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.
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.
We’ve identified 49 community colleges in Illinois. The following list shows the best community colleges and primarily associate degree granting colleges in Illinois.
If you’re interested in an online associate degree, visit our best online associate degrees in Illinois page.
Tuition + fees
$10K
Graduation
22%
Student body
15K
College of DuPage’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Graduation
23%
Student body
5K
Malcolm X College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
18%
Student body
9K
Joliet Junior College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Graduation
31%
Student body
5K
Parkland College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Graduation
28%
Student body
6K
Oakton Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Graduation
25%
Student body
7K
Wilbur Wright College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Graduation
35%
Student body
9K
Harper College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Graduation
21%
Student body
5K
Harold Washington College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Graduation
22%
Student body
6K
Triton College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Graduation
42%
Student body
7K
Elgin Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Graduation
29%
Student body
9K
Moraine Valley Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Graduation
28%
Student body
5K
Truman College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$17K
Graduation
61%
Student body
<1K
Coyne College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Graduation
42%
Student body
3K
Heartland Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Graduation
24%
Student body
2K
Olive–Harvey College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Graduation
17%
Student body
3K
Prairie State College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Graduation
32%
Student body
9K
College of Lake County’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$6K
Graduation
28%
Student body
6K
Southwestern Illinois College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Graduation
51%
Student body
3K
Lewis and Clark Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Graduation
34%
Student body
6K
Waubonsee Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Graduation
32%
Student body
4K
McHenry County College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Graduation
38%
Student body
4K
Lincoln Land Community College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Graduation
18%
Student body
3K
South Suburban College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Graduation
39%
Student body
5K
Illinois Central College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Graduation
28%
Student body
2K
Kennedy–King College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Many of our 2022 undergraduate focused rankings look considerably different than 2021. That’s because we took a fundamentally different apporach. For 2021 we utiulized our Concentrated Influence algorithm, designed to take away the size advantage larger schools have when we rank their faculty and alumni’s academic influence. Concentrated influence highlights smaller schools that are proportionally as successful as larger universities at cultivating influential alumni and faculty.
