2024 Best Value Colleges for General Engineering Technology in Illinois

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. At College Factual, we’re committed to helping you make that decision by providing information such as that found in our “Best Value Engineering Tech Schools in Illinois” ranking.

General Engineering Technology is the 156th most popular major in the country with 4,676 degrees awarded in 2020-2021. In 2019-2020, general engineering technology graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $53,419 and had an average of $23,567 in loans still to pay off.

Across Illinois, there were 155 general engineering technology graduates with average earnings and debt of $51,182 and $22,487 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Engineering Tech Schools in Illinois” ranking, we looked at 5 colleges that offer a degree in general engineering technology. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have great general engineering technology programs and cost less that schools of similar quality.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the general engineering technology program at the school and the cost of the school after aid is awarded among other things. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

More Ways to Rank General Engineering Technology 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 Value Engineering Tech 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 Engineering Tech Schools in Illinois

The colleges and universities below are the best for illinois engineering tech students.

Top 5 Best Value Colleges for General Engineering Technology in Illinois

1

Illinois State University
Normal, Illinois

#1 in overall quality

$20,830 Average Net Price

$44,092 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Illinois State University. It ranked #1 on our 2024 Best Value Engineering Tech Schools in Illinois list. This large school is located in Normal, Illinois, and it awarded 23 ’s engineering tech degrees in 2020-2021.

Illinois State not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #1 on our “Best General Engineering Technology Schools in Illinois” list. The estimated yearly cost for Illinois State is $20,830 for illinois engineering tech students.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 3.6%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Full Illinois State General Engineering Technology Report

2

Northern Illinois University
Dekalb, Illinois

#2 in overall quality

$13,956 Average Net Price

$48,041 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Northern Illinois University. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Engineering Tech Schools in Illinois. NIU is a fairly large public school situated in Dekalb, Illinois. It awarded 82 ’s engineering tech degrees in 2020-2021.

NIU not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #2 on our “Best General Engineering Technology Schools in Illinois” list. It costs about $13,956 for Illinois Engineering Tech students per year to attend NIU.

Full Northern Illinois University General Engineering Technology Report

3

Western Illinois University
Macomb, Illinois

#3 in overall quality

$15,305 Average Net Price

$38,708 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Western Illinois University. It ranked #3 on our 2024 Best Value Engineering Tech Schools in Illinois list. Macomb, Illinois is the setting for this medium-sized institution of higher learning. The public school handed out ’s engineering tech degrees to 20 students in 2020-2021.

WIU also made our “Best General Engineering Technology Schools in Illinois” list, coming in at #3. The yearly cost to attend WIU is $15,305 for Illinois Engineering Tech students.

Full WIU General Engineering Technology Report

4

Eastern Illinois University
Charleston, Illinois

#4 in overall quality

$13,098 Average Net Price

$38,688 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Eastern Illinois University. It ranked #4 on our 2024 Best Value Engineering Tech Schools in Illinois list. EIU is a medium-sized public school situated in Charleston, Illinois. It awarded 6 ’s engineering tech degrees in 2020-2021.

In addition to being on our illinois engineering tech students list, EIU has also earned the #4 rank in our “Best General Engineering Technology Schools in Illinois” ranking. The yearly cost to attend EIU is $13,098 for illinois engineering tech students.

Read more about General Engineering Technology at EIU

5

Morrison Institute of Technology
Morrison, Illinois

#5 in overall quality

$24,260 Average Net Price

$34,739 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Morrison Institute of Technology. It ranked #5 on our 2024 Best Value Engineering Tech Schools in Illinois list. Morrison Institute of Technology is located in Morrison, Illinois and, has a small student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 15 ’s engineering tech degrees to qualified students.

Morrison Institute of Technology did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #5 on our “Best General Engineering Technology Schools in Illinois” list. The estimated yearly cost for Morrison Institute of Technology is $24,260 for illinois engineering tech students.

Since the school has a undergrad student-to-faculty ratio of 10 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors.

Read full report on General Engineering Technology at Morrison Institute of Technology

• Best Value Colleges for General Engineering Technology in the Great Lakes Region
• Best Value Colleges for General Engineering Technology

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 KUKA Systems GmbH.