12 Illinois Schools Land On Princeton Review’s Best Colleges List

For some college-age students, it's already back-to-school time. For those in their final couple of years in high school, it's time to start getting the list of potential colleges (assuming that's their future path) together and start weighing the pros and cons of each one the student and their parents may be considering.

When you consider the money that will be spent or the debt that will be incurred for a college education and degree(s), it's always nice to have something you can lean on for the information you'll need to make a big decision like choosing a university.

Thanks to the Princeton Review, one of things you can lean on for the information you need about institutes of higher learning is their recently-released list of the Best 391 Colleges in the United States. If your or your student's goal is to continue education here in the state of Illinois, you'll be glad to know that 12 colleges/universities in our state have found places on this year's list.

The Princeton Review's Rankings Are Done A Little Differently Than Some Of The Other Lists/Rankings That You'll Find

According to the Princeton Review website, all of their rankings are based on what students who attend those schools had to say about their respective colleges, along with the experiences had by the students:

We tallied the rankings lists in the current edition of The Best 391 Colleges (published August 2025) based on the data from our surveys of 170,000 students at the 391 schools in the book. Our student survey has 98 questions in four sections. We ask students about: 1) their school's academics/administration, 2) life at their college, 3) their fellow students, and 4) themselves.

The surveys were conducted in 2024–25 and/or the previous two academic years. Unlike many lists of this sort, these colleges are not ordered by rank, but are recognized as among the best in the U.S.

Here Are The Illinois Colleges/Universities That Are On This Year's List Of The 391 Best Colleges In The United States

The Princeton Review list the schools by name, city, and number of students enrolled full-time:

• Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago):3,135
• Loyola University Chicago (Chicago):12,538
• DePaul University (Chicago):14,188
• The University of Chicago (Chicago): 7,519
• University of St. Francis (Joliet):1,306
• Northwestern University (Evanston): 8,846
• Wheaton College (Wheaton): 2,150
• Knox College (Galesburg):1,136
• Bradley University (Peoria): 3,596
• Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington): 1,582
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Champaign): 35,564
• Lake Forest College (Lake Forest): 1,814