2025 Best Chemical Engineering Schools in Illinois
4Colleges in Illinois
449Chem Eng Degrees Awarded
$73,817Avg Early-Career Salary
If you plan on majoring in chemical engineering, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #70 in the country in terms of popularity. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
College Factual reviewed 4 schools in Illinois to determine which ones were the best for degree seekers in the field of chemical engineering. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 449 degrees in chemical engineering annually.
The chem eng program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Chemical Engineering rankings. For our Best Overall Chemical Engineering 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.
The chem eng school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Chemical Engineering Schools in Illinois.
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.
The schools below may not offer all types of chem eng degrees so you may want to filter by degree level first. However, they are great for the degree levels they do offer.
Northwestern University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in chemical engineering. Located in the small city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #5 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Northwestern is a great university overall.
There were roughly 60 chemical engineering students who graduated with this degree at Northwestern in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the chemical engineering degree program at Northwestern University get $6,892 above the average college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
It's difficult to beat University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign if you want to pursue a degree in chemical engineering. UIUC is a very large public university located in the small city of Champaign. A Best Colleges rank of #41 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means UIUC is a great university overall.
There were approximately 189 chemical engineering students who graduated with this degree at UIUC in the most recent year we have data available. Those chemical engineering students who get their degree from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign make $3,623 more than the typical chem eng graduate.
University of Illinois at Chicago is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in chemical engineering. Located in the large city of Chicago, UIC is a public university with a very large student population. This university ranks 10th out of 85 schools for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were approximately 93 chemical engineering students who graduated with this degree at UIC in the most recent data year. After graduation, chem eng degree recipients usually make around $58,377 at the beginning of their careers.
Every student pursuing a degree in chemical engineering needs to check out Illinois Institute of Technology. Illinois Tech is a medium-sized private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Chicago. This school ranks 23rd out of 85 schools for overall quality in the state of Illinois.
There were roughly 46 chemical engineering students who graduated with this degree at Illinois Tech in the most recent year we have data available. Soon after graduating, chem eng degree recipients generally make about $64,526 in their early careers.
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.
The chem eng program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Chemical Engineering rankings. For our Best Overall Chemical Engineering School rankings, we roll up the results of our degree-level rankings, weighted by the number of degrees awarded at that level.
