ILLINOIS – Illinois has once again cemented its reputation as a center of higher education: two universities have made it into the top 25 of the U.S. News & World Report’s 2025 Best Colleges rankings.
The annual ranking was based on statistics such as graduation and placement rates as well as student preferences.
Northwestern University in Evanston made it into the top 10, sharing 6th place with the California Institute of Technology, Duke University and Johns Hopkins University.
The University of Chicago in Hyde Park is tied for 11th place with Cornell.
Although not in the top 25, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign remains a strong contender, ranking 33rd nationally.
Top 25 of the best National Universities
1. Princeton University
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Cambridge, Massachusetts
3. Harvard University – Cambridge, Massachusetts
4. Stanford University – Stanford, California
5. Yale University – New Haven, Connecticut
6. (four-way tie) California Institute of Technology – Pasadena, California; Duke University-Durham, North Carolina; Johns Hopkins University-Baltimore, Maryland; Northwestern University-Evanston, Illinois
10. University of Pennsylvania – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
11. (two-way tie) Cornell University – Ithaca, New York; University of Chicago – Chicago, Illinois
13. (two-way tie) Brown University – Providence, Rhode Island; Columbia University – New York, New York
15. (two-way tie) Dartmouth College – Hanover, New Hampshire; University of California, Los Angeles – Los Angeles, California
17. University of California, Berkeley – Berkeley, California
18. (three-way tie) Rice University – Houston, Texas; University of Notre Dame – South Bend, Indiana; Vanderbilt University – Nashville, Tennessee
21st (three-way tie) Carnegie Mellon University – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor – Ann Arbor, Michigan; Washington University at St. Louis – St. Louis, Missouri
24th (three-way tie) Emory University – Atlanta, Georgia; Georgetown University-Washington, DC; University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia
For the full rankings, see U.S. News & World Report.
