2022 Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $0-$30k

It’s not easy to decide which college to attend when there so many options available for students. Our mission at College Factual is to arm you with as much information as we can to help you make that decision. Our “Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking is one tool we have developed to help in this regard.

General Engineering is the 78th most popular major in the country with 11,925 degrees awarded in 2019-2020. In 2017-2018, general engineering graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $66,152 and had an average of $20,077 in loans still to pay off.

Across Illinois, there were 444 general engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $64,650 and $24,821 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 96 general engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $38,319 and $24,183 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking, we looked at 3 colleges that offer a degree in general engineering. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality general engineering programs that also have a lower cost than schools of similar quality.

When determining these rankings, we looked at things such as overall quality of the general engineering program at the school and the cost to attend the school once aid has been awarded. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

One Size Does Not Fit All

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 Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $0-$30k” list to help you make the college decision.

We’ve created a tool called College Combat that lets you create your own customized comparisons based on the factors that matter the most to you. If you’re torn between two schools, you can use it to help you see how they stack up against one another. Bookmark it so you can compare any new schools that might interest you.

Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $0-$30k

The colleges and universities below are the best for illinois bachelor’s degree engineering students whose families make $0-$30k.

Top 3 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for General Engineering (Income $0-$30k) in Illinois

#1

Northwestern University

Evanston, Illinois

#1 in overall quality

$1,866 Average Net Price

Out of the 3 schools in the Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $0-$30k that were part of this year’s ranking, Northwestern University landed the #1 spot on the list. Evanston, Illinois is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out bachelors’s engineering degrees to 5 students in 2019-2020.

Northwestern also took the #1 spot in our “Best General Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. It costs about $1,866 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Engineering students whose families make $0-$30k per year to attend Northwestern University.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 97%. The student loan default rate at the school is 0.8%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. The student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one.

Read more about General Engineering at Northwestern

#2

Western Illinois University

Macomb, Illinois

#3 in overall quality

$13,942 Average Net Price

$58,221 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Western Illinois University. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $0-$30k. This medium-sized school is located in Macomb, Illinois, and it awarded 10 bachelors’s engineering degrees in 2019-2020.

WIU also took the #3 spot in our “Best General Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Western Illinois University is $13,942 for illinois bachelor’s degree engineering students whose families make $0-$30k.

Full Western Illinois University General Engineering Report

#3

Olivet Nazarene University

Bourbonnais, Illinois

#2 in overall quality

$15,806 Average Net Price

$61,020 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Olivet Nazarene University. The school came in at #3 for the Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $0-$30k. Bourbonnais, Illinois is the setting for this small institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out bachelors’s engineering degrees to 79 students in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Olivet Nazarene, the school also landed the #2 spot in our “Best General Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Olivet Nazarene University is $15,806 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Engineering students whose families make $0-$30k.

The low student loan default rate of 3.4% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.

Read more about General Engineering at Olivet Nazarene University

• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for General Engineering (Income $0-$30k) in the Great Lakes Region
• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for General Engineering (Income $0-$30k)

Notes and References

References

• 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 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).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Average salary, average net price, and average tuition and fees are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to Rémi Kaupp.

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