UChicago Ranks 3rd, Northwestern 12th In New Ranking Of Top Colleges

By Stephen Gossett in News on Sep 13, 2016 7:09PM

University of Chicago / Facebook

The University of Chicago and Northwestern University may not agree philsophically on things like safe spaces and trigger warnings, but they share at least one important commonality: both local schools are exceptionally highly ranked.

According to the 2017 Best Colleges rankings by U.S. News & World Report, University of Chicago is third best national university. It tied with one other schools for the position, Yale University. (UChicago ranked fourth in last year’s rankings.) It was the only Chicago-based university to make the top ten. Northwestern narrowly missed the cut, retaining its 12th position, which it shares with California Institute of Technology. The full national rankings are below.

1) Princeton University (NJ)
2) Harvard University (MA)
3) University of Chicago (IL) (tie)
3) Yale University (CT) (tie)
5) Columbia University (NY) (tie)
5) Stanford University (CA) (tie)
7) Massachusetts Institute of Technology
8) Duke University (NC) (tie)
8) University of Pennsylvania (tie)
10) Johns Hopkins University (MD)

The ratings take into account a host of criteria, including graduation rates, admissions-test scores and institutional rankings, among others. The methodology can be read here.

“In addition to considering factors like location and cost, families should pay close attention to graduation and retention rates,” Brian Kelly, editor and CCO of U.S. News, said in a press release. “These are important indicators of how well a school supports its students both academically and financially. Getting into a good school means nothing if you cannot graduate."

As for other local universities, Loyola landed at 99th, IIT was ranked No. 103, DePaul was No. 124 and UIC came in at No. 152.