When it comes to popularity, a bachelor's degree in fire protection sits in the middle of the road, ranking #147 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.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 2 schools in Illinois to determine which ones were the best for fire protection students pursuing a bachelor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 50 bachelor's degrees in fire protection 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
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on fire protection students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other fire protection 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 easy is it for fire protection to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized fire protection related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for fire protection 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 Fire Protection 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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Southern Illinois University Carbondale is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in fire protection. Located in the town of Carbondale, SIUC is a public university with a large student population.
Fire Protection bachelor's degree recipients from Southern Illinois University Carbondale get an earnings boost of approximately $31,293 over the average earnings of fire protection majors.
It is difficult to beat Western Illinois University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in fire protection. Located in the remote town of Macomb, WIU is a public university with a moderately-sized student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the fire protection program state that they receive average early career income of $41,432.
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.
