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Best Value Mechanical Engineering Master's Degree Schools in Illinois

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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.

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

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

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

Our 2023 rankings named Northern Illinois University the best value school in Illinois for mechanical engineering students working on their master’s degree. Located in the small suburb of Dekalb, NIU is a public college with a fairly large student population.

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

Read full report on Mechanical Engineering at Northern Illinois University

Out of the 8 schools in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville landed the # 2 spot on the list. Located in the suburb of Edwardsville, SIUE is a public school with a large student population.

SIUE graduate students pay an average of $9,316 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Read full report on Mechanical Engineering at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Out of the 8 schools in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign landed the # 3 spot on the list. 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.

UIUC did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our Best Mechanical Engineering Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list.

Full Mechanical Engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Report

#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 city of Peoria.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Bradley are $17,400 per year.

Read full report on Mechanical Engineering at Bradley University

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 school with a fairly large student population.

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

Read More…

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 college with a very large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UIC are $17,277 a year.

Read full report on Mechanical Engineering at University of Illinois at Chicago

Illinois Institute of Technology came in at #7 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Mechanical Engineering Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois ranking. Illinois Tech is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the city of Chicago.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Illinois Tech are $30,822 a year.

Read More…

#8

Northwestern University

Evanston, IL

Northwestern University landed the #8 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value master’s degree mechanical engineering programs. Northwestern is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Evanston.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Northwestern are $56,567 per year.

Northwestern did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #1 on our Best Mechanical Engineering Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list.

Read More…

Best Value Mechanical Engineering Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best Value Mechanical Engineering Colleges 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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