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

It’s not easy to decide which college to attend when there so many options available for students. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois” ranking is part of that endeavor.

General Engineering is the 78th most popular major in the country with 11,925 degrees awarded in 2019-2020. In 2017-2018, general engineering graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $66,152 and had an average of $20,077 in loans still to pay off.

Across Illinois, there were 444 general engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $64,650 and $24,821 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 96 general engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $38,319 and $24,183 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois” ranking analyzed 3 colleges that offered a degree in general engineering. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have great general engineering programs and cost less that schools of similar quality.

When determining these rankings, we looked at things such as overall quality of the general engineering program at the school and the cost to attend the school once aid has been awarded. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we’ve developed a number of rankings, including this “Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois” list, to help you choose the best school for you.

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 by comparing your favorite schools against others you are considering, or bookmark the tool so you can experiment with it later.

Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois

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

Top 3 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for General Engineering in Illinois

#1

Western Illinois University

Macomb, Illinois

#3 in overall quality

$16,210 Average Net Price

$58,221 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 3 schools in the Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, Western Illinois University landed the #1 spot on the list. Located in Macomb, Illinois, this medium-sized public school awarded 10 degrees to qualified bachelors’s engineering students in 2019-2020.

WIU did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our “Best General Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” list. The yearly cost to attend WIU is $16,210 for illinois bachelor’s degree engineering students.

Read more about General Engineering at WIU

#2

Olivet Nazarene University

Bourbonnais, Illinois

#2 in overall quality

$20,195 Average Net Price

$61,020 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Olivet Nazarene University. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois. Bourbonnais, Illinois is the setting for this small institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out bachelors’s engineering degrees to 79 students in 2019-2020.

Olivet Nazarene did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #2 on our “Best General Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” list. It costs about $20,195 for illinois bachelor’s degree engineering students per year to attend Olivet Nazarene University.

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 more about General Engineering at Olivet Nazarene University

#3

Northwestern University

Evanston, Illinois

#1 in overall quality

$24,664 Average Net Price

Out of the 3 schools in the Best Value Engineering Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, Northwestern University landed the #3 spot on the list. Northwestern is a large school located in Evanston, Illinois that handed out 5 bachelors’s engineering degrees in 2019-2020.

Northwestern also made our “Best General Engineering Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” list, coming in at #1. It costs about $24,664 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Engineering students per year to attend Northwestern.

The student loan default rate at the school is 0.8%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 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. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 97%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Read more about General Engineering at Northwestern University

• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for General Engineering in the Great Lakes Region
• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for General 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 Rémi Kaupp.

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