2025 Best Special Education Schools in the Great Lakes Region
73Colleges in the Great Lakes Region
6,161Special Ed Degrees Awarded
$52,862Avg Early-Career Salary
Special Education is of the hottest degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #29 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 73 schools in the Great Lakes Region to determine which ones were the best for special education students pursuing a degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 6,161 degrees in special education annually.
The special ed program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Special Education rankings. For our Best Overall Special Education School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Special Education Schools in the Great Lakes Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
More interested in schools in a specific area of the country? Filter this list by region or state.
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 Special Education in the Great Lakes Region
The schools below may not offer all types of special ed degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Illinois State University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in special education. Illinois State is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized suburb of Normal. This university ranks 8th out of 85 schools for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were roughly 193 special education students who graduated with this degree at Illinois State in the most recent year we have data available. Soon after graduation, special ed degree recipients generally earn around $48,358 in the first five years of their career.
It is hard to beat Ball State University if you want to pursue a degree in special education. Located in the small city of Muncie, Ball State is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #181 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Ball State is a great university overall.
There were about 1841 special education students who graduated with this degree at Ball State in the most recent year we have data available. Degree recipients from the special education program at Ball State University earn $4,704 above the average college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
It is difficult to beat Indiana University - Bloomington if you want to pursue a degree in special education. Located in the city of Bloomington, IU Bloomington is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #30 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means IU Bloomington is a great university overall.
There were about 35 special education students who graduated with this degree at IU Bloomington in the most recent year we have data available. Students who graduate with their degree from the special ed program report average early career earnings of $51,306.
It's difficult to beat Bowling Green State University - Main Campus if you want to pursue a degree in special education. Located in the fringe town of Bowling Green, BGSU is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 18th out of 91 schools for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were about 246 special education students who graduated with this degree at BGSU in the most recent data year. Graduates who receive their degree from the special ed program make an average of $38,671 in the first couple years of their career.
Located in the large suburb of Kent, Kent State is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 9th out of 91 colleges for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were approximately 89 special education students who graduated with this degree at Kent State in the most recent data year. After graduation, special ed degree recipients usually earn an average of $41,493 in their early careers.
Located in the medium-sized city of Dayton, UDayton is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 8th out of 91 schools for overall quality in the state of Ohio.
There were approximately 33 special education students who graduated with this degree at UDayton in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the special ed program state that they receive average early career wages of $45,260.
Located in the suburb of River Forest, Concordia University, Chicago is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population. A Best Colleges rank of #125 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Concordia University, Chicago is a great university overall.
There were roughly 37 special education students who graduated with this degree at Concordia University, Chicago in the most recent data year. Special Education degree recipients from Concordia University, Chicago get an earnings boost of about $11,811 over the typical earnings of special education majors.
Located in the city of Cincinnati, UC is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #137 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UC is a great university overall.
There were about 151 special education students who graduated with this degree at UC in the most recent data year. Soon after graduating, special ed degree recipients generally make an average of $46,666 in their early careers.
Located in the small city of West Lafayette, Purdue is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #65 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Purdue is a great university overall.
There were about 39 special education students who graduated with this degree at Purdue in the most recent year we have data available. Soon after graduation, special ed degree recipients usually make about $48,773 at the beginning of their careers.
WMU is a fairly large public university located in the city of Kalamazoo. This university ranks 4th out of 56 colleges for overall quality in the state of Michigan.
There were about 75 special education students who graduated with this degree at WMU in the most recent year we have data available. Students who graduate with their degree from the special ed program report average early career wages of $53,897.
Located in the large suburb of Ypsilanti, Eastern Michigan is a public university with a large student population. This university ranks 15th out of 56 colleges for overall quality in the state of Michigan.
There were approximately 79 special education students who graduated with this degree at Eastern Michigan in the most recent data year. Students who graduate with their degree from the special ed program report average early career wages of $51,551.
Michigan State is a fairly large public university located in the city of East Lansing. A Best Colleges rank of #54 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Michigan State is a great university overall.
There were approximately 63 special education students who graduated with this degree at Michigan State in the most recent data year. Special Education degree recipients from Michigan State University receive an earnings boost of about $4,446 above the average earnings of special education graduates.
Loyola Chicago is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Chicago. A Best Colleges rank of #100 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Loyola Chicago is a great university overall.
There were approximately 15 special education students who graduated with this degree at Loyola Chicago in the most recent data year.
UIUC is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Champaign. A Best Colleges rank of #41 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UIUC is a great university overall.
There were approximately 36 special education students who graduated with this degree at UIUC in the most recent year we have data available. Those special education students who get their degree from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign earn $2,994 more than the average special ed student.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Special Education Schools in the Great Lakes Region award.
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).
The special ed program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Special Education rankings. For our Best Overall Special Education School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
