Looks like you don’t have to travel far for two of the best colleges in the United States. The Chicago Area has TWO of them. According to USNews.com, The University of Chicago and Evanston’s Northwestern University rank as the 6th and 9th best U.S. Colleges respectively. The website based their rankings on factors such as average ACT/SAT scores of admitted students, student-faculty ratios and graduation rates.. You can check out the full list here.