Illinois Institute of Technology

Illinois Institute of Technology emerged from the 1940 merger of Armour Institute, founded in 1892 to supply engineers for Chicago's industrial boom, and Lewis Institute, creating a focused STEM powerhouse amid the city's factories and stockyards. You'll find a campus of sleek, boxy buildings designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, embodying 'less is more' in Bronzeville, a historic Black neighborhood south of downtown. Students who thrive here geek out on circuits and blueprints, embracing an urban grind with easy subway rides to internships; those seeking leafy quads or broad liberal arts might feel out of place in this concrete jungle.