It doesn't seem like going to college at any school would have a negative impact on a student. But some schools offer more value to students than others, even when those schools are similar based on traditional rankings standards. The Brookings Institution looked at colleges and universities in Illinois to determine their "value-added" -- how useful it is for a student to attend a particular school over a similar school.
The authors of the report write that they tried to focus on aspects of value-added in relation to the schools, not in relation to a student's background or academic achievement:
Drawing on government and private sources, this report analyzes college "value-added," the difference between actual alumni outcomes (like salaries) and the outcomes one would expect given a student's characteristics and the type of institution. Value-added captures the benefits that accrue from aspects of college quality we can measure, such as graduation rates and the market value of the skills a college teaches, as well as aspects we can't.
This infographic from the Brookings Institution explains the calculations:
One measure that can indicate the value-added of an education at a particular school is an alumnus' mid-career salary compared with that of a similar student with a similar background in a similar job who attended a similar (but not the same) university.
The value added by the school to a graduate's mid-level career salary could come from the relative name recognition of that school, the connections of professors, the location of the school, the availability of internships and many other, possibly unknowable, factors.
Here are five Illinois colleges with some of the best value-added of schools in the state.
15. Illinois State University
14. Illinois Wesleyan University
13. National Louis University
12. Western Illinois University
11. Northern Illinois University
Check out Reboot Illinois to see the state's top 10 colleges with the highest value-added. Plus, see five schools in Illinois whose graduates actually make less at the mid-career mark than their peers who went to similar colleges.
Sign up for our daily email to stay up to date with Illinois politics.
- Betcha didn't know these 30 fun Illinois facts!
- Weird place names in Illinois
- House approves bill to decriminalize marijuana in Illinois
- The top 20 most challenging high schools in Illinois
- Want to tell your elected officials what you think of the state of government in Illinois? Use our Sound Off tool.