Related

• 92 four-year degree-granting institutions with a physical campus in Illinois: 12 public, 74 private nonprofit, 6 for-profit.
• Included: any institution the federal IPEDS directory records as active, degree-granting, at the four-year level, and awarding a bachelor's degree or higher. That covers universities, liberal arts colleges, seminaries, art and music conservatories, health-professions schools, and graduate-only institutions.
• Excluded: community and technical colleges, and any institution whose highest award is an associate degree or a certificate. Two-year institutions are covered on the Ohio page only — see Ohio colleges for the reasoning.
• Excluded: system and administrative offices that hold their own IPEDS identifier but enrol no students.
• This is a directory, not a ranking. No tuition, fee, or aid figure appears on this page. Verify anything here against the institution's own site before you act on it.

Institution	City	Control	Notes
Adler University	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Health professions
Ambria College of Nursing	Hoffman Estates	For-profit	Health professions
American Islamic College	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Not classified
Augustana College	Rock Island	Private nonprofit	Liberal arts college
Aurora University	Aurora	Private nonprofit	Doctoral/professional
Benedictine University	Lisle	Private nonprofit	Master's university
Bexley Hall Seabury Western Theological Seminary Federation, Inc.	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Faith-related
Blackburn College	Carlinville	Private nonprofit	Baccalaureate, diverse fields
Blessing Rieman College of Nursing and Health Sciences	Quincy	Private nonprofit	Health professions
Bradley University	Peoria	Private nonprofit	Doctoral/professional
Catholic Theological Union at Chicago	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Faith-related
Chamberlain University-Illinois	Addison	For-profit	Health professions
Chicago State University	Chicago	Public	Master's university
Chicago Theological Seminary	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Faith-related
Columbia College Chicago	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Master's university
Concordia University-Chicago	River Forest	Private nonprofit	Master's university
DePaul University	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Doctoral, high research
DeVry University-Illinois	Lisle	For-profit	Master's university
Dominican University	River Forest	Private nonprofit	Master's university
East-West University	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Liberal arts college
Eastern Illinois University	Charleston	Public	Master's university
Elmhurst University	Elmhurst	Private nonprofit	Master's university
Erikson Institute	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Master's university
Eureka College	Eureka	Private nonprofit	Baccalaureate, diverse fields
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary	Evanston	Private nonprofit	Faith-related
Governors State University	University Park	Public	Master's university
Greenville University	Greenville	Private nonprofit	Master's university
Hebrew Theological College	Skokie	Private nonprofit	Liberal arts college
Illinois College	Jacksonville	Private nonprofit	Liberal arts college
Illinois College of Optometry	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Health professions
Illinois Institute of Technology	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Doctoral, high research
Illinois State University	Normal	Public	Doctoral, high research
Illinois Wesleyan University	Bloomington	Private nonprofit	Baccalaureate, diverse fields
Institute for Clinical Social Work	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Health professions
Judson University	Elgin	Private nonprofit	Master's university
Knox College	Galesburg	Private nonprofit	Liberal arts college
Lake Forest College	Lake Forest	Private nonprofit	Liberal arts college
Lake Forest Graduate School of Management	Lake Forest	Private nonprofit	Business
Lakeview College of Nursing	Danville	Private nonprofit	Health professions
Lewis University	Romeoville	Private nonprofit	Master's university
Loyola University Chicago	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Doctoral, high research
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Faith-related
McCormick Theological Seminary	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Faith-related
McKendree University	Lebanon	Private nonprofit	Master's university
Meadville Theological School of Lombard College	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Faith-related
Methodist College	Peoria	Private nonprofit	Health professions
Midwest College of Oriental Medicine-Skokie	Skokie	For-profit	Health professions
Midwestern University-Downers Grove	Downers Grove	Private nonprofit	Medical school or centre
Millikin University	Decatur	Private nonprofit	Baccalaureate, diverse fields
Monmouth College	Monmouth	Private nonprofit	Liberal arts college
Moody Bible Institute	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Faith-related
National Louis University	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Doctoral/professional
National University of Health Sciences	Lombard	Private nonprofit	Health professions
North Central College	Naperville	Private nonprofit	Master's university
North Park University	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Master's university
Northeastern Illinois University	Chicago	Public	Master's university
Northern Baptist Theological Seminary	Lisle	Private nonprofit	Faith-related
Northern Illinois University	DeKalb	Public	Doctoral, high research
Northwestern College	Oak Lawn	For-profit	Health professions; CLOSED
Northwestern University	Evanston	Private nonprofit	Doctoral, very high research
Olivet Nazarene University	Bourbonnais	Private nonprofit	Master's university
Pacific College of Health and Science	Chicago	For-profit	Health professions
Principia College	Elsah	Private nonprofit	Liberal arts college
Quincy University	Quincy	Private nonprofit	Baccalaureate, diverse fields
Rockford University	Rockford	Private nonprofit	Master's university
Roosevelt University	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Doctoral/professional
Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science	North Chicago	Private nonprofit	Medical school or centre
Rush University	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Medical school or centre
Saint Anthony College of Nursing	Rockford	Private nonprofit	Health professions
Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing	Peoria	Private nonprofit	Health professions
Saint Xavier University	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Master's university
School of the Art Institute of Chicago	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Arts, music, and design
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville	Edwardsville	Public	Doctoral/professional
Southern Illinois University-Carbondale	Carbondale	Public	Doctoral, high research
Spertus College	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Faith-related
St. Augustine College	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Baccalaureate/associate's
St. John's College-Department of Nursing	Springfield	Private nonprofit	Health professions
Telshe Yeshiva-Chicago	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Not classified
The Chicago School at Chicago	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Health professions
Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Engineering and technology
Trinity Christian College	Palos Heights	Private nonprofit	Baccalaureate, diverse fields; CLOSING
Trinity College of Nursing & Health Sciences	Rock Island	Private nonprofit	Health professions
Trinity International University-Illinois	Deerfield	Private nonprofit	Doctoral/professional; WINDING DOWN
University of Chicago	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Doctoral, very high research
University of Illinois Chicago	Chicago	Public	Doctoral, very high research
University of Illinois Springfield	Springfield	Public	Master's university
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	Champaign	Public	Land-grant; Doctoral, very high research
University of Saint Mary of the Lake	Mundelein	Private nonprofit	Faith-related
University of St Francis	Joliet	Private nonprofit	Doctoral/professional
VanderCook College of Music	Chicago	Private nonprofit	Special focus
Western Illinois University	Macomb	Public	Master's university
Wheaton College	Wheaton	Private nonprofit	Liberal arts college

IPEDS records two multi-campus public systems in Illinois. The seven remaining public universities are each reported without a system affiliation, which reflects their independent governing boards.

University of Illinois Board of Trustees

• University of Illinois Chicago
• University of Illinois Springfield
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Southern Illinois University

• Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
• Southern Illinois University-Carbondale

Reported without a system affiliation

• Chicago State University
• Eastern Illinois University
• Governors State University
• Illinois State University
• Northeastern Illinois University
• Northern Illinois University
• Western Illinois University

Illinois does not participate in the Midwest Student Exchange Program. MSEP is the Midwestern Higher Education Compact's reciprocity scheme, under which a participating public institution may charge a student from another member state no more than 150 per cent of its in-state rate. Eight of the twelve compact states take part — Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, and South Dakota do not, so a student moving into Illinois from a neighbouring state should not expect an MSEP rate here.

Individual institutions may still run their own border-county or neighbouring state arrangements. Those are set campus by campus; check with the school.

• Colleges by state — the other fifty pages.
• Colleges and universities — how the directory is organized and what it deliberately leaves out.
• Ohio colleges — the flagship page, and the only one that covers two-year institutions.

The table above is built from a federal snapshot, and colleges close faster than the snapshot refreshes. These are the institutions on this page whose status has changed since it was collected. Each was verified on 2026-08-11 against the institution's own record and the news reporting cited there. A row carrying a marker in its Notes column is listed here.

• Trinity Christian College (Palos Heights) — announced 4 November 2025 that it closes at the end of the 2025-26 academic year; final commencement 8 May 2026.
• Northwestern College (Oak Lawn, for-profit) — closed abruptly on 6 July 2024 after 122 years, when the Department of Education cut off federal aid pending a compliance review. Not to be confused with Northwestern University, nor with the unaffiliated Northwestern colleges in Iowa and Minnesota.
• Trinity International University (Deerfield/Bannockburn) — residential undergraduate closed 2023 and online undergraduate closed spring 2024. The divinity school is merging into Trinity Western University and ceasing Bannockburn operations. The legal entity survives elsewhere; the Illinois undergraduate campus does not.

• NCES IPEDS, Directory information (HD2024) — the 2024–25 collection, the spine of this table. Institution names, cities, control, level, highest award, land-grant and HBCU/tribal flags, and system affiliation all come from it. Downloaded from nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter; data checked 11 August 2026.
• Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, 2021 Basic — the Notes column, as carried in the IPEDS C21BASIC field. Checked 11 August
• Midwest Student Exchange Program, About MSEP (msep.mhec.org/about) — the reciprocity section, including the member-state list and the 150 per cent and 10 per cent limits. Checked 11 August 2026.
• Wikipedia, List of colleges and universities in Illinois — used only as a cross-check on coverage, never as the source of a name or a city. Title resolved through the MediaWiki API on 11 August 2026; no redirect, not a disambiguation page.

A caution on currency. HD2024 is the 2024–25 collection, so it is roughly two years behind this page. Colleges close, merge, and rename faster than a federal directory records it. Treat any single entry as a lead to verify, not as proof the institution is still operating.