Education Atlas

College Scorecard · cost, debt & earnings

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Champaign, IL · Public · Bachelor-granting · 36,258 undergrads · 42% admitted

Do students finish?
85% complete

Most students who start here finish.

What does it cost?
$33,642/yr net

Average annual price after grants & scholarships. ~$134,568 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.

$81,054 median, 10 yrs after entry
25th pct $54,886 median $81,054 75th pct $116,541

87% 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.

65 Bachelor's programs · $19,088 to $101,262 (1 yr out)

MajorPay · 1yr outMedian debt
Computer Science.Bachelor's $101,262 $18,983
Mathematics and Computer Science.Bachelor's $90,339 $21,500
Computer Engineering.Bachelor's $88,455 $20,500
Computer and Information Sciences, General.Bachelor's $78,673 $19,199
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering.Bachelor's $74,981 $21,500
Biomedical/Medical Engineering.Bachelor's $74,716 $16,850
Chemical Engineering.Bachelor's $73,493 $21,470
Management Information Systems and Services.Bachelor's $71,440 $19,300
Industrial Engineering.Bachelor's $68,901 $21,299
Mechanical Engineering.Bachelor's $68,804 $20,193
Engineering Mechanics.Bachelor's $67,403 —
Finance and Financial Management Services.Bachelor's $66,961 $19,500
Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical/Space Engineering.Bachelor's $65,779 $23,888
Nuclear Engineering.Bachelor's $65,618 $20,500
Accounting and Related Services.Bachelor's $65,425 $20,125
Business Administration, Management and Operations.Bachelor's $64,736 $19,087
Materials Engineering.Bachelor's $64,436 $17,350
Statistics.Bachelor's $63,699 $19,000
Civil Engineering.Bachelor's $63,590 $19,000
Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods.Bachelor's $62,949 $20,500
Systems Engineering.Bachelor's $61,753 $17,800
Agricultural Engineering.Bachelor's $56,190 $19,500
Marketing.Bachelor's $55,615 $20,000
Economics.Bachelor's $50,008 $19,500
Agricultural Business and Management.Bachelor's $49,711 $18,721
Engineering Physics.Bachelor's $48,606 $20,136
Physics.Bachelor's $47,882 $19,500
Design and Applied Arts.Bachelor's $44,353 $18,178
Mathematics.Bachelor's $44,308 $20,844
Special Education and Teaching.Bachelor's $44,023 $18,925
Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication.Bachelor's $42,675 $21,875
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods.Bachelor's $42,628 $18,425
Food Science and Technology.Bachelor's $41,877 $18,000
Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Subject Areas.Bachelor's $40,390 $20,500
Geography and Cartography.Bachelor's $40,269 $24,623
History.Bachelor's $39,482 $18,066
Chemistry.Bachelor's $38,970 $21,250
Communication and Media Studies.Bachelor's $38,661 $18,850
Plant Sciences.Bachelor's $37,300 $15,750
Parks, Recreation, and Leisure Studies.Bachelor's $36,770 $22,564
Political Science and Government.Bachelor's $35,914 $19,201
Linguistic, Comparative, and Related Language Studies and Services.Bachelor's $35,846 $19,500
Journalism.Bachelor's $35,459 $21,000
Social Work.Bachelor's $34,974 $17,850
Systems Science and Theory.Bachelor's $34,950 $20,350
Public Health.Bachelor's $33,283 $19,728
English Language and Literature, General.Bachelor's $33,267 $19,500
Sociology.Bachelor's $32,827 $19,500
Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services.Bachelor's $32,802 $17,968
Area Studies.Bachelor's $32,224 —
Romance Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics.Bachelor's $31,246 $21,254
Health Services/Allied Health/Health Sciences, General.Bachelor's $29,149 $20,250
Natural Resources Conservation and Research.Bachelor's $28,401 $18,925
Research and Experimental Psychology.Bachelor's $28,388 $19,385
Ethnic, Cultural Minority, Gender, and Group Studies.Bachelor's $27,412 $21,500
Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Other.Bachelor's $25,547 $19,500
Anthropology.Bachelor's $25,438 $15,875
Sports, Kinesiology, and Physical Education/Fitness.Bachelor's $24,883 $19,986
Animal Sciences.Bachelor's $24,130 $19,000
Cell/Cellular Biology and Anatomical Sciences.Bachelor's $23,534 $21,350
Philosophy.Bachelor's $22,831 $18,413
Drama/Theatre Arts and Stagecraft.Bachelor's $21,928 $20,500
Dance.Bachelor's $21,801 —
Communication Disorders Sciences and Services.Bachelor's $21,121 $20,500
Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies.Bachelor's $19,088 $20,175

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
$16,500
≈ 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.

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 (97 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