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2023 Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on ME Major in Illinois

10 Ranked Colleges
837 Degrees Awarded
$64,841 Avg Salary
Schools for a Bachelor's Highly Focused on ME Major in Illinois

When it comes to choosing a college, students have a lot of options - but not all of them are good. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on ME Major in Illinois” ranking - to help you make that decision.

In 2020-2021, 46,178 people earned their degree in mechanical engineering, making the major the 21st most popular in the United States. In 2019-2020, mechanical engineering graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $69,007 and had an average of $23,944 in loans still to pay off.

Across Illinois, there were 1,183 mechanical engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $71,610 and $22,426 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 837 mechanical engineering graduates with average earnings and debt of $40,117 and $25,584 respectively.

This year’s “Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on ME Major in Illinois” ranking analyzed 10 colleges that offered a degree in mechanical engineering. The colleges and universities that top this list are recognized because their mechanical engineering program is one of the largest majors offered at the school.

Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

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Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on ME Major in Illinois” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

One of our other unique offerings is College Combat. This tool lets you build your own customized comparisons utilizing the factors that are most important to you. 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.

Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on ME Major in Illinois

The colleges and universities below are the best for illinois bachelor’s degree me students.

Top 10 Most Focused Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Mechanical Engineering in Illinois

1
Bradley crest
Bradley University
Peoria, Illinois

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Bradley University. The school came in at #1 for the Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on ME Major in Illinois. Bradley is a medium-sized private not-for-profit school situated in Peoria, Illinois. It awarded 79 bachelors’s ME degrees in 2020-2021.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 86%. The undergrad 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 Mechanical Engineering at Bradley University

2

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Illinois Institute of Technology. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on ME Major in Illinois list. Illinois Tech is a private not-for-profit institution located in Chicago, Illinois. The school has a medium-sized population, and it awarded 87 bachelors’s degrees in 2020-2021.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 87%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. 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 impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 1.9%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read full report on Mechanical Engineering at Illinois Tech

3

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Northern Illinois University. The school came in at #3 for the Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on ME Major in Illinois. NIU is located in Dekalb, Illinois and, has a fairly large student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 120 bachelors’s ME degrees to qualified students.

Read full report on Mechanical Engineering at Northern Illinois University

4

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. It ranked #4 on our 2023 Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on ME Major in Illinois list. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is a fairly large school located in Edwardsville, Illinois that handed out 61 bachelors’s ME degrees in 2020-2021.

Full Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Mechanical Engineering Report

5

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Illinois at Chicago. The school came in at #5 for the Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on ME Major in Illinois. UIC is a large public school situated in Chicago, Illinois. It awarded 155 bachelors’s ME degrees in 2020-2021.

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 Mechanical Engineering at UIC

6

With a ranking of #6, Southern Illinois University Carbondale did quite well on the 2023 Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on ME Major in Illinois list. Southern Illinois University Carbondale is a fairly large school located in Carbondale, Illinois that handed out 49 bachelors’s ME degrees in 2020-2021.

Read more about Mechanical Engineering at SIUC

7

With a ranking of #7, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign did quite well on the 2023 Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on ME Major in Illinois list. Champaign, Illinois is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out bachelors’s ME degrees to 210 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 school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 2.3%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read full report on Mechanical Engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

8
Northwestern crest
Northwestern University
Evanston, Illinois

With a ranking of #8, Northwestern University did quite well on the 2023 Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on ME Major in Illinois list. Located in Evanston, Illinois, this large private not-for-profit school handed out 65 degrees to qualified bachelors’s ME students in 2020-2021.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 0.6%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. The undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one. With a freshman retention rate of 97%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

Read full report on Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern

9

Western Illinois University did quite well in the 2023 Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on ME Major in Illinois ranking, coming in at #9. Western Illinois University is a medium-sized school located in Macomb, Illinois that handed out 10 bachelors’s ME degrees in 2020-2021.

Read full report on Mechanical Engineering at Western Illinois University

10
North Park crest
North Park University
Chicago, Illinois

North Park University did quite well in the 2023 Schools for a Bachelor’s Highly Focused on ME Major in Illinois ranking, coming in at #10. This small school is located in Chicago, Illinois, and it awarded 1 bachelors’s ME degrees in 2020-2021.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 4.4%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. The undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 10 to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one.

Full North Park University Mechanical Engineering Report

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