2023 Best Value Civil Engineering Schools in the Great Lakes Region

It’s not easy to decide which college to attend when there so many options available for students. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Best Value Civil Engineering Schools in the Great Lakes Region” ranking - to help you make that decision.

Civil Engineering is the 908th most popular major in the country with 131 degrees awarded in 2020-2021.

Across the Great Lakes region, there were 12 civil engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Civil Engineering Schools in the Great Lakes Region” ranking analyzed 2 colleges that offered a degree in civil engineering. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality civil engineering programs that also have a lower cost than schools of similar quality.

To come up with these rankings, we looked at factors such as the cost to attend the school after aid is awarded and overall quality of the civil engineering program at the school. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

One Size Does Not Fit All

The civil engineering school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we’ve developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of “Best Value Civil Engineering Schools in the Great Lakes Region”.

You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our tool, College Combat. If you’re torn between two schools, you can use it to help you see how they stack up against one another. Bookmark it so you can compare any new schools that might interest you.

Best Value Civil Engineering Schools in the Great Lakes Region

The colleges and universities below are the best for great lakes region civil engineering students.

Top 2 Best Value Colleges for Civil Engineering in the Great Lakes Region

1

Illinois Institute of Technology
Chicago, Illinois

#2 in overall quality

$23,772 Average Net Price

$68,021 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 2 schools in the Best Value Civil Engineering Schools in the Great Lakes Region that were part of this year’s ranking, Illinois Institute of Technology landed the #1 spot on the list. Located in Chicago, Illinois, this medium-sized private not-for-profit school awarded 3 diplomas to qualified ’s civil engineering students in 2020-2021.

In addition to being on our great lakes region civil engineering students list, Illinois Tech has also earned the #2 rank in our “Best Civil Engineering Schools in the Great Lakes Region” ranking. The yearly cost to attend Illinois Institute of Technology is $23,772 for Great Lakes Region Civil Engineering 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. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 87%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 1.9%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Civil Engineering at Illinois Tech

2

University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, Indiana

#1 in overall quality

$31,101 Average Net Price

$58,860 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Notre Dame. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Civil Engineering Schools in the Great Lakes Region. Notre Dame, Indiana is the setting for this fairly large institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out ’s civil engineering degrees to 8 students in 2020-2021.

Notre Dame also made our “Best Civil Engineering Schools in the Great Lakes Region” list, coming in at #1. The yearly cost to attend Notre Dame is $31,101 for Great Lakes Region Civil Engineering students.

With a undergrad student-to-faculty ratio of 9 to 1, it’s easy to see that the school is committed to helping their undergraduates succeed. The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 0.7%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 97%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at University of Notre Dame

• Best Value Colleges for Civil Engineering

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 Master Sgt. Roger Parsons.