St. Louis school ranked No. 1 in Missouri. What are the top universities in Illinois?

A university in St. Louis was recently named the best in the Show Me State, while an Illinois institution outranked Stanford University, according to a recent analysis from financial website WalletHub.

WalletHub compared schools’ performance in student selectivity, cost and financing, faculty resources, campus safety, campus experience, educational outcomes and career outcomes. These categories were evaluated using 30 metrics, according to the company, and each metric was rated on a 100-point scale. A score of 100 represented the most ideal conditions.

The financial website classified institutions as colleges if they offered only undergraduate programs and universities if they provided graduate programs, including master’s degrees and/or doctoral programs. This ranking compares colleges and universities, but WalletHub also provides separate rankings for the best colleges and best universities.

Here’s what to know about how the best colleges and universities compare in Illinois and Missouri, according to WalletHub.

Top 10 Illinois colleges and universities

1. Northwestern University

2. University of Chicago

3. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

4. Illinois Wesleyan University

5. Illinois Institute of Technology

6. Lake Forest College

7. Wheaton College

8. University of St. Francis

9. Bradley University

10. Olivet Nazarene University

Top 10 colleges and universities in Missouri

1. Washington University in St. Louis

2. College of the Ozarks

3. Truman State University

4. Missouri University of Science and Technology

5. University of Missouri – St. Louis

6. Webster University

7. Saint Louis University

8. University of Missouri

9. Drury University

10. Lindenwood University

Here’s how the top 10 colleges and universities across the U.S. stacked up, according to WalletHub:

1. Yale University

2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

3. Princeton University

4. California Institute of Technology

5. Harvard University

6. Duke University

7. Rice University

8. Northwestern University

9. Johns Hopkins University

10. Stanford University

More ways to evaluate colleges, universities

Those deciding where to apply to college have a wide variety of resources available to help them compare institutions.

The U.S. News & World Report may be one of the most popular choices, offering overall rankings, as well as lists tailored to more specific demographics, such as nursing or engineering programs.

Officials with some institutions, including Columbia University, have recently opted to stop sharing data for the U.S. News & World report ranking. In 2022, officials with Yale Law School and more than 10 other law schools pulled out of the rankings, with some saying the ranking did not show the full picture of each institution.

Rankings website Niche also compares colleges, and its 2024 list put Northwestern University on top in Illinois and gave Washington University in St. Louis the No. 1 spot in Missouri. A 2023 Top Public Universities in Illinois ranking by Niche put the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the top spot, with the University of Illinois Chicago as the runner-up.

The Illinois Report Card, which primarily provides information about kindergarten through 12 schools in the Land of Lincoln, reports the percentage of high school graduates enrolling in two- or four-year colleges within 12 months of graduating decreased by 11% from 2016 to 2020, the most recent year for which the data is posted on the Illinois Report Card page.

Enrollment is still declining, according to a May report from Inside Higher Ed, but the slump has slowed from COVID-era drops and may be stabilizing.

Programs focusing on trades and technical fields have proven popular in the metro-east area in recent years, the News-Democrat reported last fall.