CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - You may not have heard of National Louis University, but it's been around for more than 130 years.
"We were founded in 1886 by a woman," smiled Nivine Megahed, president of National Louis University.
"We started out as a school that educated young children, we were a teacher prep school. In the 1900's, more like 1980, we became National Louis University," Megahed said.
NLU serves a student body of 10,000 and has five colleges- the College of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, the College of Business and Leadership, the Undergraduate College, the National College of Education and, acquired a few years ago, the Kendall College of Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management.
Tucked away between a fast food restaurant and an art gallery, it's one of the state's oldest downtown private universities.
"We are a modern-day urban campus. Our main campus is on Michigan Avenue, right across from the Art Institute and Millennium Park," Megahed said.
This year, Washington Monthly ranked the school 18th for what they do for the country and second best "Bank for the Buck" in the Midwest.
"We're so excited to learn we were in the top 20 for universities that are working to make the world a better place and this was based on our driving social mobility for our students and our engagement with the community," said Megahed.
This is NLU’s first time ranking on this list - up there amongst many Ivy Leagues. At $10,000, it's the lowest tuition in Illinois.
"We were number-two best value in the Midwest. We've been very intentionally working to keep education very affordable for our students. It's the least expensive of all the state universities. We do it without any state subsidies," Megahed noted.
In a time when the cost of higher education is on the rise, Megahed said NLU prides itself on keeping costs down.
"We are preparing students for careers and to transition to employment. We don't spend our money on sports, we don't build climbing walls, we don't have a rolling campus," she laughed.
"Parents don't want to pay $40,000-50,000 for their kids, some just can't. They don't want to have to take out a second mortgage. It's too much. This is why we engineered our undergraduate program to make it affordable, to focus on their success, to focus on their employment and focus on students to help them get through the pathway to life after college,” Megahed said.
NLU is also one of the most diverse schools in the Midwest.
"Most of our students are low income. 67% of them are first generation college students. If you're a student coming from a low income background in the state of Illinois, if you come here, you actually have no loans. Between your Pell Grants and your MAP Grants, your tuition is fully paid." she said.
NLU offers more than 70 undergraduate and graduate degree programs through five colleges.
"We're primarily known for teacher prep. We prepare more teachers across this state than any other institution. That reputation continues, and a lot of people come here to become teachers, but we have a broad array of professional programs for anyone who wants to pursue their degrees with us," Megahed said.
Since 2005, the Washington Monthly has ranked colleges based on what they do for the country. It ranks liberal arts colleges—four-year institutions that award almost exclusively bachelor’s degrees and that focus on arts and sciences rather than professional programs—based on their contribution to the public good in three broad categories: social mobility, research, and promoting public service.
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