2026 Best Nuclear Engineering Schools in Illinois
Nuclear Engineering is a field worth a close look when choosing where to study. While the number of schools offering the program varies, there are still top-quality ones to be found.
For its 2026 ranking, College Factual looked at 1 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for nuclear engineering students pursuing a degree.
What’s on this page:
Best Schools for Nuclear Engineering in Illinois
If you are not interested in a particular degree level and want to know which schools are the overall best at delivering an education for the nuclear engineering degrees they offer, see the list below.
Top Schools in Nuclear Engineering
No school ranked higher than University Of Illinois At Urbana Champaign this year for nuclear engineering. Set in the city of Champaign, University Of Illinois At Urbana Champaign is a very large public institution. Roughly 85% of students complete a degree within six years here. There were roughly 56 nuclear engineering students who graduated with this degree at University Of Illinois At Urbana Champaign in the most recent data year. Soon after graduation, nuclear engineering degree recipients from University Of Illinois At Urbana Champaign generally make around $81,134. University Of Illinois At Urbana Champaign graduates carry a median of $21,350 in student loans.
See the full nuclear engineering program report for University Of Illinois At Urbana Champaign
More Nuclear Engineering Rankings
View All Nuclear Engineering Rankings >
Notes and References
This ranking is produced by College Factual (MF_RANKING_2025), 2026 edition. The methodology weighs graduation rate, post-graduation earnings, cost, and program quality, drawn primarily from the U.S. Department of Education (IPEDS and College Scorecard).
Ranking method: College Major Top Ranked · 1 school evaluated.
- 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).
More about our data sources and methodologies.
