Admissions & selectivity
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Acceptance Rate & Admissions
What is the acceptance rate at SIUE?
SIUE’s reported acceptance rate is 97.5%.
- Acceptance rate · Fall 2024
- 97.5%
Source: College Scorecard · Fall 2024 admissions. Acceptance rates can change from year to year; this figure does not predict the current or next admission cycle.
How to interpret the acceptance rate
With an admission rate of 97.5%, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville admitted most applicants in the reported entering class. That rate is above the median of 85.9% for comparable institutions (same type and size), so the published outcome sits higher than its peer midpoint.
What SAT and ACT scores do SIUE students report?
Applicants should use Southern Illinois University Edwardsville's SAT span from 950 to 1,190 as a school-specific reference when judging submitted scores. Applicants should separately use its ACT span from 20 to 27 when that test is part of their application.
These ranges cover the middle half of enrolled students who submitted each test, not all enrolled students or minimums for admission. SAT and ACT results come from different submitting groups, so neither range supplies a conversion to the other test.
They provide context for recently enrolled score submitters rather than a prediction of any applicant's admission decision.
The ranges below describe enrolled students who submitted test scores at SIUE. Use them as academic context, then check the university’s current testing policy for your application cycle.
- Approximate lower endpoint
- 950
- Approximate upper endpoint
- 1190
Enrolled students who submitted scores. This range is not an admission cutoff. The endpoints add section percentiles; they are not verified composite-score percentiles. A separate SAT-equivalent average is not plotted as a median. Source: College Scorecard; sum of section 25th/75th percentiles; enrolled score-submitters.
- 25th percentile
- 20
- 75th percentile
- 27
Enrolled students who submitted scores. This range is not an admission cutoff.
Figures cover fall 2024.
Who enrolls at SIUE?
- Pell Grant recipients
- 32.7%
- Entering students outside the first-time, full-time group
- 39.0%
- First-year retention
- 75.7%
Retention source: College Scorecard; full-time first-year retention.
About these student measures
The entering-student group includes part-time entrants as well as other attendance patterns.
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville serves a sizable undergraduate population with an estimated 39.0% share of entrants outside the first-time, full-time group, so many attendees arrive after beginning college elsewhere. Its 8,750 undergraduates include 32.7% who receive Pell Grants, a financial-access measure based on undergraduate grant recipients.
The mix suggests a campus with both students entering directly from high school and students bringing prior college coursework. Pell-eligible and transfer applicants should ask how financial aid and previously earned credits will be reviewed before choosing an enrollment path.
For applicants coming through different routes, the transfer presence and Pell share point to a student body with varied starting points.
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville shows stronger retention and overall completion than comparable institutions, though Pell recipients complete at a lower rate than the full cohort. Its first-year retention rate is 75.7%, above the peer median of 73.7%, the middle value for comparable institutions in the same type and size.
For the first-time full-time cohort, 57.0% complete within six years, above the peer median of 49.1%. The six-year completion rate for Pell recipients is 46.9%, below the overall rate by 10.1 percentage points.
Enrolled students can expect retention and overall completion figures that exceed comparable institutions, alongside a separate Pell completion gap.
Data & methodology
Sources and reporting periods: methodology.
Analysis and methodology by Daniel Rogers, founder of College Azimuth.
Explanatory text is AI-assisted drafting checked against those figures; it is not an additional data source.
Admission rates describe past applicants, not an individual’s chance of admission; confirm requirements and deadlines with the institution.
Figure notes link to sources and limitations. About College Azimuth.