28 Illinois Colleges Make Money’s 2020-21 ‘Best’ List

ILLINOIS — More than six months into the new coronavirus pandemic, colleges are struggling to resume in-person classes and, in some cases, reverting to online courses only days into the new semester.

Such challenges raise a question: Is a college degree today worth the actual cost?

Enter Money magazine. The publication this week released its annual ranking of the best colleges for the money. The list, which includes 28 schools in Illinois, is meant to assuage the financial anxiety associated with the high price of college in the United States.

The 2020 list includes more than 700 colleges and universities. Colleges included in Money’s rankings had to meet certain criteria, such as having a graduation rate at or above the median and having at least 500 students. Colleges were then ranked based on 26 factors in three categories: quality of education, affordability and outcomes.

Each category is weighted equally in calculating the rankings. See the full methodology used by Money.

The following Illinois colleges were included on this year’s list:

• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign
• Northwestern University, Evanston
• University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago
• University of Chicago, Chicago
• Eastern Illinois University, Charleston
• Illinois State University, Normal
• Bradley University, Peoria
• Lewis University, Romeoville
• Wheaton College, Wheaton
• Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington
• Elmhurst University, Elmhurst
• University of St. Francis, Joliet
• Knox College, Galesburg
• Augustana College, Rock Island
• Illinois College, Jacksonville
• Dominican University, River Forest
• DePaul University, Chicago
• Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago
• Monmouth College, Monmouth
• Lake Forest College, Lake Forest
• Concordia University-Chicago, River Forest
• North Central College, Naperville
• Judson University, Elgin
• Aurora University, Aurora
• Loyola University Chicago, Chicago
• Robert Morris University Illinois, Chicago
• North Park University, Chicago
• School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

According to Money, the top 10 colleges for your money are:

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
2. Stanford University, Stanford, California.
3. Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
4. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
5. Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
6. University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia
7. Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
8. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
9. University of California-San Diego
10. University of California-Davis

See the full rankings and read more about Money’s list.