Rankings
University and College Rankings
U.S.News & World Report
In its 2008 rankings, U.S.News & World Report's America's Best Colleges rated Illinois as the number 8 public university and the number 38 national university.
According to the 2009 and 2008 U.S.News & World Report's graduate and undergraduate rankings: (If noted otherwise, it is the most recent information available.)
- The Graduate School of Library and Information Science's program is tied for 1st in the nation. (2007)
- The College of Engineering is ranked 5th (tie) in undergraduate and 5th in graduate programs nationally.
- The College of Business is ranked 12th in undergraduate nationally.
- The College of Education is ranked 25th in graduate programs nationally.
- The Master of Fine Arts is ranked 21st (tie) in graduate programs nationally.
- The Ph.D. Computer Science program is ranked 5th (tie) nationally.
- The Ph.D. Mathematics program is ranked 18th (tie) nationally.
- The Ph.D. Physics program is ranked 8th (tie) nationally.
- The Ph.D. Chemistry program is ranked 7th (tie) nationally. (2008)
2008 U.S.News America's Best Colleges - Undergraduate Rankings for Colleges and Departments (html)
2009 U.S.News Best Graduate Schools - Graduate Rankings for Colleges and Departments (html)
U.S.News Historical Rankings
U.S.News overall rankings - print version
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NAFSA
NAFSA: Association of International Educators listed the University of Illinois as one of five recipients of the 2008 Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization. The award recognizes outstanding and innovative efforts in campus internationalization.
Open Doors
Open Doors ranks Illinois fifth (fourth among publics) in the nations "top 20 Doctoral/Research Institution" for total number of study abroad students and fourth (first among publics) in international students.
Tops in International Education
Illinois is the only U.S. institution of higher education ranking in the top ten in the three key metrics of international education: international student enrollment, total number of study abroad students, and the number of federally-funded Title VI National Resource Centers for international and area studies. (source published 1/24/2007)
Princeton Review
The Princeton Review named Illinois as one of the nation's best value undergraduate institutions in the new 2008 edition of its publication, America's Best Value Colleges.
More High Rankings From National and International Institutions
In 2007, the Institute for Higher Education at Shanghai Jia Tong University ranked Illinois as the 26th best university in the world and the 19th best university in America.
The 2008 Washington Monthly College National Rankings lists Illinois as 11th in the nation.
Entrepreneur magazine (2007) ranks Illinois 16th in top undergraduate entrepreneurial programs and 21st in top graduate entrepreneurial programs.
The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) ranks the University of Illinois as 25th in the World (2006); 3rd World rank in Engineering/Technology and Computer Sciences (2007); 19th World rank in Life and Agriculture Sciences (2007); 20th World rank in Natural Sciences and Mathematics (2007)
PC Magazine (Dec 2006) ranks Illinois 6th "Most Connected, Plugged-in, and High-Tech Campus in the Country."
The 29th edition of the closely watched TOP 500 list (www.top500.org/lists/2007/06) of the world’s fastest supercomputers rank NCSA's two newest cluster computing systems eighth and 47th, released during ISC' 2007 in Dresden, Germany.
The Harvard Graduate School of Education cited (2007) the University of Illinois as an Exemplary institution for faculty satisfaction in the following categories: Nature of work (research), Policy effectiveness, Work and family, and Global satisfaction.
Design Intelligence (Dec 2006) magazine's "America's Best Architecture and Design Schools 2006" ranked Illinois' Undergraduate and Graduate Industrial Design programs #8 and Graduate Architecture programs #10 in the nation.
Illinois ranks 17th in the Peace Corp's 2007 Top Universities and Colleges (large university category)
Diverse Magazine
Diverse magazine ranked Illinois in its 2006 Top 100 Doctoral Degree Producers:
- 19th in total minority Doctoral degrees and 13th in Hispanic Doctoral degrees in all disciplines,
- 7th in Physical Science
- 12th in Engineering
Diverse magazine ranked Illinois in its 2007 Top 100 Baccalaureate Degree Producers:
- 31st in total minority Baccalaureate degrees in all disciplines,
- 1st in African American English Language and Literature
- 5th in total minority English Language and Literature
- 7th in total minority Agricultural
- 10th in total minority Physical Sciences
- 12th in total minority Engineering
- 13th in total minority Mathematics
- 16th in total minority Biological and Biomedical Science
Total number of Ph.Ds
Of the 416 institutions in the U.S. and Puerto Rico who award Ph.Ds, Illinois ranked eighth in the total number of Ph.Ds awarded in 2006 (Inside Higher Ed).
Disability-friendly
New Mobility magazine ranks Illinois first among "disability-friendly colleges " in America.
One of the Largest Libraries in the Nation
The University Library is one of the largest public university libraries in the nation, with more than 24 million items in the main library and over 35 departmental libraries and divisions. More than one million patrons from around the world access the online catalog each week. The Rare Book and Manuscript Library has among its collections:
- The earliest specimen of printing in the world
- The oldest book printed in moveable type
- The original script of War of the Worlds
- The first folio of Shakespeare, 1623
- One of only three surviving copies of the first edition of Moore’s A Visit from St. Nicholas
Grainger Engineering Library Information Center is the largest engineering library in the country and one of the world's most technologically advanced information management and retrieval centers.
The Music Library is one of the largest collections of its kind at a public university, and is currently ranked among the top ten music libraries in the United States. The collections contain more than 520,000 scores and 150,000 sound recordings.
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