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2023 Best Value Trade School Schools in Illinois
Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Prices
Today's trade school students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. You can choose a traditional brick and mortar school, or with the growth of online education, you can attend a school half-way across the country without even leaving your house.
Along with in-depth profiles of schools and the programs they offer, Trade College Search has created the Best Value Trade School Schools in Illinois to help you in your search for the best school for you. Our analysis looked at 59 schools in Illinois to see which programs offered the best value experiences for trade school students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.
When determining this ranking, we place a high emphasis on the school's quality as well as its sticker price. Even though a college may be affordable, it may not offer value. 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.
Our calculations use out-of-state tuition and fees in our nationwide and regional rankings. For statewide rankings, we use average in-state tuition and fees.
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Top Value Trade Schools in Illinois
Learn more about these excellent schools below:
Our analysis found John A Logan College to be the best value school for trade school students in Illinois. John A Logan College is a small public school located in Carterville, Illinois that handed out 720 degrees in 2021-2022.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state undergraduate students at John A Logan College are $7,370 a year.
You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Kaskaskia College. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Value Trade School Schools in Illinois list. Kaskaskia College is a public institution located in Centralia, Illinois. The school has a small population, and it awarded 842 degrees in 2021-2022.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state undergraduate students at Kaskaskia College are $12,330 a year.
Out of the 59 schools in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, Highland Community College landed the # 3 spot on the list. Located in Freeport, Illinois, the small public school handed out 602 degrees in 2021-2022.
Highland Community College undergraduate students pay an average of $7,048 in tuition and fees each year.
The excellent programs at Lincoln Land Community College helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best value trade schools in Illinois. Springfield, Illinois is the setting for this small institution of higher learning. The public school handed out degrees to 1,623 students in 2021-2022.
LLCC undergraduate students pay an average of $10,068 in tuition and fees each year.
You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend College of Lake County. It ranked #5 on our 2023 Best Value Trade School Schools in Illinois list. Located in Grayslake, Illinois, the fairly large public school awarded 4,149 diplomas to qualifed students in 2021-2022.
Out-of-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at College of Lake County are $13,118 per year.
College of Lake County excels when it comes to quality. It’s ranked in the top 20% of all schools on our Best Trade Schools in Illinois list.
Oakton Community College ranked #6 on this year’s Best Value Trade School Schools in Illinois list. This medium-sized public school is located in Des Plaines, Illinois, and it awarded 1,875 degrees in 2021-2022.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state undergraduate students at Oakton Community College are $12,462 a year.
In addition to its great value ranking, Oakton Community College is in the top 10% of all schools on our Best Trade Schools in Illinois list.
Rend Lake College ranked #7 on this year’s Best Value Trade School Schools in Illinois list. Located in Ina, Illinois, the small public school awarded 1,245 diplomas to qualifed students in 2021-2022.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state undergraduate students at Rend Lake College are $7,200 a year.
William Rainey Harper College ranked #8 on this year’s Best Value Trade School Schools in Illinois list. Palatine, Illinois is the setting for this fairly large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out degrees to 4,419 students in 2021-2022.
Harper College undergraduate students pay an average of $11,754 in tuition and fees each year.
On top of its placing in our value ranking, Harper College also did well on our Best Trade Schools in Illinois list. It’s in the top 20% of all schools reviewed in this analysis.
Black Hawk College landed the #9 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value trade school programs. Black Hawk College is a small public school located in Moline, Illinois that handed out 848 degrees in 2021-2022.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state undergraduate students at BHC are $8,100 a year.
Elgin Community College ranked #10 on this year’s Best Value Trade School Schools in Illinois list. Elgin Community College is a medium-sized public school located in Elgin, Illinois that handed out 2,201 degrees in 2021-2022.
Out-of-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at ECC are $9,516 per year.
Rock Valley College landed the #11 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value trade school programs. Rock Valley College is located in Rockford, Illinois and has a medium-sized student population. In 2021-2022, this school awarded 1,630 degrees to qualified students.
Out-of-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at Rock Valley College are $20,384 per year.
Southwestern Illinois College came in at #12 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Trade School Schools in Illinois ranking. SWIC is located in Belleville, Illinois and has a medium-sized student population. In 2021-2022, this school awarded 2,480 degrees to qualified students.
Out-of-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at SWIC are $6,210 per year.
Carl Sandburg College did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best value places for trade school students. It came in at #13 on the list. Carl Sandburg College is a small public school situated in Galesburg, Illinois. It awarded 512 degrees in 2021-2022.
Carl Sandburg College undergraduate students pay an average of $8,760 in tuition and fees each year.
Lake Land College did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best value places for trade school students. It came in at #14 on the list. Lake Land College is located in Mattoon, Illinois and has a small student population. In 2021-2022, this school awarded 2,244 degrees to qualified students.
Lake Land College undergraduate students pay an average of $13,905 in tuition and fees each year.
Morton College landed the #15 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value trade school programs. Morton College is located in Cicero, Illinois and has a small student population. In 2021-2022, this school awarded 622 degrees to qualified students.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state undergraduate students at Morton College are $10,900 a year.
Moraine Valley Community College landed the #16 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value trade school programs. Palos Hills, Illinois is the setting for this fairly large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out degrees to 5,228 students in 2021-2022.
MVCC undergraduate students pay an average of $9,630 in tuition and fees each year.
Rasmussen University - Illinois ranked #17 on this year’s Best Value Trade School Schools in Illinois list. Rasmussen University - Illinois is a private for-profit institution located in Rockford, Illinois. The school has a small population, and it awarded 1,312 degrees in 2021-2022.
Out-of-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at Rasmussen University - Illinois are $14,294 per year.
Rasmussen University - Illinois did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #5 on our Best Trade Schools in Illinois list.
Waubonsee Community College did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best value places for trade school students. It came in at #18 on the list. Sugar Grove, Illinois is the setting for this medium-sized institution of higher learning. The public school handed out degrees to 1,564 students in 2021-2022.
Out-of-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at Waubonsee are $11,496 per year.
DeVry University - Illinois ranked #19 on this year’s Best Value Trade School Schools in Illinois list. DeVry University - Illinois is a large private for-profit school situated in Naperville, Illinois. It awarded 9,399 degrees in 2021-2022.
DeVry University - Illinois undergraduate students pay an average of $15,032 in tuition and fees each year.
DeVry University - Illinois also took the #4 spot in our Best Trade Schools in Illinois rankings.
Illinois Central College landed the #20 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value trade school programs. ICC is located in East Peoria, Illinois and has a medium-sized student population. In 2021-2022, this school awarded 1,931 degrees to qualified students.
Out-of-state tuition fees for undergraduate students at ICC are $11,336 per year.
Illinois State University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best value places for trade school students. It came in at #21 on the list. Illinois State is a public institution located in Normal, Illinois. The school has a large population, and it awarded 5,654 degrees in 2021-2022.
Illinois State undergraduate students pay an average of $23,209 in tuition and fees each year.
In addition to its great value ranking, Illinois State is in the top 15% of all schools on our Best Trade Schools in Illinois list.
Kishwaukee College ranked #22 on this year’s Best Value Trade School Schools in Illinois list. Malta, Illinois is the setting for this small institution of higher learning. The public school handed out degrees to 791 students in 2021-2022.
Kishwaukee College undergraduate students pay an average of $13,800 in tuition and fees each year.
Prairie State College came in at #23 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Trade School Schools in Illinois ranking. Prairie State College is a small public school situated in Chicago Heights, Illinois. It awarded 658 degrees in 2021-2022.
Prairie State College undergraduate students pay an average of $11,064 in tuition and fees each year.
City Colleges of Chicago - Malcolm X College ranked #24 on this year’s Best Value Trade School Schools in Illinois list. City Colleges of Chicago - Malcolm X College is a medium-sized public school located in Chicago, Illinois that handed out 1,666 degrees in 2021-2022.
Malcolm X College undergraduate students pay an average of $14,430 in tuition and fees each year.
Richland Community College did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best value places for trade school students. It came in at #25 on the list. Richland Community College is a small public school situated in Decatur, Illinois. It awarded 806 degrees in 2021-2022.
Richland Community College undergraduate students pay an average of $17,070 in tuition and fees each year.
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Notes and References
Footnotes
*These averages are for the top 25 schools only.
References
- 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 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).
- Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.
More about our data sources and methodologies.
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