2022 Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $30-$48k

When it comes to choosing a college, students have a lot of options - but not all of them are good. At College Factual, we’re committed to helping you make that decision by providing information such as that found in our “Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $30-$48k” ranking.

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.

This year’s “Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $30-$48k” ranking analyzed 3 colleges that offered a degree in general engineering. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have great general engineering programs and cost less that 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. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

More Ways to Rank General Engineering Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $30-$48k” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat. Test it out by comparing your favorite schools against others you are considering, or bookmark the tool so you can experiment with it later.

Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $30-$48k

The colleges and universities below are the best for illinois bachelor’s degree engineering students whose families make $30-$48k.

Top 3 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for General Engineering (Income $30-$48k) in Illinois

#1

Northwestern University

Evanston, Illinois

#1 in overall quality

$3,995 Average Net Price

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Northwestern University. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $30-$48k. 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 not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #1 on our “Best General Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” list. The yearly cost to attend Northwestern University is $3,995 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Engineering students whose families make $30-$48k.

The impressive student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools. With a freshman retention rate of 97%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students. The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 0.8%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read full report on General Engineering at Northwestern University

#2

Western Illinois University

Macomb, Illinois

#3 in overall quality

$14,526 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 $30-$48k. Located in Macomb, Illinois, this medium-sized public school handed out 10 degrees to qualified bachelors’s engineering students in 2019-2020.

WIU not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #3 on our “Best General Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” list. The estimated yearly cost for Western Illinois University is $14,526 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Engineering students whose families make $30-$48k.

Full WIU General Engineering Report

#3

Olivet Nazarene University

Bourbonnais, Illinois

#2 in overall quality

$15,390 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 $30-$48k. This small school is located in Bourbonnais, Illinois, and it awarded 79 bachelors’s engineering degrees in 2019-2020.

Olivet Nazarene also took the #2 spot in our “Best General Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Olivet Nazarene University is $15,390 for illinois bachelor’s degree engineering students whose families make $30-$48k.

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 full report on General Engineering at Olivet Nazarene

• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for General Engineering (Income $30-$48k) in the Great Lakes Region
• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for General Engineering (Income $30-$48k)

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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