The Chicago area has a pretty stellar roster of colleges. A new analysis from the Center for World University Rankings put six local universities among the top 500 in the world. University of Chicago came in eighth, with Northwestern University ranking at 22. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ranked quite high for a state school, at 33. University of Illinois at Chicago, Loyola University Chicago and Illinois Institute of Technology also made the top 500.
The study's methodology looked into eight factors, including quality of education, alumni employment, quality of faculty and influence. Unsurprisingly, Harvard University topped the list, with Stanford University and MIT coming in at second and third respectively.
U of C is notorious for its academic rigor but has also graduated some of the world's greatest thinkers over the past century. Pulitzer Prize winning writer Studs Terkel graduated from the Hyde Park school. Kurt Vonnegut attended for a stint but didn't graduate—he turned out just fine. And let's not forget J. Patrick Doyle, the CEO of Domino's Pizza who received his MBA from U of C.
Boston gets a lot of praise for being a hub of world-class universities, but Chicago is a close rival. The Boston area also has six universities ranked in the world's top 500. Chicago might not have a Harvard or an MIT, but it is still an amazing place to go to college.