Where to Start Looking to Find Illinois Colleges
Families starting the college search in Illinois should start by visiting the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) Student Portal. It contains information on Illinois scholarship programs and an Illinois Monetary Award Program (MAP) estimator. It also has an online financial aid comparison worksheet that includes a field for entering your EFC.
The website includes a general 4 Steps to College Checklist without any year-by-year steps. The College Match tool is pretty basic. Users enter their ACT score and GPA and the receive a list of colleges. There isn’t any information associated with the colleges, they just link to the college website. The website does have an Outreach Activities Calendar ISAC sponsors including a FAFSA Completion Workshop.
The Counselors section of the ISAC website is worth a visit as well. It includes information on the transcript exchange for Illinois schools, a Map of Illinois Colleges, and a Handbook of Illinois Postsecondary Institutions. Potential transfer students should visit the iTransfer website for more information on both public and private schools.
Some Numbers to Help You Find a College
There are 54 Illinois colleges with 500 or more full-time undergraduates. Of the 203,272 students, 42% attend the 10 public institutions in the state compared to the 58% at Illinois’ 45 private colleges.
The average four-year graduation rate for private Illinois colleges is 47% and the five-year rate for public-institutions with available information is 41.3%. A total of 21 schools meet the DIY College Rankings 50-50 profile requirements.
In Illinois, the average Composite ACT score was 20.7. The English scores was 20.3 and the Math score was 20.7. The 75th% Composite score was 25, English was 25, and Math was 25. A total of 36 Illinois colleges ACT 75th% Composite scores were at or above this level.
The top 20 colleges ACT test takers in Illinois applied to:
- University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
- Northern Illinois University
- Illinois State University
- University of Illinois at Chicago
- Southern Illinois Univ-Carbondale
- University of Chicago
- Depaul University
- Western Illinois University
- Eastern Illinois University
- Loyola University of Chicago
- Southern Illinois Univ-Edwardsville
- University of Iowa
- Columbia College Chicago
- Univ of Wisconsin-Madison
- Northeastern Illinois University
- College of Du Page
- Bradley University
- Joliet Junior College
- Univ of Missouri-Columbia
- Northwestern University
Illinois Colleges Conferences and Divisions
List of Illinois Colleges
In the following table, the four-year graduation rate is used for private colleges and the five-year rate for public colleges. The data are based on the data available from IPEDS in December of 2014 which are available on the DIY College Search spreadsheet.
Illinois Colleges with Graduation Rates and Test Scores
(Download PDF version)
| Name | Type | Full-time Under- grads | 4/5 Yr Grad Rate | % Admitted | SAT CR 75th% | SAT Math 75th% | ACT 75th% | Net Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Augustana College | Private | 2509 | 74 | 59 | 23632 | |||
| Aurora University | Private | 2852 | 44 | 76 | 560 | 560 | 24 | 17529 |
| Benedictine University | Private | 3056 | 38 | 69 | 25 | 20078 | ||
| Blackburn College | Private | 523 | 34 | 68 | 570 | 620 | 25 | 13366 |
| Bradley University | Private | 4618 | 55 | 67 | 640 | 630 | 28 | 25683 |
| Chicago State University | Public | 2852 | 15 | 29 | 510 | 530 | 20 | 10203 |
| Columbia College-Chicago | Private | 8720 | 32 | 91 | 27663 | |||
| Concordia University-Chicago | Private | 1489 | 45 | 54 | 590 | 580 | 24 | 18326 |
| DePaul University | Private | 13594 | 54 | 60 | 630 | 630 | 28 | 29165 |
| Dominican University | Private | 1907 | 50 | 60 | 540 | 620 | 24 | 15882 |
| Eastern Illinois University | Public | 7327 | 56 | 62 | 24 | 17751 | ||
| East-West University | Private | 669 | 7 | 28023 | ||||
| Elmhurst College | Private | 2736 | 59 | 72 | 550 | 580 | 26 | 20551 |
| Eureka College | Private | 644 | 43 | 68 | 665 | 650 | 26 | 17409 |
| Governors State University | Public | 1315 | ||||||
| Greenville College | Private | 1090 | 41 | 66 | 550 | 595 | 25 | 19570 |
| Illinois College | Private | 981 | 56 | 61 | 540 | 580 | 25 | 17873 |
| Illinois Institute of Technology | Private | 2712 | 32 | 57 | 640 | 740 | 30 | 21201 |
| Illinois State University | Public | 16683 | 68 | 69 | 26 | 15673 | ||
| Illinois Wesleyan University | Private | 2001 | 72 | 58 | 620 | 740 | 30 | 28044 |
| Judson University | Private | 783 | 32 | 71 | 540 | 590 | 27 | 20239 |
| Knox College | Private | 1400 | 71 | 75 | 24274 | |||
| Lake Forest College | Private | 1571 | 58 | 57 | 620 | 620 | 28 | 25312 |
| Lewis University | Private | 3723 | 45 | 56 | 550 | 590 | 26 | 19015 |
| Lincoln Christian University | Private | 511 | 31 | 69 | 500 | 400 | 24 | 18292 |
| Lincoln College | Private | 798 | 87 | 19 | 16584 | |||
| Loyola University Chicago | Private | 9339 | 60 | 91 | 630 | 630 | 29 | 29184 |
| MacMurray College | Private | 517 | 28 | 75 | 470 | 540 | 22 | 16583 |
| McKendree University | Private | 1776 | 32 | 63 | 520 | 530 | 25 | 17827 |
| Millikin University | Private | 2044 | 48 | 55 | 570 | 580 | 26 | 20096 |
| Monmouth College | Private | 1244 | 57 | 64 | 540 | 510 | 25 | 16537 |
| Moody Bible Institute | Private | 2413 | 65 | 69 | 17644 | |||
| National Louis University | Private | 784 | 29 | 99 | 18360 | |||
| North Central College | Private | 2592 | 51 | 64 | 27 | 22715 | ||
| North Park University | Private | 1861 | 39 | 52 | 580 | 25 | 18724 | |
| Northeastern Illinois University | Public | 5068 | 12 | 60 | 21 | 14935 | ||
| Northern Illinois University | Public | 13821 | 45 | 56 | 550 | 580 | 24 | 19168 |
| Northwestern University | Private | 8489 | 86 | 15 | 760 | 790 | 34 | 28601 |
| Olivet Nazarene University | Private | 2905 | 49 | 82 | 27 | 20263 | ||
| Quincy University | Private | 1082 | 39 | 89 | 500 | 570 | 25 | 17099 |
| Robert Morris University Illinois | Private | 2649 | 76 | 21 | 19642 | |||
| Rockford University | Private | 838 | 25 | 41 | 553 | 665 | 25 | 22851 |
| Roosevelt University | Private | 2731 | 27 | 79 | 630 | 590 | 25 | 26763 |
| Saint Augustine College | Private | 1143 | 7303 | |||||
| Saint Xavier University | Private | 2452 | 30 | 51 | 570 | 545 | 24 | 16465 |
| School of the Art Institute of Chicago | Private | 2469 | 31 | 72 | 670 | 28 | 43489 | |
| Southern Illinois University-Carbondale | Public | 11803 | 39 | 79 | 590 | 620 | 25 | 14347 |
| Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville | Public | 9556 | 46 | 84 | 580 | 590 | 25 | 15047 |
| Trinity Christian College | Private | 1106 | 49 | 90 | 640 | 630 | 25 | 21396 |
| Trinity International University-Illinois | Private | 744 | 35 | 94 | 600 | 560 | 25 | 19824 |
| University of Chicago | Private | 5630 | 88 | 9 | 800 | 790 | 35 | 31935 |
| University of Illinois at Chicago | Public | 15402 | 51 | 71 | 600 | 640 | 26 | 11645 |
| University of Illinois at Springfield | Public | 1969 | 40 | 60 | 623 | 665 | 27 | 10516 |
| University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | Public | 31516 | 82 | 62 | 670 | 780 | 31 | 16490 |
| University of St Francis | Private | 1403 | 32 | 51 | 610 | 620 | 25 | 17556 |
| Western Illinois University | Public | 8805 | 51 | 59 | 23 | 16919 | ||
| Wheaton College | Private | 2378 | 74 | 69 | 720 | 700 | 32 | 25625 |
