CHICAGO - For those looking to take their education to the next level in the Windy City, you'll be happy to know that the city is home to two of the best universities in the country. The latest annual ranking of colleges and universities by WalletHub named both Northwestern University and the University of Chicago to the list.
Chicago universities listed among the best in the country
The backstory:
To find the best university in the country, WalletHub compared 738 colleges and universities across the country using 30 measures spanning seven categories: student selectivity, cost and financing, faculty resources, campus safety, campus experience, educational outcomes and career outcomes.
Using these categories, each school was given a score which determined where they were all ranked.
A person walks on the Northwestern University campus, March 31, 2025, in Evanston, Illinois. The Trump administration froze $790 million in federal funding to the school. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Local perspective:
Finishing ranked No. 6 on the list was Northwestern University. Northwestern's high score can be credited to the school's high rankings for faculty resources — where it finished ranked sixth in the country as well — and for its student selectivity ranking — where it finished 15th.
The only scores that affected Northwestern negatively were for cost and finance, where it ranked 674th out of 738 schools, and for campus safety, where it ranked 227th.
The other Chicago-area school which made the list was the University of Chicago which finished ranked No. 13. The university scored tremendously in three main area: education outcomes and faculty resources — finishing ranked third for each category — and for student selectivity, where it ranked sixth.
Similarly to Northwestern, the University of Chicago ranked poorly in both cost and finance, where it ranked 723rd out of 738 schools, and campus safety, where it ranked 229th.
Hyde Park campus, University of Chicago map sign. (Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Other Midwest universities on the list
Dig deeper:
Keeping an eye on the Midwest, two other universities in the region made the list alongside both Chicago schools.
The first being the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, which finished ranked 19th. Notre Dame's top categories for scoring were for education outcomes (ranked 17th) and career outcomes (ranked 22nd).
The other school that made the list was Grinnell College in Iowas, which ranked 30th in the country. Grinnell's top quality according to the rankings was for its campus experience (ranked 9th).
The top universities in the country
Big picture view:
As for the rest of the country, landing at the top of the list was Princeton University in New Jersey followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. You can check out WalletHub's rankings for the ten best schools here:
- Princeton University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Yale University
- California Institute of Technology
- Harvard University
- Northwestern University
- University of Pennsylvania
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Stanford University
- Georgia Institute of Technology
The Source: This story uses information from data provided by WalletHub. This story was written from Eden Prairie, Minnesota.