Find the best online colleges in Illinois ranked by the academic success of faculty and alumni associated with the colleges and universities and their online degree programs.
Illinois offers over 130 higher education institutes throughout the state. More than half of those schools are private, including the well-known DePaul University, Northwestern University, and Loyola University Chicago. While tuition at these three private schools can be costly, ranging from $44,000 to $55,000, graduation rates are high. Tuition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Illinois at Chicago, the state’s two largest public universities, falls in the range of $13,000 to $15,000.
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While some of these universities have large student populations, Illinois is also home to many small schools, including Benedictine University and National Louis University. Students choosing to study at one at an Illinois college can pursue degrees in areas like criminal justice, social work, nursing, education, religious studies, communications, and medicine. Additionally, Illinois offers several loan forgiveness program 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, Hugh Hefner, 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.
Online education has grown dramatically in quality, credibility, and popularity over the last two decades. Today, more than a quarter of all college students are taking at least one online course. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there are more than 5 million college students who are pursuing their undergraduate degree fully online. And the number of online college and graduate students continues to grow as online technology and instructional methods improve.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, access to remote learning has proven an essential part of the educational ecosystem. Schools that offer primarily online degree programs saw an increase of 7% enrollment just between Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. The number of traditional institutions offering online courses and degrees is growing as well. This all paints a promising picture for the future of online education. But it also produces a dizzying array of options.
Asynchronous learning means classes don’t meet at set times. This is the most flexible online learning experience, making when you cover your course material up to you. Most asynchronous online courses will still have deadlines throughout the semester for various assignments and tests. Some asynchronous classes may still ask for an occasional meeting, such as initial meet-and-greets, and in some cases there may be scheduled test times. The idea of asynchronous learning is to allow the student to manage their schedules as needed.
Synchronous learning means you will have scheduled meeting times for your online classes. Synchronous learning gives online students the flexiblity of location while also giving students a chance to engage with each other and their professors. For many online students, the structured class schedules and ability to see and hear from peers in real-time helps create the learning experience they want.
Back to TopAccreditation is especially important when it comes to online college. This is because the online education landscape is a mix of highly-reputable institutions and less-than-reputable for-profit schools. Accreditation gives you the power to differentiate between the two. Accreditation is a stamp of approval from an independent accrediting agency which indicates that a college or university is meeting standards of quality, credibility, and currency. School-wide accreditation falls into two major categories: regional and national accreditation. Regional accreditors generally hold jurisdiction only over schools in the states comprising their region, whereas national accreditors hold jurisdiction over schools in all states. Regional accreditation is widely regarded as a more rigorous standard of quality and credibility than national accreditation.
Attending a college or university which is not regionally accredited could limit your opportunities. When seeking an online education, we strongly recommend that students opt for regionally accredited schools. Regional accreditation ensures eligibility for federal loans and grants, ensures your college credits can be transferred between schools, and ensures that your degree credits can be accepted if you wish to earn an advanced degree.
Back to TopAs long as your online college degree is regionally accredited, you should have little difficulty transferring most of your credits or credentials to another regionally accredited undergraduate school. Every school carries its own standards and procedures for granting a transfer. In many cases, you will be required to navigate a bureaucracy in which some of your credits will be transferred and others will be jettisoned. However, provided that you have attended an online school with the proper regional accreditation, you should have plenty of options for transfer.
Back to TopIn most cases, as long you graduate from a well-regarded, regionally-accredited online college, prospective employers won’t look sideways at your degree. In fact, unless you attend an exclusively online college or university, there will likely be no specific indicator on your degree, transcript or resume differentiating your school from its brick-and-mortar counterpart. This means that your employer will likely only differentiate between an online and in-person degree if you mention this distinction.
While some employers may express concern about making the adjustment from online education to in-person workplace collaboration, many other employers will view your online degree as evidence of valuable 21st Century professional skills such as independence, self-motivation, time management, and tech savvy.
Back to TopThe advantages of online classes are many. First and foremost, online courses give you the freedom and flexibility to attend class from anywhere that works for you, whether you’re at home, in a coffee shop, or in a quiet conference room at work. In many cases, you’ll also enjoy the convenience of asynchronous learning opportunities—educational experiences that you can complete on your own schedule. This may include pre-taped lectures, ongoing chat-board discussions, and 24/7 access to digital materials. And of course, just as there are some learners who prefer the energy of a live classroom, there are those who learn best when working in their own personal space, free from distractions. If this sounds like you, you might find the solitude of online learning to be a major advantage.
Back to TopPursuing your degree online doesn’t mean you need to settle for an inferior school. Today, most universities and colleges offer online degrees, and many respected schools are seeing significant growth in their numbers of online students.
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great. This is why influence — i.e., the academic impact of faculty and alumni associated with a school — gets at the heart of what is truly best in education. The combined influence score of a college or university’s top academic influencers is the best indicator of academic excellence. For our online degree rankings, we focus on the academic influence of faculty and alumni in the specific disciplines we’re ranking.
If you are serious about finding the best online colleges, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching, and whether their graduates themselves are advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence. Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Influence, as measured by our InfluenceRanking engine, provides a ranking that is free from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
Tuition + fees
$15K
Acceptance
73%
Graduation
63%
Student body
28K
Median SAT/ACT
1145/24
Tuition + fees
$48K
Acceptance
71%
Graduation
76%
Student body
15K
Median SAT/ACT
1225/27
Tuition + fees
$42K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
71%
Student body
19K
Tuition + fees
$31K
Acceptance
77%
Graduation
42%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1120/24
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
67%
Graduation
46%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1050/21
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
56%
Graduation
51%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1035/20
Tuition + fees
$40K
Acceptance
71%
Graduation
53%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1075/23
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
77%
Graduation
55%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1107/22
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
86%
Graduation
53%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1045/22
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
98%
Graduation
62%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1095/20
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
48%
Graduation
24%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
935/19
Tuition + fees
$37K
Acceptance
67%
Graduation
65%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1070/22
Tuition + fees
$35K
Acceptance
75%
Graduation
68%
Student body
1K
Tuition + fees
$34K
Acceptance
51%
Graduation
46%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1050/21
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
44%
Graduation
59%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1075/22
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
97%
Graduation
22%
Student body
6K
Tuition + fees
$35K
Acceptance
66%
Graduation
70%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1105/24
Tuition + fees
$31K
Acceptance
67%
Graduation
50%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1070/22
Tuition + fees
$34K
Acceptance
61%
Graduation
46%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1076/22
Tuition + fees
$35K
Acceptance
79%
Graduation
56%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1050/21
Tuition + fees
$35K
Acceptance
60%
Graduation
60%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1125/23
Tuition + fees
$27K
Acceptance
84%
Graduation
58%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1047/20
Tuition + fees
$15K
Graduation
43%
Student body
<1K
Tuition + fees
$34K
Acceptance
79%
Graduation
51%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1095/23
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
54%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1063/23
Tuition + fees
$30K
Acceptance
59%
Graduation
50%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1065/21
Student body
<1K