2024 Best Criminology Schools in Illinois

Ranked #76 in popularity, criminology is one of the most sought-after degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

College Factual looked at 5 colleges and universities when compiling its 2024 Best Criminology Schools in Illinois ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 243 degrees in criminology during the 2020-2021 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Degree-Level Rankings

• Best Overall Criminology Schools List

Choosing a Great Criminology School

Your choice of criminology school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for criminology schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each level.

You may want to choose one of the degree levels below to find the schools of most interest to you.

Pick Your Criminology Degree Level

When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Criminology Schools in Illinois list to help you make the college decision. You can also filter this list by location to find schools closer to you.

In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.

More information on how we come up with our rankings can be found here: College Factual's Data Methodology.

 

Best Schools for Criminology in Illinois

The schools below may not offer all types of criminology degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer.

Top Illinois Schools in Criminology

1

Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Carbondale, IL

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

1st Most Popular In IL

92 Criminology Degrees Awarded

Southern Illinois University Carbondale is one of the best schools in the country for getting a degree in criminology. Located in the small city of Carbondale, SIUC is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 23rd out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.

There were approximately 92 criminology students who graduated with this degree at SIUC in the most recent data year.

More information about a degree in criminology from Southern Illinois University Carbondale

2

Dominican University
River Forest, IL

Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type

4th Most Popular In IL

It is difficult to beat Dominican University if you want to pursue a degree in criminology. Dominican U is a small private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of River Forest. This university ranks 30th out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.

There were approximately 24 criminology students who graduated with this degree at Dominican U in the most recent data year.

More information about a degree in criminology from Dominican University

3

DePaul University
Chicago, IL

Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type

3rd Most Popular In IL

31 Criminology Degrees Awarded

DePaul University is a good decision for students pursuing a degree in criminology. Located in the large city of Chicago, DePaul is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #203 out of 2,217 colleges nationwide means DePaul is a great university overall.

There were roughly 31 criminology students who graduated with this degree at DePaul in the most recent data year.

More information about a degree in criminology from DePaul University

4

Illinois College
Jacksonville, IL

Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type

6th Most Popular In IL

Any student who is interested in criminology needs to check out Illinois College. Illinois College is a small private not-for-profit college located in the town of Jacksonville. This college ranks 54th out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.

There were about 14 criminology students who graduated with this degree at Illinois College in the most recent data year.

More information about a degree in criminology from Illinois College

5

National Louis University
Chicago, IL

Bachelor's Degree Highest Degree Type

2nd Most Popular In IL

57 Criminology Degrees Awarded

Located in the large city of Chicago, NLU is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population. A Best Colleges rank of #393 out of 2,217 schools nationwide means NLU is a great university overall.

There were approximately 57 criminology students who graduated with this degree at NLU in the most recent data year.

More information about a degree in criminology from National Louis University

Best Criminology Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best Criminology Schools in the Great Lakes Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Ohio	939	425
Michigan	915	150
Indiana	737	275
Wisconsin	672	225

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Criminology

One of 0 majors within the Criminology area of study, Criminology 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).

More about our data sources and methodologies.