College Costs in Illinois

How much does it cost to attend college in Illinois?   The average annual in-state college tuition in Illinois was $19,293 for the 2021-2022 academic year. This is $4,163 higher than the U.S. average and ranks Illinois amongst the costliest as the 10th most expensive and 43rd most affordable state or district to attend college. This is a change of $592 from the 2019-2020 average of $18,701 and represents a 3.17% annual increase. The list of Illinois colleges below provides school specific cost and value rating.

Our guide surveyed tuition data from the 127 colleges and universities in Illinois, the most popular being University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign with 46,600 full time students and an in-state tuition list price of $12,254. Northwestern University is the most expensive in Illinois with an in-state tuition of $60,276.

Click on any school for current tuition, future cost estimates, school specific savings plans and estimated student loan payments. Illinois colleges can also be filtered by public, private, community colleges and four year schools. Additionally, cost based sorting is available for the lowest and highest tuition options. Jump directly to our ranking of best values in Illinois or cheap Illinois colleges guide.

<Academic Rating is a CollegeCalc proprietary national percentile ranking of a college's overall difficulty and educational effectiveness. An average score is 50. Dollar value is a measure of a school's academic rating compared with the average net price paid. Colleges which are ranked "n/a" didn't report sufficient data to formulate a score. Learn more about our ratings.

All price data are reprinted from the U.S. Department of Education's 2020-2021 IPEDS Survey and reflect reported costs for the 2021-2022 academic year.

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