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2025 Best Industrial Engineering Schools in Illinois

6 Colleges in Illinois
365 IE Degrees Awarded
$76,711 Avg Early-Career Salary
A degree in industrial engineering is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #87 out of 395 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.

In 2025, College Factual analyzed 6 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Industrial Engineering Schools in Illinois ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 365 degrees in industrial engineering to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Degree-Level Rankings

Choosing a Great Industrial Engineering School

Best Industrial Engineering Schools in Illinois The ie program you select can have a big impact on your future. That's why we developed our collection of Best Schools for Industrial Engineering rankings. In order to come up with a best overall ranking for industrial engineering schools, we combine our degree-level rankings, weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each 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.

Industrial Engineering Rankings by Degree Level

Bachelor's Degrees in IE
Master's Degrees in IE
Doctor's Degrees in IE

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 Industrial Engineering Schools in Illinois list to help you make the college decision. If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.

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 when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.

If you want to learn more about how we derive our rankings, see College Factual's Methodology.

Best Schools for Industrial Engineering in Illinois

If you aren't interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the ie degrees they offer, see the list below.

Top Illinois Schools in IE

1
Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type
79 IE Degrees Awarded
$89,811 Median Starting Salary

Every student pursuing a degree in industrial engineering needs to check out Northwestern University. Located in the 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 schools nationwide means Northwestern is a great university overall.

There were roughly 79 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at Northwestern in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the industrial engineering major at Northwestern University make $13,100 more than the average college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.

More information about a degree in industrial engineering from Northwestern University

2
Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type
109 IE Degrees Awarded
$78,313 Median Starting Salary

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in industrial engineering. UIUC is a fairly 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 roughly 109 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at UIUC in the most recent data year. Students who receive their degree from the ie program make about $78,313 for their early career.

More information about a degree in industrial engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

3
Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type
52 IE Degrees Awarded
$57,281 Median Starting Salary

It's hard to beat University of Illinois at Chicago if you want to pursue a degree in industrial engineering. Located in the city of Chicago, UIC is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #254 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UIC is a great university overall.

There were roughly 52 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at UIC in the most recent year we have data available. Students who receive their degree from the ie program make about $57,281 in their early career salary.

More information about a degree in industrial engineering from University of Illinois at Chicago

4

Bradley University is a wonderful choice for students pursuing a degree in industrial engineering. Bradley is a medium-sized private not-for-profit university located in the midsize city of Peoria. This university ranks 19th out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.

There were about 23 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at Bradley in the most recent data year. Soon after graduation, ie degree recipients usually make an average of $68,166 at the beginning of their careers.

More information about a degree in industrial engineering from Bradley University

5
Master's Degree Highest Degree Type
5th Most Popular In IL
57 IE Degrees Awarded

SIUE is a fairly large public university located in the large suburb of Edwardsville. This university ranks 31st out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.

There were about 57 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at SIUE in the most recent data year.

More information about a degree in industrial engineering from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

6
Master's Degree Highest Degree Type
45 IE Degrees Awarded
$72,112 Median Starting Salary

Located in the suburb of Dekalb, NIU is a public university with a large student population. This university ranks 20th out of 85 colleges for overall quality in the state of Illinois.

There were roughly 45 industrial engineering students who graduated with this degree at NIU in the most recent year we have data available. Graduates who receive their degree from the ie program earn around $72,112 in the first couple years of working.

More information about a degree in industrial engineering from Northern Illinois University

Best Industrial Engineering Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

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

State Colleges Degrees Awarded
Michigan 322 579
Ohio 314 256
Indiana 294 382
Wisconsin 273 252

View All Rankings >

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

IE Concentrations

Major Annual Graduates
General Industrial Engineering 365

View All IE Concentrations >

Related Major Annual Graduates
Mechanical Engineering 1,248
Electrical Engineering 815
Civil Engineering 707
Computer Engineering 639
Chemical Engineering 449
General Engineering 435
Biomedical Engineering 409
Materials Engineering 214
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering 196
Agricultural Engineering 142

View All IE Related Majors >

Notes and References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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