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Best Value Culinary Arts Schools in Illinois

2023 Best Value Culinary Arts Schools in Illinois

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

4 Colleges
$11,614 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$27,223 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Culinary Arts School for You

Culinary Arts is the #102 most popular major in Illinois with 253 degrees and certificates awarded in 2020-2021.

There are so many programs in today's world that it can tough to figure out which one is the right one for you. 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 Culinary Arts Schools in Illinois to help you in your search for the best school for you. Our analysis looked at 4 schools in Illinois to see which programs offered the best value experiences for culinary arts students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.

This ranking is not just a list of inexpensive schools. We also consider each school's quality, since we believe a low-quality school may not be a 'bargain' at any price. 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.

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

Best Illinois Schools for Affordable Quality in Culinary Arts

#1

Lake Land College

Mattoon, IL
$8,104 Average Tuition & Fees

Our analysis found Lake Land College to be the best value school for culinary arts students who want to pursue a degree in Illinois. Lake Land College is a small public school located in the town of Mattoon.

Lake Land College undergraduate students pay an average of $8,104 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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$14,169 Average Tuition & Fees

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend National Louis University. The school came in at #2 on this year’s Best Value Culinary Arts Schools in Illinois list. Located in the city of Chicago, NLU is a private not-for-profit school with a medium-sized student population.

NLU undergraduate students pay an average of $14,169 in in-state tuition and fees each year. Culinary Arts majors at NLU take out an average of $15,333 in student loans while working on their egree. The average monthly payment of a loan this size is about $479, assuming that the borrower is on a 10-year repayment plan.

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#3

Joliet Junior College

Joliet, IL
$12,570 Average Tuition & Fees

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Joliet Junior College. The school came in at #3 on this year’s Best Value Culinary Arts Schools in Illinois list. Joliet Junior College is a large public school located in the suburb of Joliet.

In-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at Joliet Junior College are $12,570 per year.

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$11,520 Average Tuition & Fees

The excellent programs at City Colleges of Chicago - Kennedy-King College helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best culinary arts schools in Illinois. Kennedy-King College is a small public school located in the city of Chicago.

Kennedy-King College undergraduate students pay an average of $11,520 in in-state tuition and fees each year. While working on their degree, culinary arts majors at Kennedy-King College accumulate an average of around $9,135 in student debt.

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Best Value Culinary Arts Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

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

State Degrees Awarded
Michigan 228
Ohio 133
Indiana 12
Wisconsin 106

One of 4 majors within the area of study, culinary arts has other similar majors worth exploring.

Related Major Annual Graduates
Cosmetology 107,895
Funeral & Mortuary Science 2,354
Casino Operations and Services 192
Other Personal & Culinary Services 81

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 4 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 U.S. Army Europe Images.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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