Four Illinois universities have been named among the 100 best in the country, with two making the top 10, according to the latest ranking from U.S. News & World Report.
The annual list, which analyzed and evaluated more than 400 national universities across the U.S., once again saw the University of Chicago and Northwestern University making the top cut.
University of Chicago took the highest spot, coming in at No. 6, while Northwestern followed at No. 7, tying Duke University, Johns Hopkins University and University of Pennsylvania for the spot.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was ranked at No. 36 on the list, followed by University of Illinois Chicago at No. 84.
This year’s report saw some tweaks in its data sets compared to previous years.
According to the publication, “core methodology and weighting factors remained the same this year, but small
portions of underlying data were adjusted to reflect evolving admissions considerations, cohort representation and student involvement.”
Each university was still evaluated based on a set of 17 categories, including things like graduation rate, first-year retention rate, borrower debt, student-faculty ratio and more.
“While the general scoring weights and factors remained consistent, the 2026 rankings made a few small adjustments to ensure the results accurately reflect the evolving landscape of higher education,” LaMont Jones, managing editor for education at U.S. News, said in a statement. “By considering students’ credit hours and increasing the minimum number of students for a cohort, the rankings deliver a view of institutional investment in students, and graduation and retention rates.”
In addition to the national ranking, the publication also released regional lists for both universities and colleges.
In the Midwest, the top-ranked regional universities were Butler University in Indiana, John Carroll University in Ohio, Milwaukee School of Engineering in Wisconsin, Calvin University in Michigan, and Dordt University in Iowa.
As for regional colleges, Ohio Northern University, Illinois Wesleyan University, College of the Ozarks in Missouri, Taylor University in Indiana and Simpson College in Iowa all topped the lists.
Regional universities are considered those that “offer a full range of undergraduate programs and provide graduate education at the master’s level,” but few, if any, doctoral programs.
Regional colleges “focus on undergraduate education but grant fewer than 50% of their degrees in liberal arts disciplines.”
Source link
