2024 Best Information Science Master's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region

Information Science is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #33 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

College Factual looked at 20 colleges and universities when compiling its 2024 Best Information Science Master's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 944 master's degrees in information science during the 2020-2021 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Information Science School for Your Master's Degree

The is master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we consider a college's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a combination of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Earnings

To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on information science students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other information science students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Student Debt - How easy is it for information science to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized information science related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for information science students working on their master's degree.

More Ways to Rank Information Science Schools

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 Information Science Master's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Information Science in the Great Lakes Region

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in information science.

10 Top Great Lakes Region Schools for a Master's in IS

1

Northwestern University
Evanston, IL

40 Annual Graduates

$101,303 Median Starting Salary

It's hard to beat Northwestern University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in information science. Located in the city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.

Master's recipients from the information science major at Northwestern University get $23,452 more than the typical college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.

More information about a master’s in information science from Northwestern University

2

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL

367 Annual Graduates

Every student who is interested in a master's degree in information science has to check out University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. UIUC is a very large public university located in the city of Champaign.More information about a master’s in information science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

3

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI

242 Annual Graduates

$60,266 Median Starting Salary

Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in information science has to take a look at University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. Located in the city of Ann Arbor, U-M is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Students who graduate with their master's from the is program state that they receive average early career earnings of $60,266.

More information about a master’s in information science from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

4

DePaul University
Chicago, IL

76 Annual Graduates

$83,120 Median Starting Salary

It's hard to beat DePaul University if you want to pursue a master's degree in information science. DePaul is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Chicago.

Those information science students who get their master's degree from DePaul University make $5,269 more than the typical is student.

More information about a master’s in information science from DePaul University

5

University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI

UW - Madison is a very large public university located in the large city of Madison.More information about a master’s in information science from University of Wisconsin - Madison

6

University of Chicago
Chicago, IL

5 Annual Graduates

UChicago is a large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Chicago.More information about a master’s in information science from University of Chicago

7

Cleveland State University
Cleveland, OH

40 Annual Graduates

Cleveland State University is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Cleveland.More information about a master’s in information science from Cleveland State University

8

Ohio State University - Main Campus
Columbus, OH

Located in the large city of Columbus, Ohio State is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in information science from Ohio State University - Main Campus

9

University of Toledo
Toledo, OH

University of Toledo is a large public university located in the city of Toledo.More information about a master’s in information science from University of Toledo

10

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Milwaukee, WI

22 Annual Graduates

UWM is a fairly large public university located in the city of Milwaukee.More information about a master’s in information science from University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Best Information Science Colleges by State

Explore the best information science colleges for a specific state in the Great Lakes Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Illinois	221	494
Michigan	211	270
Ohio	207	43
Indiana	191	113
Wisconsin	173	24

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to IS

One of 10 majors within the Computer & Information Sciences area of study, Information Science has other similar majors worth exploring.

IS Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
General Information Science	944

Majors Similar to IS

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Computer Science	2,320
Computer Information Systems	1,867
Information Technology	385
Computer Software & Applications	235
Computer Programming	220
Computer Systems Networking	136
Computer Systems Analysis	128
Other Computer & Information Sciences	3

Notes and References

• 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 The Opte Project. More about our data sources and methodologies.