2023 Best Value Computer Science Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois
Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Prices
There are so many computer science programs in today's world that it can tough to figure out which one is the right one for you. 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. Also there are many trade schools and bootcamps that offer short-term programs that open up more career options.
Along with in-depth profiles of schools and the programs they offer, Computer Science Degree Search has created the Best Value Computer Science Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois to help you in your search for the best school for you. Our analysis looked at 6 schools in Illinois to see which graduate certificate programs offered the best value experiences for computer science students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.
This ranking is not just a list of inexpensive schools. We also consider each school's quality, since we believe a low-quality school may not be a 'bargain' at any price. 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.
For nationwide and regional rankings, we use out-of-state tuition and fees in our calculations. For statewide rankings, we use average in-state tuition and fees.
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Top Value Computer Science Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois
Learn more about these excellent schools below:
Our 2023 rankings named Illinois State University the best value school in Illinois for computer science students working on their graduate certificate. Illinois State is located in Normal, Illinois and has a large student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 18 graduate certificates to qualified students.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at Illinois State are $11,773 a year.
Illinois State does offer online graduate classes for certain degree levels. To give an idea of how popular online courses are at the school, 81% of graduates took at least one course online in 2019-2020.
Out of the 6 schools in Illinois that were part of this year’s value ranking, Lewis University landed the # 2 spot on the list. Lewis is located in Romeoville, Illinois and has a medium-sized student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 11 graduate certificates to qualified students.
Lewis graduate students pay an average of $14,960 in tuition and fees each year.
Lewis does offer online graduate classes for certain degree levels. Of all the graduate students enrolled at the school during the 2019-2020 academic year, around 85% took at least some of their classes online.
Lewis also made our Best Computer Science Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois list, coming in at #5.
A rank of #3 on this year’s list means DeVry University - Illinois is a great place for computer science students working on their graduate certificate who want the most bang for their educational buck. DeVry University - Illinois is a large private for-profit school located in Chicago, Illinois that handed out 120 graduate certificates in 2020-2021.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at DeVry University - Illinois are $17,552 a year.
If you are interested in distance education, be sure to check with the school since DeVry University - Illinois does offer online graduate classes for certain majors. In fact, around 97% of the graduate population registered for at least one online class in 2019-2020.
DeVry University - Illinois not only placed well in our value ranking, but it is also #4 on our Best Computer Science Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois list.
The excellent graduate certificate programs at DePaul University helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best value computer science schools in Illinois. DePaul University is a large private not-for-profit school located in Chicago, Illinois that handed out 3 graduate certificates in 2020-2021.
Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at DePaul are $18,341 per year.
Depending on your major, you may be able to take online graduate classes at DePaul. To give an idea of how popular online courses are at the school, 96% of graduates took at least one course online in 2019-2020.
DePaul also took the #3 spot in our Best Computer Science Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois rankings.
Out of the 6 schools in Illinois that were part of this year’s value ranking, Northwestern University landed the # 5 spot on the list. Located in Evanston, Illinois, the large private not-for-profit school handed out 2 graduate certificate awards in 2020-2021.
Out-of-state tuition fees for graduate students at Northwestern are $56,567 per year. Graduate Certificate recipients from this school accumulate an average of $21,679 in student debt by the time they complete their degree.
If you are interested in distance education, be sure to check with the school since Northwestern does offer online graduate classes for certain majors. In fact, around 2% of the graduate population registered for at least one online class in 2019-2020.
In addition to its best value ranking, and one of the reasons why the school is on the list, Northwestern is ranked #1 for overall quality in Illinois.
University of Chicago ranked #6 on this year’s Best Value Computer Science Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois list. UChicago is located in Chicago, Illinois and has a fairly large student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 121 graduate certificates to qualified students.
The average tuition and fees for an out-of-state graduate students at UChicago are $63,936 a year.
UChicago not only placed well in our value ranking, but it is also #2 on our Best Computer Science Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois list.
Best Value Computer Science Graduate Certificate Schools in the Great Lakes Region
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Notes and References
Footnotes
*These averages are for the top 6 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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