New Report Ranks Illinois’ Top Ten Colleges & Universities

With the first “early decision” college-application deadline looming on November 1st, and tuition and room and board at a four-year college costing somewhere between $24,920 and $58,600 per year, the personal-finance company WalletHub recently released their 2026’s Best College & University Ranking s report.

Although the WalletHub report covers colleges and universities across the nation, they also included state-by-state breakouts, including ranking Illinois' top colleges and universities.

Here's what they looked for to make their determinations:

To determine the top-performing schools at the lowest possible costs to undergraduates, WalletHub compared nearly 800 higher-education institutions in the U.S. across 30 key measures. The data set is grouped into seven categories, suc