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Best Value Public & Social Service Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois

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2023 Best Value Public & Social Service Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

5 Colleges
$37,877 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$55,530 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Public Administration & Social Service Graduate Certificate School for You

In 2020-2021, public administration and social service students earned 2,690 degrees and certificates from an Illinois school, making the subject the 5th in the state.

Today's students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. With more and more schools offering online options, you could even register for a great program on the other side of the country. On top of that, there are a considerable number of trade schools that offer fast-track entry to many fields.

To assist you in seeing some of the education options that are available to you, Grad Degree Search has created its Best Value Public & Social Service Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois ranking. This report analyzed 5 schools in Illinois to see which ones offered the best value graduate certificate programs for public administration and social service 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 Public Administration & Social Service Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois

The following schools top our list of the Best Value Public Administration & Social Service Graduate Certificate Colleges.

Best Illinois Schools for Affordable Quality for a Postbaccalaureate Certificates in Public & Social Service

Our 2023 rankings named University of Illinois at Springfield the best value school in Illinois for public administration and social service students working on their graduate certificate. Located in the midsize city of Springfield, UIS is a public school with a small student population.

UIS graduate students pay an average of $11,111 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Read full report on Public Administration & Social Service at University of Illinois at Springfield

#2

Aurora University

Aurora, IL

A rank of #2 on this year’s list means Aurora University is a great value for public administration and social service students working on their graduate certificate. Located in the large suburb of Aurora, Aurora is a private not-for-profit college with a medium-sized student population.

Aurora graduate students pay an average of $14,100 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Full Public Administration & Social Service at Aurora University Report

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Loyola University Chicago. The school came in at #3 on this year’s Best Value Public & Social Service Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois list. Loyola Chicago is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Chicago.

Loyola Chicago graduate students pay an average of $19,894 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Read More…

#4

Northwestern University

Evanston, IL

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Northwestern University. The school came in at #4 on this year’s Best Value Public & Social Service Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois list. Northwestern is a very large private not-for-profit school located in the small city of Evanston.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Northwestern are $56,567 per year.

Northwestern did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #1 on our Best Public & Social Service Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois list.

Read full report on Public Administration & Social Service at Northwestern University

#5

University of Chicago

Chicago, IL

The excellent graduate certificate programs at University of Chicago helped the school earn the #5 place on this year’s ranking of the best value public administration and social service schools in Illinois. Located in the large city of Chicago, UChicago is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UChicago are $63,936 a year.

UChicago did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #2 on our Best Public & Social Service Graduate Certificate Schools in Illinois list.

Read More…

Best Value Public Administration & Social Service Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best Value Public Administration & Social Service Colleges in the Great Lakes Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Indiana 1,347
Ohio 1,347
Wisconsin 532
Michigan 1,815

Public Administration & Social Service Majors to Study

Major Annual Graduates
Social Work 33,631
Public Administration 13,571
Public Policy 3,737
Human Services 1,277
Community Organization & Advocacy 741
Other Public Administration 295

Related Major Annual Graduates
Legal Professions 45,189
Homeland Security, Law Enforcement & Firefighting 13,045
Parks, Recreation, Leisure, & Fitness Studies 10,452
Military Technologies & Applied Sciences 1,613

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 5 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 University of the Fraser Valley.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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