UIC rises to top 45 public universities in U.S. News ‘Best Colleges’ rankings

The University of Illinois Chicago’s status among the country’s top public national universities continues to grow as the institution rose four spots to tie for 42nd in the 2022-2023 U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges rankings. UIC also landed among the top 100 national universities by jumping six spots to tie for 97th in the publication’s latest rankings.  

UIC’s undergraduate nursing program moved to ninth in the nation, a leap of 10 spots from the previous year’s ranking. Computer science, engineering and business each earned places among the nation’s top 100 undergraduate academic programs. 

The university’s commitment to diversity, to the social mobility of its students, and to providing an affordable education also was recognized in the national rankings.   

UIC is 11th among top performers in social mobility, a category that measures the extent schools enrolled and graduated students who receive federal Pell grants, which are given to students whose total family incomes are less than $50,000 annually. 

For ethnic diversity, which identifies colleges where students are most likely to encounter undergraduates from racial or ethnic groups different than their own, UIC ranked in a tie for 23rd.  

The university tied for 37th in economic diversity, a category that highlights schools with the largest percentage of undergraduates receiving federal Pell grants.  

UIC ranked 45th in least debt, a new category that considers whose students graduated carrying the lightest debt load. 

UIC also tied for 61st among best colleges for veterans, tied for 68th for most innovative schools and placed 86th in A-plus schools for B students.  

“U.S. News & World Report’s rankings are the latest indicator of the impactful teaching and learning environment that is accessible at Chicago’s only public research university,“ UIC Interim Chancellor Javier Reyes said. “UIC continues to be a place where success and achievement are cultivated, and an affordable world-class education is propelling our next generation of leaders, innovators and scholars to reach their goals.” 

To calculate the rankings, U.S. News & World Report focuses on academic quality and places emphasis on outcome measures — including graduation rates, retention rates, graduate indebtedness and social mobility. Outcomes are the most highly weighted ranking factor, contributing 40% to each school’s overall score.