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Best Value Social Sciences Doctor's Degree Schools in Illinois

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2023 Best Value Social Sciences Doctor's Degree Schools in Illinois

Identifying Quality Schools at More Affordable Prices

5 Colleges
$34,353 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$62,624 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Social Sciences Doctor's Degree School for You

With 1,111 degrees and certificates handed out in 2020-2021, social sciences is the #11 most popular major in Illinois.

There are lots of options to pick from today when trying to decide which program is right for you. 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.

Along with in-depth profiles of schools and the programs they offer, Grad Degree Search has created the Best Value Social Sciences Doctor's Degree Schools in Illinois to help you in your search for the best school for you. This report analyzed 5 schools in Illinois to see which ones offered the best value doctor's degree programs for social sciences 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. More specifically, we discount our quality score by the published tuition and fees charged by a school. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The value is determined by how much quality your dollar buys.

Our calculations use out-of-state tuition and fees in our nationwide and regional rankings. Average in-state tuition and fees are used for our statewide rankings.

2023 Best Value Social Sciences Doctor’s Degree Schools in Illinois

The colleges and universities below are the best value schools for social sciences majors pursuing a doctor's degree.

Best Illinois Schools for Affordable Quality for a Doctorate in Social Sciences

Our 2023 rankings named University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign the best value school in Illinois for social sciences students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the city of Champaign, UIUC is a public school with a very large student population.

UIUC graduate students pay an average of $17,823 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

UIUC also made our Best Social Sciences Doctor’s Degree Schools in Illinois list, coming in at #4.

Read full report on Social Sciences at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The excellent doctor’s degree programs at Southern Illinois University Carbondale helped the school earn the #2 place on this year’s ranking of the best value social sciences schools in Illinois. SIUC is a fairly large public school located in the small city of Carbondale.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at SIUC are $16,162 a year.

Read More…

The excellent doctor’s degree programs at University of Illinois at Chicago helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best value social sciences schools in Illinois. UIC is a fairly large public school located in the city of Chicago.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at UIC are $17,277 a year.

Full Social Sciences at University of Illinois at Chicago Report

#4

Northwestern University

Evanston, IL

A rank of #4 on this year’s list means Northwestern University is a great value for social sciences students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit school with a very large student population.

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

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 for social sciences in Illinois.

Full Social Sciences at Northwestern University Report

#5

University of Chicago

Chicago, IL

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend University of Chicago. The school came in at #5 on this year’s Best Value Social Sciences Doctor’s Degree Schools in Illinois list. UChicago is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Chicago.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at UChicago are $63,936 per year.

UChicago also took the #2 spot in our Best Social Sciences Doctor’s Degree Schools in Illinois rankings.

Full Social Sciences at University of Chicago Report

Best Value Social Sciences Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best Value Social Sciences Schools in the Great Lakes Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Indiana 290
Ohio 575
Wisconsin 518
Michigan 441

Social Sciences Majors to Study

Major Annual Graduates
Economics 6,173
International Relations & National Security 5,010
Political Science & Government 2,664
Geography & Cartography 2,315
Sociology 1,907
Anthropology 1,446
Criminology 936
General Social Sciences 745
Other Social Sciences 532
Urban Studies 432
Archeology 66
Demography & Population Studies 66

Related Major Annual Graduates
Education 199,724
Psychology 42,013
Communication & Journalism 12,242
Library Science 5,929
History 4,391

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 AndrГ© KГјnzelmann.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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