Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

University of Illinois Chicago

Chicago, IL · Public · Bachelor-granting · 22,170 undergrads · 77% admitted

Do students finish?
62% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?
$27,521/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$110,084 over four years if you finish on time.

What former students go on to earn

The middle 50% of students who received federal aid, measured 10 years after they entered (an earlier entering class — not a guarantee, and not limited to those who graduated). Earnings vary enormously by field of study.

$68,740 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $44,790 median $68,740 75th pct $95,794

81% earn more than a typical high-school graduate (the dashed line above, $28,000 — a fixed, somewhat dated federal benchmark) ten years on.

Your major matters more than your school

The school-wide figure above blends every major together — but pay varies enormously by program. Pick a degree level (and search your major) to compare like-for-like.

Read these on their own terms. Program pay is measured 1 year after completing the program (early career, graduates only) — not the same as the school-wide number above, which is 10 years after a student first enrolled. Don't compare a program figure to the school figure; use the programs to compare majors to each other.

46 Bachelor's programs · $18,711 to $73,060 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Computer Science.Bachelor's $73,060 $17,418
Industrial Engineering.Bachelor's $69,412 $20,341
Computer Engineering.Bachelor's $67,853 $19,250
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing.Bachelor's $65,021 $15,000
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $64,975 $21,129
Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $61,644 $22,000
Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $60,931 $20,146
Chemical Engineering.Bachelor's $59,645 $22,500
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $53,944 $18,050
Information Science/Studies.Bachelor's $51,817 $14,149
Statistics.Bachelor's $48,050 $21,472
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $47,894 $15,000
Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $46,076 $15,000
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.Bachelor's $44,102 $15,495
Economics.Bachelor's $43,239 $17,500
Biomedical/Medical Engineering.Bachelor's $42,675 $21,250
Architecture.Bachelor's $41,198 $23,080
Mathematics and Computer Science.Bachelor's $40,536 $18,150
Urban Studies/Affairs.Bachelor's $39,983 $18,000
Mathematics.Bachelor's $39,717 —
Health and Medical Administrative Services.Bachelor's $39,064 $19,466
Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods.Bachelor's $38,785 $15,251
Marketing.Bachelor's $37,997 $17,377
Dietetics and Clinical Nutrition Services.Bachelor's $37,263 —
Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences.Bachelor's $36,736 $21,500
Chemistry.Bachelor's $36,142 $20,474
Criminal Justice and Corrections.Bachelor's $34,572 $15,000
Design and Applied Arts.Bachelor's $33,866 $22,881
Area Studies.Bachelor's $32,968 —
Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $31,434 $19,224
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $31,417 $18,597
Sociology.Bachelor's $30,444 $17,500
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $29,899 $15,000
Public Health.Bachelor's $29,845 $20,500
Psychology, General.Bachelor's $29,771 $15,934
Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services.Bachelor's $29,006 $16,200
Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology.Bachelor's $28,879 $14,723
Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.Bachelor's $27,765 $17,500
History.Bachelor's $24,997 $19,000
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $24,209 $17,500
Ethnic, Cultural Minority, Gender, and Group Studies.Bachelor's $24,167 $16,500
Biology, General.Bachelor's $23,743 $16,031
Neurobiology and Neurosciences.Bachelor's $23,332 $15,687
Fine and Studio Arts.Bachelor's $23,247 $25,250
Anthropology.Bachelor's $19,406 $21,500
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.Bachelor's $18,711 $20,342

The Dept. of Education omits programs with too few graduates (to protect privacy), so not every major appears. Pay is a median for federally-aided graduates. Full program detail on the official Scorecard.

Typical federal loan debt
$13,657
≈ 20% of one year's typical earnings here

This counts federal student loans only — not private loans, Parent PLUS loans, or family savings, so the true cost of borrowing is usually higher. And because students who drop out borrow less, a school where many students don't finish can show a deceptively low debt figure — read it next to the completion rate above.

What these numbers are — and are not

Every figure here is an institution-wide median from the U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard. It is not a prediction of what you would earn or owe — a computer-science and a fine-arts graduate of the same school can earn wildly different amounts, and your field of study matters more than your school. It is not a figure for any one program, not proof the school caused the outcome (selective schools admit students who would earn more anyway), and not a "best college" ranking. Earnings and debt cover federally-aided students.

→ The number that actually answers "worth it" is earnings by major — see the by-major breakdown above (80 programs at this school).

Also available: structured data (JSON-LD) · plain text · JSON. Source: U.S. Dept. of Education College Scorecard (2026-06-10 release). · school website