Prairie State Wire

Northwestern University, the University of Chicago and Loyola University Chicago have the largest endowments of all the universities and colleges in Illinois, according to a new ranking from the website College Raptor. 

The analysis makes the point that the amount of money and assets a college has on hand to fund its operations is a key measurement of the school’s financial health. Those with larger endowments have less dependence on tuition payments and a greater ability to provide financial aid to students, the report says.

In Illinois, Northwestern had the largest endowment at nearly $8.4 billion, an amount that grew 5.5 percent over the past year.

The University of Chicago has more than $7 billion in its endowment fund, which increased by 5.9 percent over its 2020 amount, according to the study. And Loyola University Chicago came in third on the list with an endowment of more than $640 million. The latter fund grew in value over the past year by 7.9 percent.

Among the 50 colleges with the biggest endowments in Illinois, only nine of them reported drops in endowment values over the past year, the study says. 

College Raptor’s college rankings are based on multiple public data sources that compare public and private institutions of higher learning. 

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Illinois Universities With the Biggest Endowments

Rank	University / College	Endowment Total	% Change in Endowment Over 2020
1	Northwestern University	$8,386,918,000	5.5%
2	University of Chicago	$7,009,011,789	5.9%
3	Loyola University Chicago	$640,303,000	7.9%
4	Rush University	$627,321,000	6.6%
5	DePaul University	$593,407,000	20.5%
6	Wheaton College	$489,131,245	9.6%
7	Principia College	$402,836,412	6.7%
8	Bradley University	$304,403,917	3.9%
9	Illinois Institute of Technology	$248,557,000	2.8%
10	Illinois Wesleyan University	$233,815,113	-0.8%
11	School of the Art Institute of Chicago	$224,396,000	5.7%
12	Columbia College Chicago	$196,912,601	13.8%
13	Augustana College	$168,133,807	5.4%
14	Knox College	$160,083,659	11.8%
15	Illinois College	$137,753,933	0.2%
16	Roosevelt University	$126,038,449	11.5%
17	Monmouth College	$118,155,199	7.7%
18	North Central College	$116,939,127	6.3%
19	Elmhurst College	$109,076,598	7.5%
20	Millikin University	$108,326,705	-0.1%
21	Lake Forest College	$90,640,225	3.2%
22	North Park University	$76,873,615	2.7%
23	Lewis University	$74,417,368	8.8%
24	Trinity International University-Illinois	$43,772,787	-1.1%
25	McKendree University	$43,335,652	4.0%
26	Aurora University	$41,198,522	-4.4%
27	Moody Bible Institute	$40,246,860	2.4%
28	Olivet Nazarene University	$37,517,176	13.1%
29	National Louis University	$36,458,085	-0.3%
30	Benedictine University	$36,442,132	N/A
31	Dominican University	$35,577,238	7.7%
32	Concordia University-Chicago	$23,697,259	4.6%
33	Rockford University	$23,597,283	4.2%
34	Blackburn College	$23,369,258	5.9%
35	Eureka College	$22,683,523	11.7%
36	Greenville University	$20,196,340	4.1%
37	University of St Francis	$19,785,918	6.7%
38	Robert Morris University Illinois	$18,445,519	2.8%
39	MacMurray College	$15,953,169	2.9%
40	Lakeview College of Nursing	$14,894,184	11.6%
41	Saint Xavier University	$13,650,425	16.6%
42	Quincy University	$13,560,718	-1.9%
43	Trinity Christian College	$11,418,730	6..2%
44	Judson University	$8,395,484	-0.3%
45	Saint Anthony College of Nursing	$5,710,777	6.6%
46	Lincoln Christian University	$5,336,831	2.1%
47	Trinity College of Nursing & Health Sciences	$2,650,052	-20.3%
48	Methodist College	$2,180,499	29.5%
49	St. John's College Department of Nursing	$2,040,997	8.9%
50	Lincoln College	$1,969,345	-90.4%

Source: Collegeraptor.com