2025 Best Chemical Engineering Master's Degree Schools in Illinois

If you plan on getting your master's degree in chemical engineering, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #85 in the country in terms of popularity. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in Illinois to determine which ones were the best for chemical engineering students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 61 master's degrees in chemical engineering during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

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

In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to chemical engineering students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other chemical engineering students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
• Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
• Student Debt - How easy is it for chemical engineering 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 chemical engineering related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for chemical engineering students working on their master's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Chemical Engineering Master's Degree Schools in Illinois ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Chemical Engineering in Illinois

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in chemical engineering.

Top Illinois Schools for a Master's in Chem Eng

1

Northwestern University
Evanston, IL

22 Annual Graduates

Northwestern University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in chemical engineering. Northwestern is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Evanston.More information about a master’s in chemical engineering from Northwestern University

2

Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, IL

18 Annual Graduates

Every student who is interested in a master's degree in chemical engineering needs to look into Illinois Institute of Technology. Located in the large city of Chicago, Illinois Tech is a private not-for-profit school with a moderately-sized student population.More information about a master’s in chemical engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology

Best Chemical Engineering Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best Chemical Engineering Colleges in the Great Lakes Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Michigan	211	59
Ohio	207	93
Indiana	191	62
Wisconsin	173	3

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Chemical Engineering Related Rankings by Major

One of 41 majors within the Engineering area of study, Chemical Engineering has other similar majors worth exploring.

Chem Eng Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Chemical Engineering	52
Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering	9

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Civil Engineering	331
Electrical Engineering	302
Mechanical Engineering	239
Industrial Engineering	150
Computer Engineering	127
Other Engineering	127
Biomedical Engineering	122
Materials Engineering	93
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering	65
Construction Engineering	53

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 Mikulova. More about our data sources and methodologies.