Illinois State Journalism (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Journalism
- Public university
- Normal, IL
- About 34 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Illinois State journalism graduates earn about what journalism graduates earn nationally, $36,643 in their first year. The typical graduate leaves with $23,500 in federal loans, close to the national median of $24,500. Several Illinois programs report higher pay.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Illinois and national columns are the medians across all journalism bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Illinois State graduates earn less than the national figure and about the same as the Illinois median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Illinois journalism program
Programs in the upper left give graduates higher pay for less debt. Dashed lines mark the Illinois medians.
Hover over or tap a dot to see the school. Only programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.
What graduates earn over time
Pay rises about 32% between the first and fifth year.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $249 a month, or 8.2% of a graduate's typical monthly pay in the first year.
The government publishes these as ranges to protect privacy. They were measured in 2018 to 2020, partly during the pandemic pause on federal loan payments, so the forbearance share may be higher than usual.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
78% of graduates (28 of 36) were working in Illinois one year after graduating. Prices in the Bloomington area are about 6% below the national average, so a $36,643 salary here buys what about $39,175 buys in a typical US city.
Careers this field leads to
These are the jobs that the federal crosswalk from fields of study to occupations links to journalism, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Editors
$76,060Median pay in Illinois. 4,560 people work in this job in Illinois. Nationally, jobs are projected to shrink 1% from 2025 to 2035, with about 7,900 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree, plus less than 5 years of related work experience.
Photographers
$36,570Median pay in Illinois. 2,150 people work in this job in Illinois. Nationally, jobs are projected to shrink 1% from 2025 to 2035, with about 10,700 openings a year. Typical education to start: high school diploma or equivalent.
Writers and Authors
$68,220Median pay in Illinois. 2,640 people work in this job in Illinois. Nationally, jobs are projected to stay about the same in number from 2025 to 2035, with about 11,900 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
News Analysts, Reporters, and Journalists
$60,590Median pay in Illinois. 1,060 people work in this job in Illinois. Nationally, jobs are projected to shrink 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 3,400 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
About Illinois State
Journalism ranks 38th of 52 bachelor's programs at Illinois State by first-year earnings. The top three are Computer Science ($81,363), Nursing ($72,709), and Construction Management ($70,672).
Other journalism bachelor's programs near Normal
Common questions
The median graduate earns $36,643 one year after graduating and $48,505 five years after. The median across journalism bachelor's programs in Illinois is $37,016.
The median federal loan balance is $23,500, which ranks 4th lowest of 8 journalism bachelor's programs in Illinois. That works out to about $249 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 64% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 67%, and the share of borrowers in default two years into repayment is 20% or less. If the highest possible early salary is the main goal, several Illinois programs report higher pay.
Most do. 78% (28 of 36) were working in Illinois one year after graduating.
About this data
- Earnings and debt only include students who received federal financial aid (grants or loans).
- Earnings only count graduates who were working and not enrolled in more school. Graduates who went straight to further study are not included.
- Debt only includes federal loans. Private loans and credit cards are not counted.
- Some schools with several campuses report one combined figure for all of them. We count each of those schools once, and leave them out of Illinois comparisons when their main campus is in another state.
- Scorecard figures describe graduating classes from several years ago. BLS wages are from May 2025.
- School-level numbers like tuition, admission rate, and graduation rate are for the whole school, not the journalism program.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard, field of study and institution files, June 2026 release
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2025 to 2035
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024
- NCES, CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk, and IPEDS institution directory, 2024