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2022 Best Value Photography Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $48-$75k

4 Ranked Colleges
67 Degrees Awarded
Best Value Photography Schools for a Bachelor's in Illinois For Those Making $48-$75k

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 “Best Value Photography Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $48-$75k” ranking - to help you make that decision.

In 2019-2020, 2,438 people earned their degree in photography, making the major the 291st most popular in the United States.

Across Illinois, there were 73 photography graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 67 photography graduates with average earnings and debt of $38,319 and $24,183 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Photography Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $48-$75k” ranking looked at 4 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in photography. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have great photography programs and cost less that schools of similar quality.

To come up with these rankings, we looked at factors such as the cost to attend the school after aid is awarded and overall quality of the photography program at the school. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

More Ways to Rank Photography Schools

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 “Best Value Photography Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $48-$75k” list to help you make the college decision.

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

Best Value Photography Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $48-$75k

The colleges and universities below are the best for illinois bachelor’s degree photography students whose families make $48-$75k.

Top 4 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Photography (Income $48-$75k) in Illinois

#1 in overall quality

Out of the 4 schools in the Best Value Photography Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $48-$75k that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign landed the #1 spot on the list. UIUC is a large public school situated in Champaign, Illinois. It awarded 11 bachelors’s photography degrees in 2019-2020.

UIUC not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #1 on our “Best Photography Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” list. It costs about $13,351 for illinois bachelor’s degree photography students whose families make $48-$75k per year to attend UIUC.

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%. Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 94%.

Full UIUC Photography Report

#2

Bradley University

Peoria, Illinois
#2 in overall quality

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Bradley University. It ranked #2 on our 2022 Best Value Photography Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $48-$75k list. Located in Peoria, Illinois, this medium-sized private not-for-profit school awarded 9 degrees to qualified bachelors’s photography students in 2019-2020.

Bradley also took the #2 spot in our “Best Photography Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. It costs about $22,865 for illinois bachelor’s degree photography students whose families make $48-$75k per year to attend Bradley University.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 86%. The low 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 Photography at Bradley

#3

Columbia College Chicago

Chicago, Illinois
#3 in overall quality

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Columbia College Chicago. The school came in at #3 for the Best Value Photography Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $48-$75k. This medium-sized school is located in Chicago, Illinois, and it awarded 44 bachelors’s photography degrees in 2019-2020.

Columbia not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #3 on our “Best Photography Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” list. The estimated yearly cost for Columbia College Chicago is $31,071 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Photography students whose families make $48-$75k.

Read full report on Photography at Columbia College Chicago

#4

American Academy of Art

Chicago, Illinois
#4 in overall quality

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend American Academy of Art. It ranked #4 on our 2022 Best Value Photography Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois For Those Making $48-$75k list. The Academy is a private not-for-profit institution located in Chicago, Illinois. The school has a small population, and it awarded 2 bachelors’s degrees in 2019-2020.

The Academy did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #4 on our “Best Photography Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” list. The estimated yearly cost for The Academy is $31,382 for illinois bachelor’s degree photography students whose families make $48-$75k.

The impressive student-to-faculty ratio of 7 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools.

Full American Academy of Art Photography Report

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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