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Best Value Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Schools in Illinois

2023 Best Value Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Schools in Illinois

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

3 Colleges
$10,427 Avg Tuition & Fees*

Finding the Best Culinary Arts Basic Certificate 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.

The Best Value Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Schools in Illinois ranking is one of many tools that Trade College Search has developed to help you make your educational decision. This report analyzed 3 schools in Illinois to see which ones offered the best value basic certificate 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.

Best Illinois Schools for Affordable Quality for an Award Taking Less Than 1 Year in Culinary Arts

#1

Lake Land College

Mattoon, IL

Our analysis found Lake Land College to be the best value school for culinary arts students who want to pursue a basic certificate in Illinois. Lake Land College is a small public school located in the distant town of Mattoon.

In-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at Lake Land College are $8,104 per year.

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#2

Joliet Junior College

Joliet, IL

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Joliet Junior College. The school came in at #2 on this year’s Best Value Culinary Arts Basic Certificate Schools in Illinois list. Joliet Junior College is a 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.

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Out of the 3 schools in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, City Colleges of Chicago - Kennedy-King College landed the # 3 spot on the list. Kennedy-King College is a small public school located in the large city of Chicago.

In-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at Kennedy-King College are $11,520 per year.

Full Culinary Arts at City Colleges of Chicago - Kennedy-King College Report

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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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