Why Illinois?

2024 Rankings have been released and U.S News and World Report rates the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as the 12th Top Public Schools and the 35th Best University in the Nation.  Forbes ranked The University of Illinois as the 9th Best Public University.  

Over the years, thirteen members of the faculty and eleven members of the alumni at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have received the Nobel Prize in Sciences and Economics. Ten of the Pulitzer Prize winners are from the Faculty and Alumni of this University. More than eighty members of the current faculty are on the National Academy of Sciences, and about fifty members of the National Academy of Engineering are on the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The University Library is one of the largest public university collections in the world, housing more than 10,500,000 volumes, over 6,000,000 manuscripts, periodicals, and other non-print materials, and more than 65,000 journals. In addition to the main library, there are more than 37 departmental libraries and divisions throughout campus, including the largest U.S. engineering library, state-of-the-art agricultural library, and the world-renowned Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

The Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, designed by the architect of New York City's Lincoln Center, alumnus Max Abramovitz, hosts more than 350 performances each year. The University also supports two major museums: the Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion ranking second only to the Art Institute of Chicago among Illinois public art museums housing over 9,000 works of art in its permanent collection; and the Spurlock Museum, a museum of world history and culture, which holds in its collections approximately 46,000 artifacts from diverse cultures and varied historical time periods.