by our College Data Analytics TeamIn its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.
Columbia College Chicago was awarded 184 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is photography.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
According to College Factual's 2024 analysis, Columbia is ranked #370 out of 2,217 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality.
Out of the 85 colleges in Illinois, Columbia is ranked at #16.
With an acceptance rate of 96%, Columbia College Chicago is easier to get into than many other schools. But that doesn't mean you can slack off on your application. Make sure to treat this school like any other when submitting requested materials and documents.
The student to faculty ratio at Columbia College Chicago is about average at 14 to 1. This ratio is often used to gauge how many students might be in an average class and how much time professors will have to spend with their students on an individual level. The national average for this metric is 15 to 1.
When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.
The full-time faculty percentage at Columbia College Chicago is 33%. This is lower than the national average of 47%.
The freshmen retention rate is a sign of how many full-time students like a college or university well enough to come back for their sophomore year. At Columbia College Chicago this rate is 62%, which is a bit lower than the national average of 68%.
The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at Columbia for first-time, full-time students is 42%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Columbia College Chicago.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 6,542 undergraduates at Columbia with 6,117 being full-time and 425 being part-time.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $21,344 | $22,304 | $26,626 | $30,369 | $32,511 |
The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Columbia, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.
While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At Columbia, approximately 94% of students took out student loans averaging $7,202 a year. That adds up to $28,808 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at Columbia is 6.1%. Although this is lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, you'll still want to keep this in mind when taking out student loans.
See which majors at Columbia College Chicago make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Columbia College Chicago.
Contact details for Columbia are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 600 South Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60605-1996 |
| Phone: | 312-369-1000 |
| Website: | www.colum.edu/ |
| Facebook: | https://www.facebook.com/columbiacollegechicago |
| Twitter: | https://twitter.com/columbiachi |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Design & Applied Arts | 271 | $29,065 |
| Film, Video & Photographic Arts | 221 | $21,616 |
| Drama & Theater Arts | 148 | $20,854 |
| Graphic Communications | 132 | $22,857 |
| Arts & Media Management | 96 | $26,467 |
| Radio, Television & Digital Communication | 64 | $29,840 |
| Music | 61 | $18,502 |
| Audiovisual Communications | 59 | $23,934 |
| Writing Studies | 50 | $19,356 |
| Marketing | 45 | $36,175 |
Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.
In 2020-2021, 1,297 students took at least one online class at Columbia College Chicago. This is an increase from the 0 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2020-2021 | 1,297 | 14 |
| 2019-2020 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018-2019 | 32 | 32 |
| 2017-2018 | 14 | 14 |
| 2016-2017 | 9 | 9 |
Learn more about online learning at Columbia College Chicago.
If you’re considering Columbia College Chicago, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.
Curious on how these schools stack up against Columbia? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!
Footnotes
*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.