If you pursue a degree in general education, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #31 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
College Factual looked at 3 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best General Education Schools in Illinois ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 600 degrees in general education annually.
Your choice of general education school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall General Education School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best General Education Schools in Illinois list, to help you choose the best school for you.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
The schools below may not offer all types of general education degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer.
It is difficult to beat University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign if you wish to pursue a degree in general education. UIUC is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Champaign. A Best Colleges rank of #41 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UIUC is a great university overall.
There were approximately 282 general education students who graduated with this degree at UIUC in the most recent data year.
Greenville University is a wonderful option for students pursuing a degree in general education. Located in the distant town of Greenville, Greenville is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population. This university ranks 65th out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were about 42 general education students who graduated with this degree at Greenville in the most recent data year.
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Western Illinois University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a degree in general education. Located in the town of Macomb, WIU is a public university with a medium-sized student population. This university ranks 37th out of 85 schools for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were roughly 16 general education students who graduated with this degree at WIU in the most recent year we have data available.
One of 0 majors within the General Education area of study, General Education has other similar majors worth exploring.
Notes and References
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
Your choice of general education school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall General Education School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
