Rush University

Private · IL

School data & stats

TypePrivate

LocationIL · Midwest

SettingUrban

Undergrads138

Student:faculty10:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate—

6-yr grad rate—

Drop-out rate—

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition—

Out-of-state tuition—

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity72.5%

Gender diversity74.6%

International0%

Identity—

Overview

Rush University is the academic and training arm of Rush University Medical Center on Chicago's Near West Side, a short distance from downtown. It is not a traditional college — there is no undergraduate liberal-arts program — but a health-sciences university built around Rush Medical College, a college of nursing, a college of health sciences, and a graduate college, training students inside one of Chicago's major academic medical centers rather than on a separate campus.

Academics

Rush's nursing college is the university's best-known program and one of the more highly regarded at the graduate level nationally, and its college of health sciences covers fields such as physician assistant studies, occupational therapy, and health systems management. Because Rush is embedded in an active hospital system, clinical exposure begins early and continues throughout training — students learn inside the same building where patient care happens rather than in a classroom several steps removed from it.

Campus & student life

There is little of a traditional undergraduate campus culture — no dorms full of first-year students, no big-time athletics — because the student body is almost entirely graduate and professional students already focused on a specific health career. Social life tends to organize around cohorts within a program rather than a campus-wide community.

Getting in

Admission is evaluated by program — nursing, medicine, physician assistant studies, and so on — rather than as a single undergraduate pool, and each looks for relevant prior coursework or patient-care and clinical experience alongside academic record; research or shadowing experience carries real weight, particularly for medical college and PA applicants.

After graduation

Graduates move directly into Chicago's hospital and healthcare systems, including Rush's own medical center, and the university's research strength in aging and neurodegenerative disease — the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center is nationally known — gives students in relevant programs a path into clinical research as well as direct patient care.

rushu.rush.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate—

Enrolled mid-50%—

Test policynot reported

Rec letters—

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

Applying