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

7 Ranked Colleges
402 Degrees Awarded
$19,100 Avg Net Price*
Best Value Civil Eng Schools for a Bachelor's in Illinois

With all of the options students have for higher education today, it can be tough to choose which direction to take. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Best Value Civil Eng Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois” ranking - to help you make that decision.

In 2019-2020, 21,561 people earned their degree in civil engineering, making the major the 45th most popular in the United States. In 2017-2018, civil engineering graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $60,122 and had an average of $23,807 in loans still to pay off.

Across Illinois, there were 784 civil engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $60,729 and $24,301 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 402 civil engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $38,319 and $24,183 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Civil Eng Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois” ranking looked at 7 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in civil engineering. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality civil 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 civil engineering program at the school and the cost of the school after aid is awarded among other things. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

More Ways to Rank Civil Engineering Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Best Value Civil Eng Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that 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. We encourage you to try it out and pit your favorite colleges and universities head to head! If you don’t have time right now, you can bookmark it for later.

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

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

Top 7 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Civil Engineering in Illinois

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 Civil Eng Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois. This large school is located in Champaign, Illinois, and it awarded 180 bachelors’s civil eng degrees in 2019-2020.

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

With a freshman retention rate of 94%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students. The low student loan default rate of 2.4% 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%.

Read more about Civil Engineering at UIUC

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Illinois at Chicago. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Civil Eng Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois. Located in Chicago, Illinois, this large public school awarded 79 degrees to qualified bachelors’s civil eng students in 2019-2020.

UIC not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #5 on our “Best Civil Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” list. It costs about $13,312 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Civil Eng students per year to attend University of Illinois at Chicago.

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%.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at University of Illinois at Chicago

Out of the 7 schools in the Best Value Civil Eng Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville landed the #3 spot on the list. Edwardsville, Illinois is the setting for this fairly large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out bachelors’s civil eng degrees to 30 students in 2019-2020.

SIUE also made our “Best Civil Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” list, coming in at #7. The estimated yearly cost for SIUE is $14,423 for illinois bachelor’s degree civil eng students.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Southern Illinois University Carbondale. The school came in at #4 for the Best Value Civil Eng Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois. Southern Illinois University Carbondale is a fairly large school located in Carbondale, Illinois that handed out 32 bachelors’s civil eng degrees in 2019-2020.

SIUC also made our “Best Civil Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” list, coming in at #6. The estimated yearly cost for SIUC is $16,945 for illinois bachelor’s degree civil eng students.

Read more about Civil Engineering at SIUC

#5

Bradley University

Peoria, Illinois

Out of the 7 schools in the Best Value Civil Eng Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, Bradley University landed the #5 spot on the list. Bradley University is a private not-for-profit institution located in Peoria, Illinois. The school has a medium-sized population, and it awarded 31 bachelors’s degrees in 2019-2020.

Bradley also took the #3 spot in our “Best Civil Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Bradley is $25,634 for illinois bachelor’s degree civil eng students.

With a freshman retention rate of 86%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students. The student loan default rate at the school is 2.5%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read full report on Civil Engineering at Bradley

Illinois Institute of Technology ranked #6 on this year’s Best Value Civil Eng Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois list. Illinois Institute of Technology is a private not-for-profit institution located in Chicago, Illinois. The school has a medium-sized population, and it awarded 37 bachelors’s degrees in 2019-2020.

In addition to being on our illinois bachelor’s degree civil eng students list, Illinois Tech has also earned the #4 rank in our “Best Civil Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Illinois Tech is $22,831 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Civil Eng students.

With a freshman retention rate of 87%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students. The student loan default rate at the school is 2.9%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. Since the school has a student-to-faculty ratio of 10 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors.

Read more about Civil Engineering at Illinois Tech

#7

Northwestern University

Evanston, Illinois
#1 in overall quality

With a ranking of #7, Northwestern University did quite well on the 2022 Best Value Civil Eng Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois list. Northwestern is located in Evanston, Illinois and, has a large student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 13 bachelors’s civil eng degrees to qualified students.

In addition to being on our illinois bachelor’s degree civil eng students list, Northwestern has also earned the #1 rank in our “Best Civil Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. It costs about $24,664 for illinois bachelor’s degree civil eng students per year to attend Northwestern University.

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. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 97%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. 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%.

Full Northwestern University Civil Engineering Report

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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.

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