2023 Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Engineering Major in Illinois

It’s not easy to decide which college to attend when there so many options available for students. At College Factual, we’re committed to helping you make that decision by providing information such as that found in our “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Engineering Major in Illinois” ranking.

In 2020-2021, 11,796 people earned their degree in general engineering, making the major the 79th most popular in the United States. In 2019-2020, general engineering graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $68,873 and had an average of $20,557 in loans still to pay off.

Across Illinois, there were 427 general engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $69,796 and $27,000 respectively. At the master’s degree level specifically, there were 23 general engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $59,317 and $0 respectively.

For this year’s “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Engineering Major in Illinois” ranking, we looked at 2 colleges that offer a degree in general engineering. That schools that top this list have a program in general engineering in which the largest percentage of students at the school are enrolled.

For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

One Size Does Not Fit All

The 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 “Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Engineering Major in Illinois”.

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. Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.

Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Engineering Major in Illinois

The colleges and universities below are the best for illinois master’s degree engineering students.

Top 2 Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for General Engineering in Illinois

1

University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, Illinois

#10 overall quality in Illinois

$78,310 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Illinois at Chicago. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Engineering Major in Illinois list. UIC is located in Chicago, Illinois and, has a large student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 9 masters’s engineering degrees to qualified students.

The low undergrad student loan default rate of 2.5% 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 UIC

2

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, Illinois

#3 overall quality in Illinois

Out of the 2 schools in the Schools for a Master’s Highly Focused on Engineering Major in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign landed the #2 spot on the list. Located in Champaign, Illinois, this large public school awarded 14 diplomas to qualified masters’s engineering students in 2020-2021.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 94%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The low undergrad student loan default rate of 2.3% 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 General Engineering at UIUC

• Most Focused Master’s Degree Colleges for General Engineering in the Great Lakes Region
• Most Focused Master’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

• *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate 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.