College profile
Chicago State University
IL · Public · Large city · 9,458 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- Built for the AI economy. About 1 in 10 degrees here is already in AI, computer science, or data fields. This campus is leaning into the shift, not waiting for it.
- The payoff holds even at full price: roughly 4× over a decade. With no aid at all — the full in-state ~$29,764/yr — a decade of median earnings (~$42,778/yr) still runs about 4× the four-year cost. This payoff doesn't depend on qualifying for anything. (Out-of-state costs more.)
- Worth asking: do students finish? Only 15% graduate within six years here — the standard federal measure. Ask what drives that: course availability, transfers out, students working long hours. Not finishing is the costliest outcome there is.
Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.
Parent/student verdict
Moderately selectiveSolid match for academically prepared students. Affordable — net price averages ~$12,335/yr among aid recipients. Major value play for in-state residents.
Best for
- In-state residents (tuition ~$12,754 — major value play)
- Students drawn to Psychology or Business, Management, & Marketing (the two biggest majors)
- Families wanting a small liberal-arts experience
Verdict is composed from this college's structured data (admit rate, SAT bands, net price with aid and at full price, Carnegie classification, scholarship grids) using transparent rule thresholds — not a chat-bot's opinion.
What are your child's odds here?
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Institutional snapshot
What kind of college is this?
Source: federal IPEDS Admissions 2023 for scores + admit rate; federal College Scorecard (20260606 vintage) for earnings + outcomes. SAT/ACT bands are the 25th–75th percentile of enrolled submitters.
Outcomes & cost
What graduates actually earn, finish, and owe.
Federal College Scorecard data. Earnings are median annual income measured years after entering. Debt is for federal-aid borrowers only (cash-pay students aren't counted).
The real cost
What Chicago State University actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by Chicago State University's own aid decision: the gap between its price and your family's finances.
Your odds + estimated cost across your whole college list, side by side.
The payoffTen years of typical graduate pay minus four years of cost — how many dollars ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten. Check both the full-price and with-aid versions to see which applies to you; median pay reflects who a college admits and what they study as much as the college itself., both ways
+$309K ahead at full price +$378K with aidSource: College Scorecard (average net price among Title IV first-time, full-time undergraduates who received aid) and each college's published cost of attendance. We don't show the federal net-price-by-income brackets: their categories were fixed in 2008 and never adjusted, and none of the averages is your family's own number — the full story. Payoff = (10-yr median earnings × 10) − (4 years of cost), in dollars — how far ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten; medians travel with the students a college admits and the majors they choose as much as with the college itself. Full price is the published cost of attendance, largely in-state for publics; earnings are 10 years after enrollment, all majors combined.
What students study here
Most popular majors at Chicago State University
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what Chicago State University actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — Chicago State University's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing. | $92,024 |
| Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods. | $59,296 |
| Criminal Justice and Corrections. | $57,691 |
| Business Administration, Management and Operations. | $53,181 |
| Sociology. | $51,485 |
| Psychology, General. | $47,168 |
| Biology, General. | $46,898 |
Sources: IPEDS Completions (C2023_a; bachelor's-level first majors, 2-digit CIP family — share is of the top 5 only) · College Scorecard program-level outcomes (PP-FOS). Full college-vs-major comparison: /college-outcomes →
Student body & economic mobility
Who attends here — and what the campus adds.
Opportunity Insights data. It measures two things at once: how many lower-income students a college enrols, and how many of them reach the top earnings quintile later. A high rate says the college does both — it does not establish that the campus caused the earnings, because the students it admits differ from the students it doesn't. Read it as a signal about access and destination, not as proof of value added.
Full leaderboards: /college-mobility →
Alternatives to Chicago State University
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At a glance
JSON · Using this page with an AI assistantChicago State University is a public four-year college in IL. It admitted 40% of applicants (9,458 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Cost: about $12,335 a year on average with aid, $29,764 a year at full price for in-state students.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $42,778 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $378,440 ahead with aid, $308,724 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing ($92,024); Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods ($59,296); Criminal Justice and Corrections ($57,691).
Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 26% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 14% of those reached the top fifth as adults.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/chicago-state-university.json