Best Colleges in Illinois by Salary Potential
Don’t enroll before you find out how much your bachelor’s degree is worth. Check out this list of Illinois’s best four-year colleges by earning potential.
| Rank | School Name | School Type | Early Career Pay | Mid-Career Pay | % High Meaning | % STEM Degrees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank:1 | School Name: University of Chicago | School Type:Private School, Research University | Early Career Pay:$70,700 | Mid-Career Pay:$131,700 | % High Meaning:38% | % STEM Degrees:25% |
| Rank:2 | School Name: Northwestern University | School Type:Private School, Research University, For Sports Fans | Early Career Pay:$68,800 | Mid-Career Pay:$128,000 | % High Meaning:45% | % STEM Degrees:22% |
| Rank:3 | School Name:_50px.png) Illinois Institute of Technology | School Type:Engineering, Private School, Research University | Early Career Pay:$70,300 | Mid-Career Pay:$127,000 | % High Meaning:50% | % STEM Degrees:59% |
| Rank:4 | School Name:_50px.jpg) University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | School Type:Research University, For Sports Fans, State School | Early Career Pay:$68,300 | Mid-Career Pay:$123,600 | % High Meaning:43% | % STEM Degrees:39% |
| Rank:5 | School Name: Lake Forest College | School Type:Liberal Arts School, Private School | Early Career Pay:$59,400 | Mid-Career Pay:$114,600 | % High Meaning:46% | % STEM Degrees:20% |
| Rank:6 | School Name: DePaul University | School Type:Private School, Religious, Research University, For Sports Fans | Early Career Pay:$59,900 | Mid-Career Pay:$113,800 | % High Meaning:44% | % STEM Degrees:15% |
| Rank:7 | School Name: Wheaton College (Illinois) | School Type:Liberal Arts School, Private School, Religious, Sober School | Early Career Pay:$58,000 | Mid-Career Pay:$112,800 | % High Meaning:55% | % STEM Degrees:12% |
| Rank:8 | School Name: Bradley University | School Type:Private School, For Sports Fans | Early Career Pay:$59,400 | Mid-Career Pay:$111,500 | % High Meaning:45% | % STEM Degrees:22% |
| Rank:9 | School Name: University of Illinois Chicago | School Type:Research University, For Sports Fans, State School | Early Career Pay:$61,500 | Mid-Career Pay:$109,900 | % High Meaning:48% | % STEM Degrees:29% |
| Rank:10 | School Name:_50px.png) Illinois Wesleyan University | School Type:Liberal Arts School, Private School | Early Career Pay:$57,900 | Mid-Career Pay:$106,400 | % High Meaning:46% | % STEM Degrees:19% |
| Rank:11 | School Name: Loyola University Chicago | School Type:Private School, Religious, Research University, For Sports Fans | Early Career Pay:$58,300 | Mid-Career Pay:$105,700 | % High Meaning:43% | % STEM Degrees:15% |
| Rank:12 | School Name: St. John's College-Department of Nursing | School Type:Private School, Religious | Early Career Pay:$60,900 | Mid-Career Pay:$104,900 | % High Meaning:- | % STEM Degrees:0% |
| Rank:13 | School Name: North Central College | School Type:Private School, Religious | Early Career Pay:$53,200 | Mid-Career Pay:$104,000 | % High Meaning:45% | % STEM Degrees:12% |
| Rank:14 | School Name: Knox College | School Type:Liberal Arts School, Private School | Early Career Pay:$55,500 | Mid-Career Pay:$102,600 | % High Meaning:41% | % STEM Degrees:27% |
| Rank:15 | School Name:Principia College | School Type:Liberal Arts School, Private School | Early Career Pay:$60,400 | Mid-Career Pay:$102,500 | % High Meaning:57% | % STEM Degrees:14% |
| Rank:16 | School Name:_50px.png) Northern Illinois University | School Type:Research University, For Sports Fans, State School | Early Career Pay:$57,100 | Mid-Career Pay:$101,900 | % High Meaning:47% | % STEM Degrees:20% |
| Rank:17 | School Name: Rush University | School Type:Private School | Early Career Pay:$70,100 | Mid-Career Pay:$101,400 | % High Meaning:88% | % STEM Degrees:4% |
| Rank:17 | School Name: Illinois State University | School Type:Research University, For Sports Fans, State School | Early Career Pay:$55,000 | Mid-Career Pay:$101,400 | % High Meaning:48% | % STEM Degrees:9% |
| Rank:19 | School Name: Augustana College | School Type:Liberal Arts School, Private School, Religious | Early Career Pay:$51,400 | Mid-Career Pay:$98,200 | % High Meaning:44% | % STEM Degrees:28% |
| Rank:20 | School Name:Trinity International University-Illinois | School Type:Private School, Religious, Research University | Early Career Pay:$48,900 | Mid-Career Pay:$97,200 | % High Meaning:55% | % STEM Degrees:2% |
| Rank:21 | School Name: Saint Xavier University | School Type:Private School, Religious | Early Career Pay:$52,700 | Mid-Career Pay:$97,000 | % High Meaning:60% | % STEM Degrees:10% |
| Rank:22 | School Name: - Carbondale Campus_50px.gif) Southern Illinois University-Carbondale | School Type:Research University, For Sports Fans, State School | Early Career Pay:$53,000 | Mid-Career Pay:$95,800 | % High Meaning:55% | % STEM Degrees:14% |
| Rank:23 | School Name:Saint Anthony College of Nursing | School Type:Private School, Religious | Early Career Pay:$62,200 | Mid-Career Pay:$95,300 | % High Meaning:- | % STEM Degrees:0% |
| Rank:24 | School Name: - Edwardsville Campus_50px.gif) Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville | School Type:For Sports Fans, State School | Early Career Pay:$56,100 | Mid-Career Pay:$93,900 | % High Meaning:49% | % STEM Degrees:20% |
| Rank:25 | School Name: Lewis University | School Type:Private School, Religious | Early Career Pay:$55,400 | Mid-Career Pay:$93,800 | % High Meaning:51% | % STEM Degrees:18% |
The Prairie State contains over 100 four-year colleges, and Payscale’s College Salary Report has the data to help you identify the Illinois colleges with the highest paid graduates. Some of the most famous include the University of Illinois, Illinois State University, Northwestern University and the University of Chicago. Top employers in the state include Allstate Insurance and State Farm.
For the Illinois colleges in the Payscale database, one college with highly paid undergraduate alumni at zero to five years after graduation is a private school, the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). After at least 10 years of work experience, that earning potential climbs significantly, probably because of the school’s extremely strong STEM focus. (A high percentage of degrees awarded at IIT are in science, technology, engineering or math subjects.)
But some of the highest mid-career salaries overall go to alumni of another private school, The University of Chicago. This world-class private research university comes in with high median salaries despite fact that only about a quarter of degrees awarded are in STEM subjects. This goes to show that a liberal arts degree can pay off.
When we include alumni from Illinois colleges with graduate degrees in our calculations, we see a slight uptick in the early and mid-career earnings at most schools, with a few exceptions, like Wheaton College.
The Midwest is a haven for private schools, especially those with religious affiliations. It’s interesting to note though that only one of these schools, Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, is classified as a sober school by The Princeton Review.