Find Schools

Study Area & Zipcode

Find Schools Near

2022 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Chemical Engineering in Illinois

4 Ranked Colleges
290 Degrees Awarded
$19,200 Avg Net Price*
Best Value Chem Eng Schools for a Bachelor's in Illinois

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Chem Eng Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

In 2019-2020, 13,314 people earned their degree in chemical engineering, making the major the 53rd most popular in the United States.

Across Illinois, there were 409 chemical engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 290 chemical engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $38,319 and $24,183 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Chem Eng Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois” ranking looked at 4 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in chemical engineering. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality chemical engineering programs that also have a lower cost than schools of similar quality.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the chemical engineering 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.

One Size Does Not Fit All

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 Chem Eng Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois” list to help you make the college 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 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.

Best Value Chem Eng Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Chem Eng Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois.

Top 4 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Chemical Engineering in Illinois

#2 in overall quality

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 Chem Eng Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a large public school situated in Champaign, Illinois. It awarded 143 bachelors’s chem eng degrees in 2019-2020.

UIUC did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #2 on our “Best Chemical Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” list. The yearly cost to attend UIUC is $15,880 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Chem Eng students.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 94%. The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 2.4%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read full report on Chemical Engineering at UIUC

#4 in overall quality

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Illinois at Chicago. It ranked #2 on our 2022 Best Value Chem Eng Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois list. This large school is located in Chicago, Illinois, and it awarded 63 bachelors’s chem eng degrees in 2019-2020.

UIC not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #4 on our “Best Chemical Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” list. It costs about $13,312 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Chem Eng students per year to attend UIC.

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%.

Full UIC Chemical Engineering Report

#3 in overall quality

Out of the 4 schools in the Best Value Chem Eng Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, Illinois Institute of Technology landed the #3 spot on the list. Illinois Institute of Technology is a medium-sized school located in Chicago, Illinois that handed out 42 bachelors’s chem eng degrees in 2019-2020.

In addition to being on our illinois bachelor’s degree chem eng students list, Illinois Tech has also earned the #3 rank in our “Best Chemical Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. It costs about $22,831 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Chem Eng students per year to attend Illinois Tech.

The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 2.9%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. The impressive student-to-faculty ratio of 10 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 87%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Full Illinois Institute of Technology Chemical Engineering Report

#4

Northwestern University

Evanston, Illinois
#1 in overall quality

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Northwestern University. The school came in at #4 for the Best Value Chem Eng Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois. Northwestern is a large private not-for-profit school situated in Evanston, Illinois. It awarded 42 bachelors’s chem eng degrees in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Northwestern, the school also landed the #1 spot in our “Best Chemical Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. The yearly cost to attend Northwestern University is $24,664 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Chem Eng students.

With a freshman retention rate of 97%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students. The low student loan default rate of 0.8% 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%. Since the school has a student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors.

Full Northwestern Chemical Engineering Report

Switch to a Different Ranking Method

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 Mikulova.

Featured Engineering Schools

Find Schools Near You