These days, talk of college feels fraught with discussions about labyrinthian student loan legislation, rapidly rising tuition costs and the sovereignty of thought at universities. But that national tenor hasn’t changed U.S. News & World Report’s tune: The outlet has released its annual ranking of the top universities in the U.S., sending prospective students into a tizzy over application deadlines and long gone graduates like myself into a thought spiral: Were those loans really worth it? Depends on the day. Have I lost my physical diploma forever? Almost certainly.
According to U.S. World News & Report’s Best National Universities Rankings for the 2025–26 school year, Illinois is now home to four of the country’s best universities. Of those four universities, two are stationed in Chicago. These rankings are far from random, too: U.S. News & World Report analyzed both third-party and direct report data from over 1,700 universities across the nation. From there, they crunched numbers like graduation and retention rates, borrow debt averages and post-college earnings to yield a definitive ranking.
Illinois’ highest ranked university is, unsurprisingly, the University of Chicago, coming in at the No. 6 spot—just behind Yale and Stanford. Trailing behind the University of Chicago is Northwestern University, which claimed the No. 7 spot. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign made the cut at No. 36, and University of Illinois Chicago clocked in at No. 84. How’s that for bragging rights?
Now, there are plenty of ways to channel your Prairie State pride without the six-figure tuition price tag. The University of Chicago is home to some of the best museums in the city: Smart Museum of Art and Renaissance Society. Better yet, admission to those museums is free. Northwestern’s Mary & Leigh Block Museum of Art—which is free and open to all—is currently hosting a can’t-miss exhibition of Helen Frankenthaler’s deeply emotive works on paper until December 14, 2025. And the University of Illinois-Urbana happens to be a longtime partner of PYGMALION, a multi-day music festival in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, that’s hosted acts including Explosions in the Sky, Run the Jewels, Sylvan Esso and Grizzly Bear.
Want to see if your alma mater place in the top 100? Check out the full list here.