Illinois Best Colleges Definitive Rankings: Forbes, Money & More

ILLINOIS — Students across the country are returning to college this fall semester. And as we all know from our school days, there’s some serious thought that goes into where to spend all that money.

In August, Patch brought you a number of rankings released by national publications that use different methodologies to determine the best colleges in the country and in Illinois. (Get Patched In: Subscribe to free daily email, news alerts, Facebook fun and more from Patch)

The usual names, like Harvard, Yale and Princeton fell among the top five spots on lists from Niche and Forbes. But one list from Money magazine that ranked best value colleges saw a large number of schools from the University of California system featured among the top. Yet another list from Princeton Review named, but did not rank, the 384 best colleges in the country.

The Niche list was released the most recently on Aug. 27. Niche’s rankings of America’s best colleges places Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the top, followed by Stanford, Harvard, Princeton and Yale. The same colleges took the top five spots on the Forbes list, although in a slightly different order.

Money magazine named Princeton the best college for value in the U.S., followed by the University of California-San Diego, University of California-Irvine, University of California-Los Angeles and Stanford University.

Below are the top 10 (and in one case, top 11) colleges in Illinois, according to each of the four lists:

Niche “2019 Best Colleges in America” (Released Aug. 27)

1. Northwestern University, Evanston
2. University of Chicago
3. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
4. Wheaton College
5. Illinois Wesleyan, Bloomington
6. Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago
7. DePaul University, Chicago
8. Augustana College, Rock Island
9. Loyola University Chicago
10. Bradley University, Peoria

Forbes “America’s Top Colleges for 2018” (Released Aug. 21)

1. University of Chicago
2. Northwestern University
3. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
4. Wheaton College
5. Illinois Institute of Technology
6. Illinois Wesleyan University
7. Loyola University Chicago
8. Knox College, Galesburg
9. University of Illinois, Chicago
10. Bradley University, Peoria

Money Magazine ”Best Colleges For Your Money 2018” (Released Aug. 13)

1. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (25)
2. University of Chicago, Chicago (37)
3. Northwestern University, Evanston (86)
4. University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago (108)
5. Illinois State University, Normal (127)
6. Wheaton College, College (150)
7. Lake Forest College, Lake Forest (173)
8. University of St. Francis, Joliet (189)
9. Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago (231)
10. Lewis University, Romeoville (264)

Princeton Review “The Best 384 Colleges, 2019 Edition” (Released Aug. 6)

All Illinois colleges that made the Princeton Review list are listed here since they are not ranked in any particular order:

• Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign
• Depaul University, Chicago
• Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago
• Loyola University Chicago
• University of Chicago
• Northwestern University, Evanston
• Knox College, Galesburg
• Lake Forest College
• Bradley University, Peoria
• Wheaton College

Photo via Brian A. Jackson/ Shutterstock