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Best Value Nursing Master's Degree Schools in Illinois

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2023 Best Value Nursing Master's Degree Schools in Illinois

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

25 Colleges
$16,493 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$98,140 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Nursing Master's Degree School for You

In 2020-2021, nursing students earned 6,634 degrees and certificates from an Illinois school, making the subject the 2nd in the state.

Today's students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. Along with traditional schools that require in-person attendence, you can attend one of many reputable online schools. Some programs even offer a hybrid experience. Alternatively, you may choose a trade school that prepares you to enter the workforce with knowledge in a specific field.

Along with in-depth profiles of schools and the programs they offer, Grad Degree Search has created the Best Value Nursing Master's Degree Schools in Illinois to help you in your search for the best school for you. This report analyzed 25 schools in Illinois to see which ones offered the best value master's degree programs for nursing students. The goal was to highlight schools with more affordable prices than others offering similar quality experiences.

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.

2023 Best Value Nursing Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois

The colleges and universities below are the best value schools for nursing majors pursuing a master's degree.

Top 10 Best Nursing Master's Degree Schools

Our analysis found Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing to be the best value school for nursing students who want to pursue a master’s degree in Illinois. St. Francis Medical Center College of Nursing is a small private not-for-profit school located in the city of Peoria.

St. Francis Medical Center College of Nursing graduate students pay an average of $8,740 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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Out of the 25 schools in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, Illinois State University landed the # 2 spot on the list. Located in the medium-sized suburb of Normal, Illinois State is a public school with a very large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Illinois State are $9,773 a year.

Illinois State also made our Best Nursing Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list, coming in at #5.

Full Nursing at Illinois State University Report

The excellent master’s degree programs at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best value nursing schools in Illinois. Located in the large suburb of Edwardsville, SIUE is a public college with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at SIUE are $9,316 a year.

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Out of the 25 schools in Illinois that were part of this year’s ranking, Chamberlain University - Illinois landed the # 4 spot on the list. Located in the suburb of Addison, Chamberlain - Illinois is a private for-profit college with a fairly large student population.

Chamberlain - Illinois graduate students pay an average of $14,090 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

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#5

Governors State University

University Park, IL

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Governors State University. It ranked #5 on our 2023 Best Value Nursing Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list. GSU is a small public school located in the rural area of University Park.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at GSU are $8,320 per year.

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#6

McKendree University

Lebanon, IL

McKendree University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for nursing students to get a master’s degree. It came in at #6 on the list. Located in the suburb of Lebanon, McKendree is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.

McKendree graduate students pay an average of $9,756 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Read full report on Nursing at McKendree University

University of St Francis ranked #7 on this year’s Best Value Nursing Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list. Located in the large suburb of Joliet, University of Saint Francis is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at University of Saint Francis are $13,839 per year.

In addition to its best value ranking, and one of the reasons why the school is on the list, University of Saint Francis is ranked #4 for overall quality for nursing in Illinois.

Full Nursing at University of St Francis Report

Northern Illinois University came in at #8 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Nursing Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois ranking. Located in the suburb of Dekalb, NIU is a public college with a large student population.

NIU graduate students pay an average of $11,390 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Full Nursing at Northern Illinois University Report

#9

Olivet Nazarene University

Bourbonnais, IL

Olivet Nazarene University landed the #9 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value master’s degree nursing programs. Olivet Nazarene is a small private not-for-profit school located in the suburb of Bourbonnais.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at Olivet Nazarene are $12,190 a year.

As a testament to the quality of education it offers, Olivet Nazarene also is in the top 15% of our Best Nursing Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois ranking.

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#10

Lewis University

Romeoville, IL

Lewis University came in at #10 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Nursing Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois ranking. Located in the suburb of Romeoville, Lewis is a private not-for-profit school with a medium-sized student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Lewis are $14,960 per year.

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Best Value Nursing Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

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

State Degrees Awarded
Michigan 1,113
Ohio 2,563
Indiana 1,819
Wisconsin 972

One of 29 majors within the area of study, nursing has other similar majors worth exploring.

Majors Similar to Nursing

Related Major Annual Graduates
Medicine 28,629
Rehabilitation & Therapeutic Professions 24,774
Public Health 19,473
Health & Medical Administrative Services 17,335
Pharmacy/Pharmaceutical Sciences 16,952

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 25 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 Aleksahgabrielle.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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