2025 Best Business Administration & Management Master's Degree Schools in Illinois

Ranked #1 in popularity, business administration & management is one of the most sought-after master's degree programs in the nation. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 37 schools in Illinois to determine which ones were the best for business administration & management students pursuing a master's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 5,643 master's degrees in business administration & management to qualified students.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Business Administration & Management School for Your Master's Degree

Your choice of business administration & management for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.

A Great Overall School

A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.

Early-Career Earnings

One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.

Other Factors We Consider

In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on business administration & management students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of business administration & management students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
• Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
• Student Debt - How easy is it for business administration & management to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized business administration & management related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for business administration & management students working on their master's degree.

More Ways to Rank Business Administration & Management Schools

The business administration school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Business Administration & Management Master's Degree Schools in Illinois.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Business Administration & Management in Illinois

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in business administration & management.

10 Top Illinois Schools for a Master's in Business Administration

1

Northwestern University
Evanston, IL

173 Annual Graduates

$224,402 Median Starting Salary

Northwestern University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in business administration & management. Northwestern is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Evanston.

Business Administration & Management master's degree recipients from Northwestern University get an earnings boost of around $140,446 over the typical earnings of business administration & management graduates.

More information about a master’s in business administration & management from Northwestern University

2

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL

1,735 Annual Graduates

$118,799 Median Starting Salary

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in business administration & management. Located in the small city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Master's recipients from the business administration & management degree program at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign get $34,843 more than the typical college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.

More information about a master’s in business administration & management from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

3

DePaul University
Chicago, IL

489 Annual Graduates

$101,710 Median Starting Salary

DePaul University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in business administration & management. Located in the large city of Chicago, DePaul is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.

Those business administration & management students who get their master's degree from DePaul University receive $17,754 more than the average business administration graduate.

More information about a master’s in business administration & management from DePaul University

4

Loyola University Chicago
Chicago, IL

180 Annual Graduates

$101,612 Median Starting Salary

Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in business administration & management needs to take a look at Loyola University Chicago. Located in the city of Chicago, Loyola Chicago is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.

Business Administration & Management master's degree recipients from Loyola University Chicago get an earnings boost of about $17,656 over the typical income of business administration & management majors.

More information about a master’s in business administration & management from Loyola University Chicago

5

Benedictine University
Lisle, IL

226 Annual Graduates

$81,812 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large suburb of Lisle, Benedictine U is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.

Students who graduate with their master's from the business administration program report average early career earnings of $81,812.

More information about a master’s in business administration & management from Benedictine University

6

Northern Illinois University
Dekalb, IL

122 Annual Graduates

$85,140 Median Starting Salary

NIU is a fairly large public university located in the small suburb of Dekalb.

Soon after graduation, business administration master's recipients typically make around $85,140 in their early careers.

More information about a master’s in business administration & management from Northern Illinois University

7

University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL

249 Annual Graduates

$88,048 Median Starting Salary

UIC is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Chicago.

Business Administration & Management master's degree recipients from University of Illinois at Chicago get an earnings boost of about $4,092 over the average income of business administration & management majors.

More information about a master’s in business administration & management from University of Illinois at Chicago

8

Elmhurst University
Elmhurst, IL

77 Annual Graduates

$74,808 Median Starting Salary

Elmhurst is a small private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Elmhurst.

After graduation, business administration master's recipients generally make an average of $74,808 in the first five years of their career.

More information about a master’s in business administration & management from Elmhurst University

9

Bradley University
Peoria, IL

20 Annual Graduates

Located in the midsize city of Peoria, Bradley is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.More information about a master’s in business administration & management from Bradley University

10

Illinois State University
Normal, IL

55 Annual Graduates

$85,715 Median Starting Salary

Located in the medium-sized suburb of Normal, Illinois State is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Soon after graduating, business administration master's recipients usually make an average of $85,715 at the beginning of their careers.

More information about a master’s in business administration & management from Illinois State University

Best Business Administration & Management Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

Explore all the Best Business Administration & Management Colleges in the Great Lakes Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Michigan	211	3,723
Ohio	207	3,539
Indiana	191	2,542
Wisconsin	173	1,506

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Business Administration

Business Administration & Management is one of 21 different types of Business, Management & Marketing programs to choose from.

Business Administration Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
General Business Administration and Management	5,243
Organizational Leadership	140
Non-Profit/Public/Organizational Management	134
Interior Design Management	88
Research and Development Management	19
Project Management	17
Operations Management	2

Majors Similar to Business Administration

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	5,158
Accounting	510
Marketing	444
Human Resource Management	409
Finance & Financial Management	346
Management Information Systems	194
General Business/Commerce	114
Entrepreneurial Studies	31
Taxation	20
Business/Corporate Communications	19

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• 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). More about our data sources and methodologies.