2025 Best Documentary Production Schools in Illinois

Documentary Production degree programs are on the lower end of the spectrum in terms of popularity. In fact, the major ranks #1106 out of the 1506 majors we look at each year. While this may limit the number of schools that offer the degree program, there are still top-quality ones to be found.

College Factual looked at 2 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Documentary Production Schools in Illinois ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 12 degrees in documentary production annually.

What's on this page: * Degree-Level Rankings

• Best Overall Documentary Production Schools List

Documentary Production Rankings by Degree Level

The documentary production school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Documentary Production Schools in Illinois. More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state.

To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you. Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.

Read more about College Factual's methodology.

Best Schools for Documentary Production in Illinois

Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the documentary production degree levels they offer.

Top Illinois Schools in Documentary Production

1

Columbia College Chicago
Chicago, IL

Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type

It's difficult to beat Columbia College Chicago if you wish to pursue a degree in documentary production. Columbia is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit college located in the large city of Chicago.More information about a degree in documentary production from Columbia College Chicago

2

Northwestern University
Evanston, IL

Master's Degree Highest Degree Type

It's difficult to beat Northwestern University if you wish to pursue a degree in documentary production. Located in the small city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.More information about a degree in documentary production from Northwestern University

Best Documentary Production Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best Documentary Production Colleges in the Great Lakes Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Michigan	915	4

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Documentary Production

One of 4 majors within the Film, Video & Photographic Arts area of study, Documentary Production has other similar majors worth exploring.

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Film & Video Production	341
Photography	81
Film/Cinema/Media Studies	45

View All Documentary Production Related Majors >

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).

More about our data sources and methodologies.