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Best Value Education Master's Degree Schools in Illinois

2023 Best Value Education Master's Degree Schools in Illinois

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

32 Colleges
$13,295 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$49,367 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Education Master'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.

The Best Value Education Master's Degree Schools in Illinois ranking is one of many tools that Course Advisor has developed to help you make your educational decision. Our analysis looked at 32 schools in Illinois to see which master's degree programs offered the best value experiences for education students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.

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.

Top 10 Best Education Master's Degree Schools

#1

Governors State University

University Park, IL

Our 2023 rankings named Governors State University the best value school in Illinois for education students working on their master’s degree. GSU is a small public school located in the rural area of University Park.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at GSU are $8,320 per year.

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#2

Concordia University, Chicago

River Forest, IL

Out of the 32 schools in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, Concordia University, Chicago landed the # 2 spot on the list. Located in the suburb of River Forest, Concordia University, Chicago is a private not-for-profit school with a moderately-sized student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Concordia University, Chicago are $9,378 a year.

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Out of the 32 schools in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, Illinois State University landed the # 3 spot on the list. Located in the suburb of Normal, Illinois State is a public college with a very large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Illinois State are $9,773 per year.

Illinois State also took the #5 spot in our Best Education Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois rankings.

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The excellent master’s degree programs at Northeastern Illinois University helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best value education schools in Illinois. Located in the city of Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University is a public school with a moderately-sized student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Northeastern Illinois University are $9,428 a year.

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#5

Trinity Christian College

Palos Heights, IL

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Trinity Christian College. It ranked #5 on our 2023 Best Value Education Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list. Trinity Christian is a small private not-for-profit school located in the suburb of Palos Heights.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Trinity Christian are $10,708 per year.

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#6

Eastern Illinois University

Charleston, IL

Eastern Illinois University came in at #6 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Education Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois ranking. EIU is a moderately-sized public school located in the town of Charleston.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at EIU are $10,640 per year.

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University of St Francis ranked #7 on this year’s Best Value Education Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list. Located in the suburb of Joliet, University of Saint Francis is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at University of Saint Francis are $13,839 a year.

University of Saint Francis also took the #4 spot in our Best Education Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois rankings.

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#8

Olivet Nazarene University

Bourbonnais, IL

With a ranking of #8, Olivet Nazarene University did quite well on this year’s best value schools for education students working on their master’s degree. Olivet Nazarene is a small private not-for-profit school located in the suburb of Bourbonnais.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Olivet Nazarene are $12,190 per year.

In addition to its great value ranking, Olivet Nazarene is in the top 15% of all schools on our Best Education Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list.

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#9

McKendree University

Lebanon, IL

McKendree University ranked #9 on this year’s Best Value Education Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list. Located in the large suburb of Lebanon, McKendree is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

McKendree graduate students pay an average of $9,756 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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Northern Illinois University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for education students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #10 on the list. Located in the suburb of Dekalb, NIU is a public school with a large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at NIU are $11,390 per year.

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Best Value Education Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best Value Education Colleges 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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