Northeastern Illinois University Criminal Justice (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Criminal Justice and Corrections
- Public university
- Chicago, IL
- About 34 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
Northeastern Illinois University criminal justice graduates earn about what criminal justice graduates earn nationally, $40,719 in their first year. Where this program stands out is debt. The typical graduate leaves with $13,625 in federal loans, less than at 97% of criminal justice programs in the country. Strong value, but not one of the highest-paying criminal justice degrees in Illinois.
How it compares
Each figure is the median for graduates of the program. The Illinois and national columns are the medians across all criminal justice bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, Northeastern Illinois University graduates earn more than the national figure and about the same as the Illinois median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Illinois criminal justice 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 45% 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 $144 a month, or 4.2% 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
98% of graduates (81 of 83) were working in Illinois one year after graduating. Prices in the Chicago area are about 4% above the national average, so a $40,719 salary here buys what about $39,306 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 criminal justice, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Security Guards
$39,490Median pay in Illinois. 53,830 people work in this job in Illinois. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 1% from 2025 to 2035, with about 156,000 openings a year. Typical education to start: high school diploma or equivalent.
Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers
$100,520Median pay in Illinois. 29,180 people work in this job in Illinois. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 51,500 openings a year. Typical education to start: high school diploma or equivalent.
Compliance Officers
$80,550Median pay in Illinois. 10,650 people work in this job in Illinois. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 32,700 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Child, Family, and School Social Workers
$63,220Median pay in Illinois. 19,860 people work in this job in Illinois. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 4% from 2025 to 2035, with about 33,900 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
About Northeastern Illinois University
Criminal Justice ranks 11th of 22 bachelor's programs at Northeastern Illinois University by first-year earnings. The top three are Subject-Area Teacher Education ($63,615), Computer Science ($62,831), and Accounting ($50,475).
Other criminal justice bachelor's programs near Chicago
Common questions
The median graduate earns $40,719 one year after graduating and $59,188 five years after. The median across criminal justice bachelor's programs in Illinois is $39,884.
The median federal loan balance is $13,625, which ranks the lowest of 19 criminal justice bachelor's programs in Illinois. That works out to about $144 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 33% 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, usually with more debt.
Most do. 98% (81 of 83) 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 criminal justice 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