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Best Value Education Bachelor's Degree Schools in Illinois

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2023 Best Value Education Bachelor's Degree Schools in Illinois

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

39 Colleges
$26,736 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$36,000 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Education Bachelor's Degree School for You

Out of the majors we analyze each year, education was ranked 4th in Illinois. In fact, 10,567 were awarded in the state in 2020-2021.

Today's students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. You're no longer limited to schools in your local area, either, since online programs are becoming more prevalent. Or you may find the programs at a trade school to be a better alternative for you.

Along with in-depth profiles of schools and the programs they offer, Course Advisor has created the Best Value Education Bachelor's Degree Schools in Illinois to help you in your search for the best school for you. This report analyzed 39 schools in Illinois to see which ones offered the best value bachelor's degree programs for education students. The goal was to highlight schools with more affordable prices than others offering similar quality experiences.

When determining this ranking, we place a high emphasis on the school's quality as well as its sticker price. Even though a college may be affordable, it may not offer value. Specifically, our score for quality is discounted by the published tuition and fees charged by the given college. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The more quality your dollar buys, the better the value.

Our calculations use out-of-state tuition and fees in our nationwide and regional rankings. For statewide rankings, we use average in-state tuition and fees.

2023 Best Value Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois

The colleges and universities below are the best value schools for education majors pursuing a bachelor's degree.

Top 10 Best Education Bachelor's Degree Schools

Our 2023 rankings named Southern Illinois University Carbondale the best value school in Illinois for education students working on their bachelor’s degree. Located in the small city of Carbondale, SIUC is a public college with a large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at SIUC are $15,240 a year.

Read full report on Education at Southern Illinois University Carbondale

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Illinois State University. The school came in at #2 on this year’s Best Value Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois list. Located in the medium-sized suburb of Normal, Illinois State is a public school with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at Illinois State are $13,968 a year.

In addition to its best value ranking, and one of the reasons why the school is on the list, Illinois State is ranked #5 for overall quality for education in Illinois.

Read full report on Education at Illinois State University

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend University of Illinois at Chicago. The school came in at #3 on this year’s Best Value Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois list. Located in the city of Chicago, UIC is a public school with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at UIC are $15,603 a year.

Read full report on Education at University of Illinois at Chicago

#3

Eastern Illinois University

Charleston, IL

The excellent bachelor’s degree programs at Eastern Illinois University helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best value education schools in Illinois. EIU is a medium-sized public school located in the distant town of Charleston.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at EIU are $12,297 a year.

Full Education at Eastern Illinois University Report

A rank of #3 on this year’s list means Northeastern Illinois University is a great value for education students working on their bachelor’s degree. Located in the city of Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University is a public college with a moderately-sized student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at Northeastern Illinois University are $12,064 a year.

Full Education at Northeastern Illinois University Report

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign landed the #6 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value bachelor’s degree education programs. UIUC is a very large public school located in the small city of Champaign.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at UIUC are $17,634 a year.

UIUC also took the #3 spot in our Best Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois rankings.

Read full report on Education at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville landed the #7 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value bachelor’s degree education programs. Located in the suburb of Edwardsville, SIUE is a public college with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at SIUE are $11,496 a year.

Read full report on Education at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Northern Illinois University came in at #8 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Education Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Illinois ranking. Located in the suburb of Dekalb, NIU is a public college with a large student population.

NIU undergraduate students pay an average of $14,738 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Read full report on Education at Northern Illinois University

With a ranking of #9, Western Illinois University did quite well on this year’s best value schools for education students working on their bachelor’s degree. WIU is a medium-sized public school located in the town of Macomb.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at WIU are $13,297 a year.

Full Education at Western Illinois University Report

National Louis University landed the #10 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value bachelor’s degree education programs. Located in the large city of Chicago, NLU is a private not-for-profit college with a medium-sized student population.

In-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at NLU are $14,169 per year.

Read full report on Education at National Louis University

Best Value Education Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best Value Education Schools in the Great Lakes Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Indiana 11,570
Michigan 5,939
Ohio 9,238
Wisconsin 5,792

Education Majors to Study

Major Annual Graduates
Teacher Education Grade Specific 110,226
Educational Administration 46,469
Teacher Education Subject Specific 43,297
Special Education 36,792
General Education 29,810
Curriculum & Instruction 19,832
Student Counseling 13,858
Instructional Media Design 8,695
Teaching English or French 5,791
Other Education 4,858
Teaching Assistants 2,751
Educational Assessment 2,552
Multilingual Education 1,910
Education Philosophy 737
International Education 293

Related Major Annual Graduates
Social Sciences 205,984
Psychology 195,678
Communication & Journalism 120,571
Family, Consumer & Human Sciences 55,820
History 32,731

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 25 schools only.

  • 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 the rest 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).
  • Credit for the banner image above goes to Horadrim.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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