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Best Value Visual & Performing Arts Master's Degree Schools in Illinois

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2023 Best Value Visual & Performing Arts Master's Degree Schools in Illinois

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

13 Colleges
$19,156 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$32,741 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Visual & Performing Arts Master's Degree School for You

In 2020-2021, 1,053 degrees and certificates were awarded to visual and performing arts students who went to a Illinois college or university. This makes it the #13 most popular major in the state.

There are so many 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 that offer short-term programs that open up more career options.

Along with in-depth profiles of schools and the programs they offer, Grad Degree Search has created the Best Value Visual & Performing Arts Master's Degree Schools in Illinois to help you in your search for the best school for you. Our analysis looked at 13 schools in Illinois to see which master's degree programs offered the best value experiences for visual and performing arts 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.

2023 Best Value Visual & Performing Arts Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois

Check out the visual and performing arts master's degree programs at these schools if you want to get the best value for your educational dollar.

Top 10 Best Visual & Performing Arts Master's Degree Schools

Our analysis found Columbia College Chicago to be the best value school for visual and performing arts students who want to pursue a master’s degree in Illinois. Columbia is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Chicago.

Columbia graduate students pay an average of $2,350 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Read More…

#2

Eastern Illinois University

Charleston, IL

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Eastern Illinois University. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Best Value Visual & Performing Arts Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list. EIU is a moderately-sized public school located in the distant town of Charleston.

EIU graduate students pay an average of $10,640 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Full Visual & Performing Arts at Eastern Illinois University Report

The excellent master’s degree programs at Illinois State University helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best value visual and performing arts schools in Illinois. Located in the midsize suburb of Normal, Illinois State is a public school with a fairly large student population.

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

In addition to its best value ranking, and one of the reasons why the school is on the list, Illinois State is ranked #5 for overall quality for visual and performing arts in Illinois.

Full Visual & Performing Arts at Illinois State University Report

The excellent master’s degree programs at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville helped the school earn the #4 place on this year’s ranking of the best value visual and performing arts schools in Illinois. Located in the suburb of Edwardsville, SIUE is a public school with a large student population.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at SIUE are $9,316 per year.

Read full report on Visual & Performing Arts at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

The excellent master’s degree programs at Western Illinois University helped the school earn the #5 place on this year’s ranking of the best value visual and performing arts schools in Illinois. WIU is a medium-sized public school located in the town of Macomb.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at WIU are $12,182 a year.

Read full report on Visual & Performing Arts at Western Illinois University

Northern Illinois University came in at #6 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Visual & Performing Arts Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois ranking. Located in the suburb of Dekalb, NIU is a public college with a fairly large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state graduate student at NIU are $11,390 a year.

Read full report on Visual & Performing Arts at Northern Illinois University

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ranked #7 on this year’s Best Value Visual & Performing Arts Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list. UIUC is a fairly large public school located in the small city of Champaign.

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

UIUC did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our Best Visual & Performing Arts Master’s Degree Schools in Illinois list.

Read full report on Visual & Performing Arts at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

With a ranking of #8, University of Illinois at Chicago did quite well on this year’s best value schools for visual and performing arts students working on their master’s degree. Located in the city of Chicago, UIC is a public college with a fairly large student population.

UIC graduate students pay an average of $17,277 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Read full report on Visual & Performing Arts at University of Illinois at Chicago

Southern Illinois University Carbondale landed the #9 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best value master’s degree visual and performing arts programs. Located in the city of Carbondale, SIUC is a public school with a large student population.

SIUC graduate students pay an average of $16,162 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Read full report on Visual & Performing Arts at Southern Illinois University Carbondale

#10

Roosevelt University

Chicago, IL

With a ranking of #10, Roosevelt University did quite well on this year’s best value schools for visual and performing arts students working on their master’s degree. Roosevelt is a small private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Chicago.

In-state tuition fees for graduate students at Roosevelt are $21,605 per year.

Full Visual & Performing Arts at Roosevelt University Report

Best Value Visual & Performing Arts Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best Value Visual & Performing Arts Schools in the Great Lakes Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Indiana 417
Ohio 791
Wisconsin 146
Michigan 469

Visual & Performing Arts Majors to Study

Major Annual Graduates
Music 7,675
Fine & Studio Arts 3,224
Design & Applied Arts 1,979
Film, Video & Photographic Arts 1,704
Drama & Theater Arts 1,699
Arts & Media Management 1,184
General Visual & Performing Arts 390
Dance 257
Other Visual Art 254
Crafts, Folk Art & Artisanry 13

Related Major Annual Graduates
Theology & Religious Vocations 17,287
English Language & Literature 9,566
Foreign Languages & Linguistics 4,163
Philosophy & Religious Studies 3,136
Liberal Arts / Sciences & Humanities 2,680

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 13 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 Bonnielou2013.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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