2025 Best Accounting Bachelor's Degree Schools in Illinois
Ranked #8 in popularity,
accounting is one of the most sought-after bachelor's degree programs in the nation. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 30 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Accounting Bachelor's Degree Schools in Illinois ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,749 bachelor's degrees in accounting during the 2022-2023 academic year.
What's on this page: * Our Methodology
Choosing a Great Accounting School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The accounting bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality accounting program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
- Major Focus - How much a school focuses on accounting students vs. other majors.
- Major Demand - How many other accounting students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
- Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
- Student Debt - How easy is it for accounting to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
- Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized accounting related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for accounting students working on their bachelor's degree.
More Ways to Rank Accounting Schools
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Accounting Bachelor's Degree Schools in Illinois list, to help you choose the best school for you.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Accounting in Illinois
The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in accounting.
10 Top Illinois Schools for a Bachelor's in Accounting
It's difficult to beat University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in accounting. UIUC is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Champaign.
Bachelor's recipients from the accounting major at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign make $18,173 more than the average college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
More information about a bachelor’s in accounting from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
DePaul University is a wonderful decision for students interested in a bachelor's degree in accounting. DePaul is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Chicago.
Those accounting students who get their bachelor's degree from DePaul University receive $12,692 more than the average accounting grad.
More information about a bachelor’s in accounting from DePaul University
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in accounting has to look into Loyola University Chicago. Loyola Chicago is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Chicago.
Accounting bachelor's degree recipients from Loyola University Chicago receive an earnings boost of approximately $13,407 over the average income of accounting graduates.
More information about a bachelor’s in accounting from Loyola University Chicago
It's hard to beat Illinois State University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in accounting. Illinois State is a very large public university located in the medium-sized suburb of Normal.
Accounting bachelor's degree recipients from Illinois State University receive an earnings boost of approximately $6,382 over the average earnings of accounting majors.
More information about a bachelor’s in accounting from Illinois State University
Located in the suburb of Dekalb, NIU is a public university with a large student population.
Those accounting students who get their bachelor's degree from Northern Illinois University make $7,185 more than the average accounting student.
More information about a bachelor’s in accounting from Northern Illinois University