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Best Value Mechanical Engineering Master's Degree Schools in Illinois

2023 Best Value Mechanical Engineering Master's Degree Schools in Illinois

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

8 Colleges
$22,095 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$83,900 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Mechanical Engineering Master's Degree School for You

In 2020-2021, 1,183 degrees and certificates were awarded to mechanical engineering students who went to a Illinois college or university. This makes it the #31 most popular major in the state.

Today's students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. You can choose a traditional brick and mortar school, or with the growth of online education, you can attend a school half-way across the country without even leaving your house. Also there are many trade schools that offer short-term programs that open up more career options.

The Best Value Mechanical Engineering 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 8 schools in Illinois to see which master's degree programs offered the best value experiences for ME 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.

Best Illinois Schools for Affordable Quality for a Master's in Mechanical Engineering

Our analysis found Northern Illinois University to be the best value school for mechanical engineering students who want to pursue a master’s degree in Illinois. Located in the suburb of Dekalb, NIU is a public college with a large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at NIU are $11,390 a year.

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The excellent master’s degree programs at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville helped the school earn the #2 place on this year’s ranking of the best value mechanical engineering schools in Illinois. Located in the suburb of Edwardsville, SIUE is a public college with a fairly large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at SIUE are $9,316 per year.

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A rank of #3 on this year’s list means University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a great value for mechanical engineering students working on their master’s degree. UIUC is a fairly large public school located in the small city of Champaign.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UIUC are $17,823 per year.

In addition to its best value ranking, and one of the reasons why the school is on the list, UIUC is ranked #3 for overall quality for ME in Illinois.

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#4

Bradley University

Peoria, IL

A rank of #4 on this year’s list means Bradley University is a great value for mechanical engineering students working on their master’s degree. Bradley is a medium-sized private not-for-profit school located in the medium-sized city of Peoria.

Bradley graduate students pay an average of $17,400 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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The excellent master’s degree programs at Southern Illinois University Carbondale helped the school earn the #5 place on this year’s ranking of the best value mechanical engineering schools in Illinois. Located in the small city of Carbondale, SIUC is a public college with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at SIUC are $16,162 a year.

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University of Illinois at Chicago ranked #6 on this year’s Best Value Mechanical Engineering Master’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 graduate student at UIC are $17,277 a year.

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Illinois Institute of Technology landed the #7 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value master’s degree mechanical engineering programs. Illinois Tech is a medium-sized private not-for-profit school located in the city of Chicago.

Illinois Tech graduate students pay an average of $30,822 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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#8

Northwestern University

Evanston, IL

With a ranking of #8, Northwestern University did quite well on this year’s best value schools for mechanical engineering students working on their master’s degree. Northwestern is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the small city of Evanston.

Northwestern graduate students pay an average of $56,567 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

In addition to its best value ranking, and one of the reasons why the school is on the list, Northwestern is ranked #1 for overall quality for ME in Illinois.

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Best Value Mechanical Engineering Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

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

State Degrees Awarded
Michigan 2,498
Ohio 2,106
Indiana 1,336
Wisconsin 855

Mechanical Engineering is one of 40 different types of programs to choose from.

Majors Similar to ME

Related Major Annual Graduates
Electrical Engineering 28,844
Civil Engineering 21,388
Computer Engineering 17,987
Chemical Engineering 12,917
Biomedical Engineering 12,811

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 8 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 Michel Villeneuve.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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