2023 Most Popular Colleges for Optometry in Illinois

When it comes to choosing a college, students have a lot of options - but not all of them are good. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Most Well Attended Optometry Major in Illinois” ranking is part of that endeavor.

In 2020-2021, 1,822 people earned their degree in optometry, making the major the 194th most popular in the United States. In 2019-2020, optometry graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $88,635 and had an average of $0 in loans still to pay off.

Across Illinois, there were 167 optometry graduates with average earnings and debt of $96,414 and $0 respectively.

This year’s “Most Well Attended Optometry Major in Illinois” ranking looked at 2 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in optometry. To top this list, a school must have a successful optometry program that graduates more students in the field than other colleges that offer the same major.

Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

One Size Does Not Fit All

When choosing the right school for you, it’s important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we’ve created a number of major-specific rankings, including this “Most Well Attended Optometry Major in Illinois” list to help you make the college decision.

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. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don’t forget it.

Most Well Attended Optometry Major in Illinois

The following schools top our list of the Best “Most Well Attended Optometry Major in Illinois”.

Top 2 Most Popular Colleges for Optometry in Illinois

1

Illinois College of Optometry
Chicago, Illinois

$90,266 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Illinois College of Optometry. The school came in at #1 for the Most Well Attended Optometry Major in Illinois. Illinois College of Optometry is a private not-for-profit institution located in Chicago, Illinois. The school has a small population, and it awarded 126 ’s degrees in 2020-2021.

Since the school has a undergrad student-to-faculty ratio of to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors.

Read more about Optometry at Illinois College of Optometry

2

Midwestern University - Downers Grove
Downers Grove, Illinois

$82,144 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 2 schools in the Most Well Attended Optometry Major in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, Midwestern University - Downers Grove landed the #2 spot on the list. This small school is located in Downers Grove, Illinois, and it awarded 41 ’s optometry degrees in 2020-2021.

The undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one.

Full Midwestern University - Downers Grove Optometry Report

• Most Popular Colleges for Optometry in the Great Lakes Region
• Most Popular Colleges for Optometry

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.