2025 Best Information Science Master's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region

Information Science is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #33 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

College Factual looked at 11 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Information Science Master's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,053 master's degrees in information science during the 2021-2022 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Information Science School for Your Master's Degree

The is master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

The overall quality of a master'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 for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a host of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Earnings

To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

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 information science students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other information science students want to attend this school to pursue a master'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 information science to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized information science related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for information science students working on their master's degree.

More Ways to Rank Information Science Schools

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 Information Science Master's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Information Science in the Great Lakes Region

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in information science.

10 Top Great Lakes Region Schools for a Master's in IS

1

Northwestern University
Evanston, IL

50 Annual Graduates

$131,093 Median Starting Salary

It is hard to beat Northwestern University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in information science. Located in the city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.

Master's recipients from the information science degree program at Northwestern University earn $48,129 more than the typical college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.

More information about a master’s in information science from Northwestern University

2

University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI

4 Annual Graduates

It is difficult to beat University of Wisconsin - Madison if you want to pursue a master's degree in information science. UW - Madison is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Madison.More information about a master’s in information science from University of Wisconsin - Madison

3

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI

198 Annual Graduates

$73,887 Median Starting Salary

Any student who is interested in a master's degree in information science needs to look into University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. Located in the city of Ann Arbor, U-M is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Master's students who receive their degree from the is program earn about $73,887 in their early career salary.

More information about a master’s in information science from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

4

DePaul University
Chicago, IL

67 Annual Graduates

$90,950 Median Starting Salary

It is difficult to beat DePaul University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in information science. DePaul is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Chicago.

Master's recipients from the information science degree program at DePaul University earn $7,986 more than the typical graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.

More information about a master’s in information science from DePaul University

5

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL

379 Annual Graduates

$44,923 Median Starting Salary

UIUC is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Champaign.

Master's students who receive their degree from the is program make about $44,923 in their early career salary.

More information about a master’s in information science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

6

Ohio State University - Main Campus
Columbus, OH

19 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Columbus, Ohio State is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in information science from Ohio State University - Main Campus

7

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI

20 Annual Graduates

UWM is a very large public university located in the large city of Milwaukee.More information about a master’s in information science from University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

8

University of Toledo
Toledo, OH

21 Annual Graduates

University of Toledo is a large public university located in the city of Toledo.More information about a master’s in information science from University of Toledo

9

Ball State University
Muncie, IN

50 Annual Graduates

$66,844 Median Starting Salary

Located in the city of Muncie, Ball State is a public university with a very large student population.

Soon after graduation, is master's recipients usually earn an average of $66,844 in their early careers.

More information about a master’s in information science from Ball State University

10

University of Michigan - Dearborn
Dearborn, MI

18 Annual Graduates

$101,914 Median Starting Salary

Located in the midsize city of Dearborn, UM Dearborn is a public university with a medium-sized student population.

Those information science students who get their master's degree from University of Michigan - Dearborn earn $18,950 more than the average is graduate.

More information about a master’s in information science from University of Michigan - Dearborn

Best Information Science Colleges by State

Explore the best information science schools for a specific state in the Great Lakes Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Illinois	221	494
Michigan	211	270
Ohio	207	43
Indiana	191	113
Wisconsin	173	24

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to IS

One of 10 majors within the Computer & Information Sciences area of study, Information Science has other similar majors worth exploring.

IS Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
General Information Science	1,053

Majors Similar to IS

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Computer Science	1,986
Computer Information Systems	1,693
Information Technology	416
Computer Software & Applications	225
Computer Programming	222
Computer Systems Networking	138
Computer Systems Analysis	63
Other Computer & Information Sciences	1

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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to The Opte Project. More about our data sources and methodologies.