Overview

• Forbes evaluated 500 institutions exclusively on undergraduate outcomes, including student debt, return on investment and graduate earnings.
• Eighteen Illinois colleges made the list, led by the University of Chicago at No. 13, Northwestern at No. 16 and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign at No. 38.
• Year-over-year shifts included UChicago moving up from 14th, Northwestern sliding from 11th to 16th and UIUC rising two spots.
• Forbes cautioned that recent Trump administration moves on research funding, endowment taxes, student loans and visas are pressuring higher education finances.
• About two dozen private universities were labeled especially vulnerable to those policies, including Northwestern, the University of Chicago and the Illinois Institute of Technology.