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2022 Best Value Public Health Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois

10 Ranked Colleges
544 Degrees Awarded
$17,700 Avg Net Price*
Best Value Public Health Schools for a Bachelor's in Illinois

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. One of our goals at College Factual is to give you as much information as we can - such as our “Best Value Public Health Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois” ranking - to help you make that decision.

In 2019-2020, 38,020 people earned their degree in public health, making the major the 27th most popular in the United States. In 2017-2018, public health graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $41,740 and had an average of $35,895 in loans still to pay off.

Across Illinois, there were 1,472 public health graduates with average earnings and debt of $45,964 and $46,461 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 544 public health graduates with average earnings and debt of $38,319 and $24,183 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Public Health Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois” ranking, we looked at 10 colleges that offer a degree in public health. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have great public health programs and cost less that schools of similar quality.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the public health program at the school and the cost of the school after aid is awarded among other things. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

More Ways to Rank Public Health Schools

The public health 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 “Best Value Public Health Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois”.

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. If you’re torn between two schools, you can use it to help you see how they stack up against one another. Bookmark it so you can compare any new schools that might interest you.

Best Value Public Health Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois

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

Top 10 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Health in Illinois

#1

Illinois State University

Normal, Illinois

Out of the 10 schools in the Best Value Public Health Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, Illinois State University landed the #1 spot on the list. Illinois State University is a large public school situated in Normal, Illinois. It awarded 43 bachelors’s public health degrees in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Illinois State, the school also landed the #3 spot in our “Best Public Health Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. It costs about $20,895 for illinois bachelor’s degree public health students per year to attend Illinois State.

The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 4.4%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Public Health at Illinois State

Out of the 10 schools in the Best Value Public Health Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign landed the #2 spot on the list. UIUC is a large school located in Champaign, Illinois that handed out 193 bachelors’s public health degrees in 2019-2020.

UIUC also made our “Best Public Health Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” list, coming in at #2. The estimated yearly cost for University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is $15,880 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Public Health students.

The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 2.4%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 94%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students.

Read more about Public Health at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. It ranked #3 on our 2022 Best Value Public Health Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois list. SIUE is located in Edwardsville, Illinois and, has a fairly large student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 38 bachelors’s public health degrees to qualified students.

In addition to being on our illinois bachelor’s degree public health students list, SIUE has also earned the #6 rank in our “Best Public Health Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. The yearly cost to attend SIUE is $14,423 for illinois bachelor’s degree public health students.

Full SIUE Public Health Report

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Illinois at Chicago. It ranked #4 on our 2022 Best Value Public Health Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois list. UIC is a large school located in Chicago, Illinois that handed out 29 bachelors’s public health degrees in 2019-2020.

UIC also took the #4 spot in our “Best Public Health Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for UIC is $13,312 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Public Health students.

The student loan default rate at the school is 3.4%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Public Health at University of Illinois at Chicago

#5

Governors State University

University Park, Illinois

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Governors State University. It ranked #5 on our 2022 Best Value Public Health Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois list. GSU is located in University Park, Illinois and, has a small student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 50 bachelors’s public health degrees to qualified students.

In addition to being on our illinois bachelor’s degree public health students list, GSU has also earned the #8 rank in our “Best Public Health Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for GSU is $12,077 for illinois bachelor’s degree public health students.

Read more about Public Health at GSU

#6

Northern Illinois University

Dekalb, Illinois
#5 in overall quality

Northern Illinois University ranked #6 on this year’s Best Value Public Health Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois list. Northern Illinois University is a fairly large school located in Dekalb, Illinois that handed out 56 bachelors’s public health degrees in 2019-2020.

NIU also took the #5 spot in our “Best Public Health Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. It costs about $18,259 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Public Health students per year to attend Northern Illinois University.

Read more about Public Health at Northern Illinois University

#7

Western Illinois University

Macomb, Illinois
#9 in overall quality

With a ranking of #7, Western Illinois University did quite well on the 2022 Best Value Public Health Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois list. This medium-sized school is located in Macomb, Illinois, and it awarded 7 bachelors’s public health degrees in 2019-2020.

WIU also made our “Best Public Health Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” list, coming in at #9. It costs about $16,210 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Public Health students per year to attend Western Illinois University.

Read more about Public Health at WIU

#10 in overall quality

With a ranking of #8, Northeastern Illinois University did quite well on the 2022 Best Value Public Health Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois list. Located in Chicago, Illinois, this medium-sized public school handed out 17 diplomas to qualified bachelors’s public health students in 2019-2020.

In addition to being on our illinois bachelor’s degree public health students list, Northeastern Illinois University has also earned the #10 rank in our “Best Public Health Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Northeastern Illinois University is $15,843 for illinois bachelor’s degree public health students.

Full Northeastern Illinois University Public Health Report

#9

Bradley University

Peoria, Illinois
#7 in overall quality

Bradley University did quite well in the 2022 Best Value Public Health Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois ranking, coming in at #9. Bradley is a private not-for-profit institution located in Peoria, Illinois. The school has a medium-sized population, and it awarded 3 bachelors’s degrees in 2019-2020.

In addition to being on our illinois bachelor’s degree public health students list, Bradley has also earned the #7 rank in our “Best Public Health Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Bradley University is $25,634 for illinois bachelor’s degree public health students.

With a freshman retention rate of 86%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students. The student loan default rate at the school is 2.5%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Full Bradley Public Health Report

#10

Northwestern University

Evanston, Illinois
#1 in overall quality

With a ranking of #10, Northwestern University did quite well on the 2022 Best Value Public Health Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois list. Northwestern University is located in Evanston, Illinois and, has a large student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 37 bachelors’s public health degrees to qualified students.

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

With a freshman retention rate of 97%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students. The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 0.8%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. The impressive student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools.

Full Northwestern Public Health Report

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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.

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