Some colleges and universities in the western suburbs, including Dominican, Concordia and Elmhurst Universities, performed well in the just-released annual rankings from U.S. News and World Report.
Though Illinois will always be dominated by the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign as its top universities, the rankings showed distinction for some of the smaller schools.
Each year, U.S. News & World Report ranks 1,466 colleges and universities based on information they provide in a survey. Schools are ranked separately by categories such as national universities, regional universities and others.
Area schools in the Regional Midwest University category included Dominican University in River Forest, which ranked #10, Concordia University Chicago in River Forest, which ranked #61; Elmhurst University in Elmhurst, which ranked #17; Lewis University in Romeoville, which tied for #19 with Naperville’s North Central College; North Park University in Chicago, which ranked #41; Saint Xavier in Chicago, which ranked #54; and Columbia College Chicago, which ranked #88.
Dominican University also ranked #1 in Illinois in the regional Midwest category.
In the national university category, Illinois schools fared as follows: the University of Chicago ranked #6 in the country; Northwestern University ranked #9; the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign ranked #47; the University of Illinois at Chicago tied with Loyola University of Chicago at #103, Illinois Institute of Technology ranked #122 and DePaul University ranked #127.
Among the regional Midwest universities, Dominican University ranked #1 in the Chicago area and #3 in the Midwest in the magazine’s social mobility category; #6 in the best undergraduate teaching category, and first in Illinois in the best value schools category.
The magazine’s social mobility category measures how schools are delivering on commitments to move economically disadvantaged students up the economic ladder. Specifically, the category ranks how well schools enroll and graduate students who receive federal Pell Grants, which mainly go to families whose adjusted gross family incomes are less than $50,000 — and compares that to students who do not receive the grants.
Area schools also placing high on the social mobility ranking in the Regional Midwest category were North Park University, ranking #6; St. Xavier University, ranking #7; Concordia University Chicago, ranking #16, Elmhurst University in a tie with Lewis University and two others for the #19 spot, and Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago ranking #28.
Social mobility was among the top reasons Glena Temple said she took the job as president of Dominican University in August. In an August interview with Pioneer Press/Chicago Tribune, she said that she felt drawn to Dominican’s record of advancing social mobility and student success.
On Monday, Temple reiterated its importance.
“This U.S. News and World Reports recognition as a regional top 10 university affirms our commitment to being an innovative, relationship-centered educational institution that focuses on the success of each student at Dominican, she said in a press release.
For Concordia University Chicago in River Forest, which improved in all ranked categories, the rankings show that its students will graduate with essential life skills, according to university president Russell Dawn.
“Our graduates leave CUC with the character and expertise they will need as they serve their communities, whether here in the Chicago area, across the nation, or around the world,” Dawn said.
U.S. News and World is one of several organizations that rank colleges and universities, and because they use different methodologies, rankings vary among them.
