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2022 Best Value Film Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois

8 Ranked Colleges
544 Degrees Awarded
$24,300 Avg Net Price*
Best Value Film Schools for a Bachelor's in Illinois

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Film Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

Film, Video & Photographic Arts is the 64th most popular major in the country with 17,506 degrees awarded in 2019-2020. In 2017-2018, film, video and photographic arts graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $22,714 and had an average of $31,549 in loans still to pay off.

Across Illinois, there were 631 film, video and photographic arts graduates with average earnings and debt of $23,838 and $41,036 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 544 film, video and photographic arts graduates with average earnings and debt of $38,319 and $24,183 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Film Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois” ranking analyzed 8 colleges that offered a degree in film, video and photographic arts. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality film, video and photographic arts programs that also have a lower cost than schools of similar quality.

When determining these rankings, we looked at things such as overall quality of the film, video and photographic arts program at the school and the cost to attend the school once aid has been awarded. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

One Size Does Not Fit All

The film 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 Film 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. We encourage you to try it out and pit your favorite colleges and universities head to head! If you don’t have time right now, you can bookmark it for later.

Best Value Film Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois

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

Top 8 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Film, Video & Photographic Arts in Illinois

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It ranked #1 on our 2022 Best Value Film Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois list. UIUC is located in Champaign, Illinois and, has a large student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 11 bachelors’s film degrees to qualified students.

UIUC also took the #1 spot in our “Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. It costs about $15,880 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Film students per year to attend University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The student loan default rate at the school is 2.4%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 94%.

Full UIUC Film, Video & Photographic Arts Report

Out of the 8 schools in the Best Value Film Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, Southern Illinois University Carbondale landed the #2 spot on the list. Carbondale, Illinois is the setting for this fairly large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out bachelors’s film degrees to 38 students in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at SIUC, the school also landed the #6 spot in our “Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. It costs about $16,945 for illinois bachelor’s degree film students per year to attend Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Read full report on Film, Video & Photographic Arts at Southern Illinois University Carbondale

#3

Columbia College Chicago

Chicago, Illinois

Out of the 8 schools in the Best Value Film Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, Columbia College Chicago landed the #3 spot on the list. Columbia is located in Chicago, Illinois and, has a medium-sized student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 312 bachelors’s film degrees to qualified students.

In addition to being on our illinois bachelor’s degree film students list, Columbia has also earned the #5 rank in our “Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. The yearly cost to attend Columbia is $31,099 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Film students.

Read more about Film, Video & Photographic Arts at Columbia College Chicago

#4

Bradley University

Peoria, Illinois
#3 in overall quality

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Bradley University. It ranked #4 on our 2022 Best Value Film Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois list. Bradley University is a medium-sized private not-for-profit school situated in Peoria, Illinois. It awarded 9 bachelors’s film degrees in 2019-2020.

Bradley also took the #3 spot in our “Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Bradley is $25,634 for illinois bachelor’s degree film students.

With a freshman retention rate of 86%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students. The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 2.5%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Film, Video & Photographic Arts at Bradley

#5

Dominican University

River Forest, Illinois
#7 in overall quality

Out of the 8 schools in the Best Value Film Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, Dominican University landed the #5 spot on the list. Dominican U is located in River Forest, Illinois and, has a small student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 1 bachelors’s film degrees to qualified students.

In addition to being on our illinois bachelor’s degree film students list, Dominican U has also earned the #7 rank in our “Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” ranking. The yearly cost to attend Dominican U is $19,268 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Film students.

Since the school has a student-to-faculty ratio of 10 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors.

Read full report on Film, Video & Photographic Arts at Dominican University

#6

American Academy of Art

Chicago, Illinois
#8 in overall quality

American Academy of Art did quite well in the 2022 Best Value Film Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois ranking, coming in at #6. Chicago, Illinois is the setting for this small institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out bachelors’s film degrees to 2 students in 2019-2020.

The Academy also made our “Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” list, coming in at #8. It costs about $28,106 for illinois bachelor’s degree film students per year to attend American Academy of Art.

With a student-to-faculty ratio of 7 to 1, it’s easy to see that the school is committed to helping their undergraduates succeed.

Full The Academy Film, Video & Photographic Arts Report

#7

DePaul University

Chicago, Illinois

DePaul University landed the #7 spot on the 2022 Best Value Film Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois ranking. Chicago, Illinois is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out bachelors’s film degrees to 156 students in 2019-2020.

DePaul also made our “Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” list, coming in at #4. The yearly cost to attend DePaul is $30,090 for Illinois Bachelor’s Degree Film students.

The low student loan default rate of 4.5% 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 full report on Film, Video & Photographic Arts at DePaul

#8

University of Chicago

Chicago, Illinois
#2 in overall quality

University of Chicago came in at #8 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Film Schools for a Bachelor’s in Illinois ranking. UChicago is a private not-for-profit institution located in Chicago, Illinois. The school has a fairly large population, and it awarded 13 bachelors’s degrees in 2019-2020.

UChicago also made our “Best Film, Video & Photographic Arts Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois” list, coming in at #2. It costs about $27,315 for illinois bachelor’s degree film students per year to attend UChicago.

The low student loan default rate of 0.6% 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%. Since the school has a student-to-faculty ratio of 5 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors. With a freshman retention rate of 100%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students.

Read full report on Film, Video & Photographic Arts at UChicago

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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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