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Best Value Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools in Illinois

2023 Best Value Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools in Illinois

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

3 Colleges
$13,497 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$25,389 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Culinary Arts Associate Degree School for You

Culinary Arts is the #11 most popular major in Illinois with 668 degrees and certificates awarded in 2021-2022.

It's not easy to decide which trade school program to enroll in when you have so many options available. As online education oppotunities continue to grow, you're not restricted to just schools in your local area anymore. Even some of the 'big name' schools are offering online courses.

To assist you in seeing some of the education options that are available to you, Trade College Search has created its Best Value Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools in Illinois ranking. This report analyzed 3 schools in Illinois to see which ones offered the best value associate degree programs for culinary arts students. The goal was to highlight schools with more affordable prices than others offering similar quality experiences.

Our ranking of value is based on the quality of a program as defined in our per sticker price dollar. 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.

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


 

2023 Best Value Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools in Illinois

The colleges and universities below are the best value schools for culinary arts majors pursuing a associate degree.

Best Illinois Schools for Affordable Quality for an Associate in Culinary Arts

Our 2023 rankings named National Louis University the best value school in Illinois for culinary arts students working on their associate degree. Located in the large city of Chicago, NLU is a private not-for-profit college with a moderately-sized student population.

In-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at NLU are $14,244 per year. On average, culinary arts graduates from NLU take out $13,165 in student loans while working on their Associate Degree.

NLU not only placed well in our value ranking, but it is also #4 on our Best Culinary Arts Associate Degree Trade Schools in Illinois list.

Full Culinary Arts at National Louis University Report

#2

Joliet Junior College

Joliet, IL

The excellent associate degree programs at Joliet Junior College helped the school earn the #2 place on this year’s ranking of the best value culinary arts schools in Illinois. Joliet Junior College is a fairly large public school located in the large suburb of Joliet.

In-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at Joliet Junior College are $12,750 per year. After completing their Associate Degree, culinary arts graduates from Joliet Junior College carry an average student debtload of $13,611.

Full Culinary Arts at Joliet Junior College Report

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend City Colleges of Chicago - Kennedy-King College. The school came in at #3 on this year’s Best Value Culinary Arts Associate Degree Schools in Illinois list. Kennedy-King College is a small public school located in the large city of Chicago.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at Kennedy-King College are $11,520 a year. While working on their Associate Degree, culinary arts majors at Kennedy-King College accumulate an average of around $8,350 in student debt.

Read full report on Culinary Arts at City Colleges of Chicago - Kennedy-King College

Best Value Culinary Arts Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

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

State Degrees Awarded
Michigan 413
Indiana 181
Wisconsin 333
Ohio 305

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

Culinary Arts Focus Areas

Major Annual Graduates
Culinary Arts/Chef Training 10,546
Baking & Pastry Arts/Baker/Pastry Chef 5,029
General Cooking & Related Culinary Arts 3,303
Restaurant, Culinary, & Catering Management/Manager 1,394
Food Preparation/Professional Cooking/Kitchen Assistant 786
Other Culinary Arts & Related Services 335
Institutional Food Workers 204
Culinary Science/Culinology 203
Bartending/Bartender 157
Food Service, Waiter/Waitress, & Dining Room Management/Manager 82
Meat Cutting/Meat Cutter 28
Wine Steward/Sommelier 8

Related Major Annual Graduates
Cosmetology 124,611
Funeral & Mortuary Science 2,186
Casino Operations and Services 385
Other Personal & Culinary Services 95

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 3 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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