Reboot Illinois
For many students graduating high school in Illinois, four-year colleges and universities are not a viable option for many reasons. But if the end goal for these students is to graduate from a four-year school, going to Illinois community colleges for the first two years makes a lot of sense. It allows the student the opportunity to take two years of college credits while saving money and living close to home, making the realization of eventually graduating with at least a bachelor’s degree from a four-year school a possibility.Unlike with four-year schools, however, services such as U.S. News and World Report don’t rank community colleges, so it is harder to quantify which Illinois community colleges are more successful than others. There is little standardized information about community colleges out there, but CNN Money has partnered with College Measures to rank community colleges across the country based on “success rate.”
College Measures, a joint venture of the American Institutes of Research and Matrix Knowledge Group, took a look at the success rate of community colleges in either graduating students with an associate’s degree within three years or helping students transfer into a four-year university. We picked out the top 25 Illinois community colleges, based on their success rate as factored by College Measures, and ranked them below for you along with links to their homepage.
With high school graduations taking place around the state as summer vacation begins, for students who can’t attend a four-year school in the fall, it’s time to take a look at these Illinois community colleges as viable alternatives.
Rend Lake College
- Located in Ina
- 68 percent success rate
Kaskaskia College
- Located in Centralia
- 61 percent success rate
Sauk Valley Community College
- Located in Dixon
- 60 percent success rate
McHenry County College
- Located in Crystal Lake
- 57 percent success rate
John Wood Community College
- Located in Quincy
- 57 percent success rate
Parkland College
- Located in Champaign
- 55 percent success rate
South Suburban College
- Located in South Holland
- 54 percent success rate
Spoon River College
- Located in Canton
- 54 percent success rate
Oakton Community College
- Located in Des Plaines
- 54 percent success rate
Lake Land College
- Located in Mattoon
- 54 percent success rate
Carl Sandburg College
- Located in Galesburg
- 51 percent success rate
Kishwaukee College
- Located in Malta
- 51 percent success rate
Highland Community College
- Located in Freeport
- 51 percent success rate
Illinois Valley Community College
- Located in Oglesby
- 50 percent success rate
John A Logan College
- Located in Carterville
- 50 percent success rate
Danville Area Community College
- Located in Danville
- 50 percent success rate
Harper College
- Located in Palatine
- 50 percent success rate
Heartland Community College
- Located in Normal
- 49 percent success rate
College of DuPage
- Located in Glen Ellyn
- 49 percent success rate
Prairie State College
- Located in Chicago Heights
- 49 percent success rate
Moraine Valley Community College
- Located in Palos Hills
- 48 percent success rate
Elgin Community College
- Located in Elgin
- 47 percent success rate
Rock Valley College
- Located in Rockford
- 47 percent success rate
Waubonsee Community College
- Located in Sugar Grove
- 47 percent success rate
Richland Community College
- Located in Decatur
- 47 percent success rate
Along with being a great way to kick-start a college career, a degree from a community college can still help students land a good job in the state of Illinois.
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- Illinois state budget built for failure?Brendan Bond is a staff writer at Reboot Illinois. He is a graduate of Loyola University, where he majored in journalism. Brendan takes a look each day at the Land of Lincoln Lowdown and it’s often pretty low. He examines the property tax rates that drive Illinoisans insane. You can findReboot on Facebook and on Twitter @rebootillinois.