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2024 Best Value Area Studies Schools in Illinois

4 Ranked Colleges
148 Degrees Awarded
$21,800 Avg Net Price*
Best Value Area Studies Schools in Illinois

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Best Value Area Studies Schools in Illinois” ranking is part of that endeavor.

In 2020-2021, 6,966 people earned their degree in area studies, making the major the 115th most popular in the United States. In 2019-2020, area studies graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $33,127 and had an average of $20,927 in loans still to pay off.

Across Illinois, there were 148 area studies graduates with average earnings and debt of $32,250 and $19,500 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Area Studies Schools in Illinois” ranking looked at 4 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in area studies. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality area studies 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 area studies program at the school and the cost to attend the school once aid has been awarded. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

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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 Area Studies Schools in Illinois” 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. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don’t forget it.

Best Value Area Studies Schools in Illinois

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Area Studies Schools in Illinois.

Top 4 Best Value Colleges for Area Studies in Illinois

1

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Area Studies Schools in Illinois. This large school is located in Champaign, Illinois, and it awarded 32 ’s area studies degrees in 2020-2021.

UIUC did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #1 on our “Best Area Studies Schools in Illinois” list. It costs about $14,321 for illinois area studies students per year to attend University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 2.3%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 93%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

Read more about Area Studies at UIUC

2

Out of the 4 schools in the Best Value Area Studies Schools in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Illinois at Chicago landed the #2 spot on the list. Located in Chicago, Illinois, this large public school handed out 17 diplomas to qualified ’s area studies students in 2020-2021.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at UIC, the school also landed the #4 spot in our “Best Area Studies Schools in Illinois” ranking. It costs about $13,214 for illinois area studies students per year to attend University of Illinois at Chicago.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 2.5%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Full University of Illinois at Chicago Area Studies Report

3
DePaul crest
DePaul University
Chicago, Illinois

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend DePaul University. The school came in at #3 for the Best Value Area Studies Schools in Illinois. DePaul is a large school located in Chicago, Illinois that handed out 11 ’s area studies degrees in 2020-2021.

DePaul not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #3 on our “Best Area Studies Schools in Illinois” list. It costs about $31,174 for Illinois Area Studies students per year to attend DePaul.

The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 3.7%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Full DePaul University Area Studies Report

4
UChicago crest
University of Chicago
Chicago, Illinois

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Chicago. The school came in at #4 for the Best Value Area Studies Schools in Illinois. University of Chicago is a fairly large private not-for-profit school situated in Chicago, Illinois. It awarded 45 ’s area studies degrees in 2020-2021.

UChicago not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #2 on our “Best Area Studies Schools in Illinois” list. It costs about $28,517 for Illinois Area Studies students per year to attend University of Chicago.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 1.0%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 99%. The impressive undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 5 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools.

Full UChicago Area Studies Report

Notes and References

References

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

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