Best Community Colleges in Illinois 2026

Badge for BEST IN ILLINOIS COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Updated: Oct 5, 2026

The best community colleges provide an effective springboard into higher education, offering students high-quality two-year degree programs in a wide range of disciplines. The top-rated community colleges in Illinois offer a broad selection of associate’s degrees, affordable tuition rates, and strong partnerships with public four-year schools so that students can easily transfer their credits into accredited bachelor’s degree programs.

10 Best Community Colleges in Illinois in 2026

Moraine Valley Community College
–10
Lewis and Clark Community College
+5
Wilbur Wright College
+5
Malcolm X College
College of DuPage
–2
Kennedy–King College
+21
Joliet Junior College
–2
Harold Washington College
+2
Truman College
+5
Oakton College
–3

Key Takeaways

The best community colleges in Illinois are known for their enduring commitment and track record in academic excellence, student support services, and community engagement. Faculty members are also respected and recognized for their academic influence through research and academic activities.
The community college system in Illinois consists of 49 colleges with more than one million Illinois residents as students in associate degree and bachelor’s degree programs, as well as career education and technical training programs.
The best community colleges in The Prairie State offer affordable in-state tuition for its residents. Out-of-state students generally pay more in tuition and other fees but still benefit from accessible costs of education.

Table of Contents

Colleges and Universities in Illinois

Prospective students searching for colleges in Illinois have plenty of excellent schools to choose from. Illinois offers over 130 higher education institutes throughout the state. Thanks to an expansive public university system and several top private institutions, students can select from an extremely wide array of brick-and-mortar and online colleges in Illinois.

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Illinois at Chicago, the state’s two largest public universities in Illinois. Students can access a full spectrum of undergraduate and graduate degrees for in-state tuition rates of $13,000 to $15,000 respectively. Both public universities also offer a full selection of online degree programs.

It’s also worth noting that Illinois residents who pursue online degrees at public colleges in Illinois will qualify for in-state tuition rates. Out of state students will generally pay more whether pursuing on-campus or online degrees.

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More than half of the colleges in Illinois are actually private schools. Among these private colleges and universities, the most notable are DePaul University, Northwestern University, and Loyola University Chicago. Tuition from these three private schools can be costly, ranging from $44,000 to $55,000. However, each of these private schools boasts a high graduation rate and excellent professors.

Illinois is also home to many small private schools, including Benedictine University and National Louis University.

Popular disciplines in Illinois include disciplines like criminal justice, social work, nursing, education, religious studies, communications, and medicine. Both traditional and online students have a wide range of options in each of these subject areas.

Degree completion programs are also widely available for lapsed students who have already accumulated some college credits. This is an especially popular online degree option among working professionals in Illinois.

Additionally, Illinois offers several loan forgiveness-based financial aid programs for qualifying students pursuing careers as teachers, public defenders or prosecutors, or nurses.

From the skyscrapers in Chicago to the vast prairie lands in the north, Illinois is a place where city meets country. Students can grab a Chicago-style hotdog on the way to a Cubs game, explore the ancient sandstone cliffs in the Shawnee National Forest, or admire an exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago, all while attending one of The Prairie State’s universities or colleges.

The higher education institutes in Illinois have also produced many prominent alumni, including Stephen Colbert, Phillip Glass, and Kurt Vonnegut. Students hoping to walk the same streets as these well-known individuals can check out some of the state’s top programs and universities.

What are Illinois’s Colleges & Universities?

Illinois’s Best Overall

The Inside Facts About Illinois Colleges

The best community colleges in Illinois offer on-campus and online learning programs. Online learners, nonetheless, receive the same quality of education as on-campus learners, as well as access to excellent student support services. Even the on-campus faculty members teach the online courses!

History of Community Colleges in Illinois

Such a track record of excellence in its academic programs is rooted in the strong commitment for higher education in Illinois!

The Illinois Community College Board, which was created by the Illinois General Assembly in 1965, is responsible for the public community college system. The mission: To provide quality yet accessible college education opportunities to every Illinois resident.

Current Status of Illinois Community Colleges

Today, the Illinois College System consists of 48 colleges and the East St. Louis Community College Center, a multi-community college center. The system covers the entire Prairie State and serves 39 community college districts.

Every year, more than one million residents are enrolled in credit and non-credit courses in on-campus and online formats. The Illinois public community college system also offers public service programs that bring higher education even closer to the local communities.

There are two districts with multi-colleges—the City Colleges of Chicago with its seven colleges and the Illinois Eastern Community Colleges with four colleges. The East St. Louis Community College Center has three colleges that offer additional courses.

Other notable community colleges include:

Every community college has its specific rules and regulations, academic programs and organized groups, among other elements. All community colleges in the Illinois Community College System, however, must meet local and statewide standards of education and workforce training.

The community colleges also have a common mission including preparation of people for college education and for gainful employment in highly skilled occupations. These community colleges are also popular for their career training programs, continuing education programs, and adult literacy programs.

The distinct difference of each community college lies in its effective and efficient response to the unique needs in education and workforce development in its community.

Funding for community colleges in Illinois comes from three major sources: state appropriations, student tuition and fees, and local property taxes. Grants for technical-vocational and adult education, among other sources of federal, state and local revenues, are also common.

Wide Range of Educational Programs Offered

Community colleges in Illinois offer about 3,500 associate degree and certificate programs in a wide range of disciplines including but not limited to:

Accounting
Addiction studies
Aerospace engineering
Agriculture engineering
Architecture
Engineering technology

City Colleges of Chicago, among other community colleges in Illinois, also offers career programs in focus areas like Advanced Manufacturing, Construction Technology and Drafting, and Natural Sciences.

All programs offered by the community colleges are approved by the Illinois Community College Board and the Illinois Board of Higher Education. These are approved based on community need, quality, and cost.

Why take advantage of the community college system in Illinois in the first place? For one thing, Illinois has among the United States’ highest gross domestic product, meaning individuals with higher education and skills training will find gainful employment in diverse industries. Advanced manufacturing, automotive, energy, agriculture, and business services are popular industries.

For another thing, the cost of living in Illinois is among the best (i.e., most affordable) in the United States. Illinois is also known for its vibrant culture and communities, thus, making a life in Illinois a joy!

How do we determine Illinois's best community colleges?

Methodology

The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great! If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence in their fields of study.

Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is freer from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.

To rank the influence of schools, we first determine the influence of scholars and professionals based on the number of citations and publications they have had over the past 10 years. In addition to publications and citations, we consider the web links to and from these sources, and the page views of those sources. We then match the influential people to their alma maters and institutions of employment, so that their influence is attributed to those schools. Our machine-learning Influence Ranking algorithm produces a numerical score of academic achievements, merits, and citations across Wikipedia, wikidata, Crossref, Semantic Scholar and an ever-growing body of data. If you are interested in exploring how and why we rank by influence, explore our methodology in more depth.

Choosing a community college in Illinois usually means balancing cost, program quality, transfer pathways, and local workforce connections. Below we present the state’s top community and primarily associate-degree colleges, highlighting institutions that combine strong first‑two‑year curricula with clear transfer articulation, vocational training that aligns with regional labor markets, and accessible student support services. We’ve identified 49 community colleges in Illinois, each evaluated for those practical considerations.

If you need flexibility or can’t attend in person, see our selections for online study on the best online associate degrees in Illinois page. Use the profiles below to compare program offerings, transfer agreements, and cost so you can match a college to your goals—whether transferring to a four‑year school or entering the workforce.