Largest Alumni Bases in Chicago (Champaign, Madison: appointed, public schools, universities)

[MINresident]

What colleges/universities have the largest and most powerful alumni bases in the Chicago area? I've always wondered this. I'm guessing it goes something like:
-University of Illinois-Champaign
-Northwestern University
-Depaul University
-Loyola University
-University of Illinois-Chicago
-University of Chicago

-University of Wisconsin-Madison
-University of Iowa
-University of Michigan
-Notre Dame University
-Indiana University

Any thoughts?

[Craziaskowboi]

Biggest alumni groups in Chicago

- University of Illinois
- Northwestern University
- University of Wisconsin
- University of Michigan
- Ohio State University
- University of Iowa
- Purdue University
- University of Indiana
- Michigan State University
- University of Missouri
- University of Minnesota
- Velvet Jones School of Technology

[marothisu]

Michigan state, Iowa, Illinois,northwestern, uic have so many here ...

[Manigault]

Well, it depends. For business, Northwestern and its alumni rule. For city government and appointments, its Notre Dame. For judges, it used to be that 80% of them were from DePaul, but that has changed in the last 15 years.

Appointed positions in state and federal government? University of Chicago policy wonks all the way.

On the south side, Florida A&M has a surprisingly strong alumni chapter, followed by Howard, Hampton, Fisk and Morehouse.

[ChikidII]

From my experience UIUC, DePaul, Northwestern and Michigan have the large alumni bases. Withe exception of NU, the other three have huge student populations so it makes sense.

[AmosBanks]

Any school that has a dedicated bar for their games has a lot of people here. Penn State can be added to that list.

[edsg25]

which schools have the largest of number of alumni in chicagoland that are made of kids who actually grew up here?

if you looked at that list, the obvious would be the in-state public schools: UIUC, of course, but very much UIC, NIU, ISU, SIU, as well.

as for out-of-state schools, I would imagine that the top of the list would be IU and Iowa....with UW following. for many high schools in suburban Chicago, there really is a "Three I League", that Big Ten trio of Illinois, Iowa, Indiana.

[lenniel]

Purdue has a huge alum base Chicagoland as nearly all Big 10 schools do.

[jman07]

From my experience it is Michigan State. There are just a lot of people from Michigan and there are the most Michigan State Alumni bars out of other big 10 schools. Most kids from MI don't want to move to Detroit, so Chicago is the obvious best option. Really its just all of the big 10 schools with the exception of Penn State.

[FAReastcoast]

Originally Posted by jman07

From my experience it is Michigan State. There are just a lot of people from Michigan and there are the most Michigan State Alumni bars out of other big 10 schools. Most kids from MI don't want to move to Detroit, so Chicago is the obvious best option. Really its just all of the big 10 schools with the exception of Penn State.

I completely agree with this. From my experience in Chicago, MSU seems to have the largest alumni base. With the exception of Ohio State, Penn State, and maybe Michigan, which seem to have alumni gravitate towards NYC and DC, all other Big Ten Alumni seem to end up in Chicago at some point.