Cost of attendance $67,408, with tuition and fees at $53,710. 11,737 undergraduates, 82% admitted.
DePaul University
DePaul University is in Chicago with 14,090 undergraduates and is the largest private university in the state.
Reading & Writing 580 to 670, Math 560 to 660. The top quarter scored at or above 670 and 660. Cost of attendance $63,052, with tuition and fees at $45,999. 14,090 undergraduates, 76% admitted.
University of Illinois Chicago
The University of Illinois Chicago is in the Near West Side with 22,170 undergraduates and runs the University of Illinois College of Medicine, which is the largest medical school in the state.
Reading & Writing 570 to 670, Math 560 to 680. The top quarter scored at or above 670 and 680. Cost of attendance $27,521, with tuition and fees at $14,338 in-state and $29,884 out-of-state. 22,170 undergraduates, 77% admitted.
This is the least expensive school on the page and it sits inside a hospital district.
North Central College
North Central College is a private liberal arts college in Naperville with 2,428 undergraduates.
Reading & Writing 530 to 650, Math 525 to 660. The top quarter scored at or above 650 and 660. Cost of attendance $57,219, with tuition and fees at $45,726. 2,428 undergraduates, 77% admitted.
Augustana College
Augustana College is a private liberal arts college in Rock Island with 2,490 undergraduates.
Reading & Writing 520 to 630, Math 510 to 640. The top quarter scored at or above 630 and 640. Cost of attendance $63,553, with tuition and fees at $51,598. 2,490 undergraduates, 63% admitted.
Illinois State University
Illinois State University is in Normal with 19,057 undergraduates.
Reading & Writing 500 to 620, Math 490 to 590. The top quarter scored at or above 620 and 590. Cost of attendance $34,309, with tuition and fees at $16,144 in-state and $28,210 out-of-state. 19,057 undergraduates, 88% admitted.
Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois University is in DeKalb with 11,301 undergraduates, and it charges the same tuition to in-state and out-of-state students.
The university does not report SAT score data. Cost of attendance $28,851, with tuition and fees at $13,248 for all students. 11,301 undergraduates, 70% admitted.
That flat tuition is unusual. Most public universities on this page charge out-of-state students approximately double, so Northern Illinois is considerably cheaper than its peers for a student from outside the state.
Illinois Has Eight Medical Schools and Six Are in Chicago
Illinois has eight LCME-accredited MD programs, plus osteopathic programs that bring most published counts to nine or ten depending on what is included.
The MD programs are at Northwestern, the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois, Rush, Loyola, Rosalind Franklin, Southern Illinois University, and Carle Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Six of those eight are in the Chicago metropolitan area. For an undergraduate, that concentration is worth more than any individual school’s reputation. Shadowing, clinical volunteering and research assistantships are all easier to arrange when the hospitals are in the same city as the campus, and Chicago has more of them in a smaller area than almost anywhere.
Two of the eight are worth describing separately.
Carle Illinois Is an Engineering-Based Medical School
Carle Illinois College of Medicine at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is described as the world’s first engineering-based medical school. Its curriculum combines basic science, clinical medicine, engineering and medical humanities across the four years.
That matters on this page because Urbana-Champaign is in the table above. A student who is genuinely torn between engineering and medicine, or who wants both, has a reason to look at that campus that does not apply to any other school here.
Southern Illinois Accepts Illinois Residents Only
Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield accepts applications from Illinois residents only.
For an Illinois student that is a protected route into one of the state’s eight programs, competing against other Illinois applicants rather than the national field. For a student from anywhere else it is a school to remove from the list before spending an application fee on it.
Confirm this directly with SIU before planning around it, since admissions policies change.
None of this decides where to do an undergraduate degree. Medical school applications are national, and a student at an Illinois college with no medical school attached is not at a disadvantage applying to one. What a nearby medical school changes is how easy it is to get clinical exposure during the degree, which is a practical matter rather than a prestige one.
Does Illinois Have a Scholarship Tied to SAT Scores?
No, and that is worth stating because two neighbouring approaches do.
Illinois’s main state aid program is the Monetary Award Program, which is need-based and does not use test scores. There is no Illinois equivalent of Florida’s Bright Futures or Georgia’s Zell Miller, where a specific SAT score unlocks a specific amount of state money.
What does use scores in Illinois is institutional merit aid. Individual colleges set their own thresholds and they vary widely, so that is a school-by-school question rather than a state-level one. If merit money is part of your plan, check the specific scholarship pages at each college on your list.
Verify current Monetary Award Program criteria before relying on this, since state aid rules change.
What If Your Scores Are Below the Range You Want?
Being below a school’s published range doesn’t disqualify anyone. A quarter of the students admitted to every school on this list that reports a range scored below its lower number.
Illinois gives a student more room than most states. The colleges here run from a 4% admit rate to an 88% one, with published ranges spanning approximately 240 points per section between the top and bottom of the table. Almost any score has Illinois colleges that fit it, so the question is less whether to apply and more which band to aim at.
The number worth aiming for is the upper end of a school’s range, the one the top quarter cleared, rather than the middle. The reasoning behind that is on what SAT score you need for college.
The gap is measurable and so is the work to close it. A 70 to 130 point improvement takes approximately 40 hours of effective studying, based on the students we’ve worked with since 2008, and a 130 to 250 point improvement takes approximately 80.
How to improve your SAT score covers the method, including how to work out which topics are actually costing you points. If you don’t have a recent score to compare against this list, a free diagnostic SAT gives you one, broken down by section and by topic.
How to Read These Score Ranges
Every range on this page covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted scores. The lower number is the 25th percentile and the upper number is the 75th, which means a quarter of admitted students scored at or above it.
Wheaton College is the example worth studying. An 87% admit rate next to a 650 to 740 Reading & Writing range looks contradictory until you consider who applies. A college with a specific character draws applicants who already match it, so it can admit most of them and still enroll a strong class. Reading its admit rate as a measure of difficulty would be a mistake in both directions.
Because most colleges are now test-optional, these ranges describe only the students who chose to submit. Students with strong scores submit and students with weak ones don’t, so a published range sits higher than the range for everyone who was actually admitted. More on test-optional colleges.
Pre-Med Programs in Nearby States
Illinois students apply across state lines in numbers, and the Chicago area sits close to both Wisconsin and Indiana.
See pre-med colleges in Wisconsin, pre-med colleges in Indiana, and pre-med colleges in Missouri.
Pre-Med Colleges in Other States
We publish the same breakdown for pre-med programs in every state.
See pre-med colleges by state for the full list.
Glyn Caddell
Glyn Caddell holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from NJIT and has been tutoring New York City students since 2008. He founded Caddell Prep in 2012 and is the author of Digital SAT Math Secrets: Lessons & Tricks to Quickly Improve to a Perfect 800 on the Math Test, which contains over 900 practice problems and is used in Caddell Prep’s SAT math classes. He is founding president of the Staten Island Technical High School alumni association and teaches every lesson on this site personally.
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