High Salaries Await Graduates From These Illinois Colleges: Study

ILLINOIS — Twenty-two institutions in Illinois are among the best public and private colleges and universities in the country when it comes to setting up graduates for financial success, according to a ranking by The Wall Street Journal.

In Illinois, graduates of Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), a private institution in Chicago, have the potential to earn the best salaries of any school in Illinois, according to the ranking. Nationally, IIT ranks 42nd among the top 500.

Others on the list are:

• #59: University of Illinois Chicago, public
• #70: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, public
• #74: Augustana College, Rock Island, private
• #82: Northwestern University, Chicago, private
• #112: University of Chicago, private
• #117: University of St. Francis, Joliet, private
• #144: Bradley University, Peoria, private
• #157: Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, private
• #160, DePaul University, Chicago, private
• #171, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, public
• #192, Illinois State University, Normal, public
• #222, Western Illinois University, Macomb, public
• #233, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, public
• #242: Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, public
• #249: Loyola University Chicago, private
• #297: Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, private
• #375: Milliken University, Decatur, private
• #380: Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, public
• #419: Wheaton College, Wheaton, private
• #485: Knox College, Galesburg, private
• #498: Columbia College Chicago, private

Private universities claimed 36 of the top 50 spots on the salary list, with prestigious private colleges and universities prominent in the upper tier. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology topped the list, but other schools with robust STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) were also prominent in the top 15: No. 4 Georgia Tech, No. 6 California Institute of Technology and No. 7 Harvey Mudd College, No. 9 Missouri University of Science and Technology, No. 12 Milwaukee School of Engineering, and No. 15 Michigan Technological University.

The Wall Street Journal said the top 20 schools nationwide in this ranking are:

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (private)
2. Stanford University, Stanford, California (private)
3. Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey (private)
4. Georgia Institute of Technology - main campus, Atlanta, Georgia (public)
5. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (private)
6. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (private)
7. Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California (private)
8. Babson College, Babson Park, Massachusetts (private)
9. Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla (public)
10. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (private)
11. Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, California (private)
12. Milwaukee School of Engineering (private)
13. Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (private)
14. Bentley University, Waltham, Massachusetts (private)
15. Michigan Technological University, Houghton (public)
16. Colorado School of Mines, Golden (public)
17. San Jose State University, San Jose, California (public)
18. Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (private)
19. Kettering University, Flint, Michigan (private)
20. Manhattan University, Bronx, New York (private)

The Journal and research partner Statista looked at raw income data 10 or 11 years after students entered college, then compared that to the extent to which those earnings outpaced expected salaries in an analysis modeled on research from the Brookings Institution. The analysis also drew on research from the public policy think tank Third Way that looked at how long it would take these premium earners to pay for the cost of their four-year degree.

» See the full Best Salaries ranking and more about the methodology on The Wall Street Journal.