Sustainability Science isn't the most popular bachelor's program in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #155 in popularity out of 363 majors in the country. As such, the degree program isn't offered at every college in the United States, but there are schools that do have a program in the field that are top-notch when it comes to quality.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 2 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Sustainability Science Bachelor's Degree Schools in Illinois ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 103 bachelor's degrees in sustainability science to qualified students.
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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
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to sustainability science students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other sustainability science students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
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 much debt sustainability science 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 sustainability science related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for sustainability science students working on their bachelor's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Sustainability Science Bachelor's Degree Schools in Illinois list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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.
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a wonderful option for students interested in a bachelor's degree in sustainability science. Located in the small city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the sustainability science major at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign make $10,065 above the standard college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
University of Illinois at Chicago is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in sustainability science. UIC is a very large public university located in the city of Chicago.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the sustainability science program make an average of $30,548 in their early career salary.
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).
