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

If you pursue a bachelor's degree in business administration & management, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #1 most popular program in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

In 2025, College Factual analyzed 37 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Business Administration & Management Bachelor's Degree Schools in Illinois ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 3,383 bachelor's degrees in business administration & management during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools List

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

Your choice of business administration & management for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality business administration program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we include a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Earnings

To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to business administration & management students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other business administration & management students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Student Debt - How much debt business administration & management students go into to obtain their bachelor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
• 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 bachelor's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

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 Bachelor's Degree Schools in Illinois.

In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.

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

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a bachelor's degree in business administration & management.

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

1

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL

134 Annual Graduates

$68,442 Median Starting Salary

$60,750 Median Student Debt

It's difficult to beat University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in business administration & management. UIUC is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Champaign.

Business Administration & Management bachelor's degree recipients from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign receive an earnings boost of around $20,501 over the average earnings of business administration & management majors.

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

2

Loyola University Chicago
Chicago, IL

118 Annual Graduates

$64,513 Median Starting Salary

$72,605 Median Student Debt

Loyola University Chicago is a great choice for students interested in a bachelor's degree in business administration & management. Loyola Chicago is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Chicago.

Bachelor's recipients from the business administration & management program at Loyola University Chicago get $16,572 more than the typical college grad in this field shortly after graduation.

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

3

DePaul University
Chicago, IL

164 Annual Graduates

$48,920 Median Starting Salary

$47,600 Median Student Debt

DePaul University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in business administration & management. DePaul is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Chicago.

Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the business administration program report average early career wages of $48,920.

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

4

Elmhurst University
Elmhurst, IL

84 Annual Graduates

$49,771 Median Starting Salary

$28,574 Median Student Debt

It's hard to beat Elmhurst University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in business administration & management. Located in the suburb of Elmhurst, Elmhurst is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.

Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the business administration program state that they receive average early career earnings of $49,771.

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

5

Illinois State University
Normal, IL

169 Annual Graduates

$50,647 Median Starting Salary

$37,538 Median Student Debt

Illinois State is a very large public university located in the medium-sized suburb of Normal.

Those business administration & management students who get their bachelor's degree from Illinois State University make $2,706 more than the typical business administration student.

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

6

Bradley University
Peoria, IL

38 Annual Graduates

$51,347 Median Starting Salary

Bradley is a medium-sized private not-for-profit university located in the city of Peoria.

Those business administration & management students who get their bachelor's degree from Bradley University make $3,406 more than the standard business administration graduate.

More information about a bachelor’s in business administration & management from Bradley University

7

Northern Illinois University
Dekalb, IL

109 Annual Graduates

$52,724 Median Starting Salary

$17,250 Median Student Debt

Located in the small suburb of Dekalb, NIU is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Bachelor's recipients from the business administration & management degree program at Northern Illinois University make $4,783 above the standard college grad in this field shortly after graduation.

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

8

Augustana College
Rock Island, IL

41 Annual Graduates

$50,210 Median Starting Salary

$34,500 Median Student Debt

Located in the small city of Rock Island, Augustana is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

Business Administration & Management bachelor's degree recipients from Augustana College earn a boost of approximately $2,269 over the average income of business administration & management majors.

More information about a bachelor’s in business administration & management from Augustana College

9

Judson University
Elgin, IL

50 Annual Graduates

$45,731 Median Starting Salary

Located in the midsize city of Elgin, Judson is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.

After graduation, business administration bachelor's recipients generally make around $45,731 in the first five years of their career.

More information about a bachelor’s in business administration & management from Judson University

10

University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL

87 Annual Graduates

$65,781 Median Starting Salary

Located in the city of Chicago, UIC is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Business Administration & Management bachelor's degree recipients from University of Illinois at Chicago earn a boost of about $17,840 over the typical income of business administration & management majors.

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

Best Business Administration & Management Colleges in the Great Lakes Region

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

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Michigan	261	4,041
Ohio	252	3,640
Indiana	235	2,577
Wisconsin	213	2,764

View All Rankings >

Business Administration & Management Related Rankings by Major

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

Business Administration Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
General Business Administration and Management	2,188
Interior Design Management	847
Operations Management	122
Supply Chain Management	106
Office Administration	64
Organizational Leadership	43
E-Commerce	7
Non-Profit/Public/Organizational Management	4
Retail Management	2

Most Popular Majors Related to Business Administration

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Accounting	1,749
Finance & Financial Management	1,737
Marketing	1,607
Management Sciences & Quantitative Methods	738
Management Information Systems	377
General Business/Commerce	320
Human Resource Management	210
Business/Managerial Economics	154
International Business	123
Construction Management	114

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.