Lewis Ranked Among Top 10 Illinois Universities

staff started off the new year with some good news. On Jan. 1, school officials learned the university is ranked among the top 10 Chicago-area colleges and universities in a new study by the Blackstone Research Group.

The B-Smrt (Branding-Syndicated Market Research Tracker) results were released on New Year’s Day.

Ray Kennelly, vice president for enrollment management at Lewis, said the recognition was confirmation that school officials are succeeding in guiding the university in the right direction.

“I think it’s more internal gratification for us that we’re doing the right thing,” he said.

Blackstone, a private marketing firm, partnered with Chicago Tribune publisher Tribune Media Group to rank the top 10 schools based on telephone survey results. The company interviewed 1,000 Chicago-area residents to get their take on how local universities compare in terms of overall quality, location, safety, ethnic diversity, tuition cost, help with job placement and alumni ties.

Lewis tied for ninth place overall with Northern Illinois University.

The telephone surveys quizzed respondents in a variety of areas, according to Kennelly, including what schools residents are most familiar with and which schools they felt have the best reputation.

“They asked a lot of open-ended questions without steering people,” Kennelly said. “That was one of the things that was the most gratifying for us.”

The rankings helped confirm to school officials that Lewis’ reputation for quality education is increasing as its enrollment continues to climb. It is also confirmation that efforts to reach a broader range of students have paid off, according to Kennelly. The campus now has satellite locations in Hickory Hills, Oak Brook, Shorewood, Tinley Park, Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

“I think a lot of people think of Lewis as a small school in the southwest suburbs,” Kennelly said.

But the campus earned a spot in the rankings alongside Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology, Loyola University, DePaul University, University of Illinois at Chicago, St. Xavier University, Roosevelt University and NIU.

“I think it shows our reputation and name recognition have grown considerably in the last few years,” Kennelly said. “If they had done these phone interviews 10, 15 years ago, I don’t think we would have had the same results.”

But school officials aren’t using their spot in the rankings as an excuse to rest on their laurels, he noted.

“It’s the first time this study was done,” Kennelly said. “It was a first-time effort by this group. I think we’re trying to keep this one in perspective. We’re not going to get too carried away with it yet.”

The new B-Smrt ranking isn’t the only study to recognize Lewis, Kennelly added.

The school has also earned recognition from The Princeton Review, U.S. News & World Report and the College Access and Opportunity Guide.

“The overall reputation and image of Lewis has grown nationally,” Kennelly said.