Check Out The Top 10 Universities and Colleges in Illinois

Personal-finance website WalletHub recently released their list of 2019's Best College & University Rankings, including the institutions they say are Illinois' best.

With the first “early decision” college-application deadline looming on November 1st and tuition costs having more than doubled since the 1980s, WalletHub's numbers-crunchers know how big the "college decision" is.

Here's what the WalletHub analysts looked at to make their determinations:

Attending higher education requires more than just the grades to get in. You’ll also need the financial resources to attend. On average, tuition and room and board at a four-year college costs around $21,000 - $47,000 per year. It varies depending on the school’s public or private status and whether it’s in-state. For those prices, students want to know they are getting a good deal. WalletHub compared nearly 1,000 higher-education institutions in the U.S. across 30 key measures. The data set is grouped into seven categories, such as Student Selectivity, Cost & Financing and Career Outcomes. The metrics range from student-faculty ratio to graduation rate to post-attendance median salary.

These are WalletHub's top ten best colleges and universities in Illinois:

1. University of Chicago
2. Northwestern University
3. Illinois Institute of Technology
4. University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
5. Illinois Wesleyan University
6. Wheaton College
7. Lewis University
8. Bradley University
9. Dominican University
10. University of St. Francis

Along with a breakdown of the top 3:

School Snapshot: University of Chicago (1 = Best; 17 = Average; 34 = Worst)

• 1^st – Admission Rate
• 34^th – Net Cost
• 1^st – Student-Faculty Ratio
• 6^th – On-Campus Crime
• 3^rd – Gender & Racial Diversity
• 2^nd – Graduation Rate
• 3^rd – Post-Attendance Median Salary

School Snapshot: Northwestern University (1 = Best; 17 = Average; 34 = Worst)

• 1^st – Admission Rate
• 33^rd – Net Cost
• 2^nd – Student-Faculty Ratio
• 9^th – On-Campus Crime
• 5^th – Gender & Racial Diversity
• 1^st – Graduation Rate
• 2^nd – Post-Attendance Median Salary

School Snapshot: Illinois Institute of Technology (1 = Best; 17 = Average; 34 = Worst)

• 7^th – Admission Rate
• 27^th – Net Cost
• 15^th – Student-Faculty Ratio
• 34^th – On-Campus Crime
• 8^th – Gender & Racial Diversity
• 8^th – Graduation Rate
• 1^st – Post-Attendance Median Salary

Check out WalletHub's full piece "2019’s College & University Rankings" by clicking here.