UIUC Biomedical Engineering (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Biomedical/Medical Engineering
- Public university
- Champaign, IL
- About 86 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
UIUC biomedical engineering graduates earn about what biomedical engineering graduates earn nationally, $71,485 in their first year. Where this program stands out is debt. The typical graduate leaves with $16,850 in federal loans, less than at 87% of biomedical engineering programs in the country. It is one of the higher-paying biomedical engineering 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 biomedical engineering bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, UIUC graduates earn more than the national figure and about $8,337 more than the Illinois median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Illinois biomedical engineering 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 44% 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 $179 a month, or 3.0% 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
53% of graduates (17 of 32) were working in Illinois one year after graduating. Prices in the Champaign area are about 7% below the national average, so a $71,485 salary here buys what about $77,111 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 biomedical engineering, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Architectural and Engineering Managers
$163,610Median pay in Illinois. 8,900 people work in this job in Illinois. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 14,900 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree, plus 5 years or more of related work experience.
Bioengineers and Biomedical Engineers
$89,520Median pay in Illinois. 280 people work in this job in Illinois. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 8% from 2025 to 2035, with about 1,200 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
About UIUC
Biomedical Engineering ranks 18th of 71 bachelor's programs at UIUC by first-year earnings. The top three are Computer Science ($124,530), Computer and Information Science ($113,503), and Mathematics and Computer Science ($109,843).
Common questions
The median graduate earns $71,485 one year after graduating and $103,191 five years after. The median across biomedical engineering bachelor's programs in Illinois is $55,011.
The median federal loan balance is $16,850, which ranks the lowest of 5 biomedical engineering bachelor's programs in Illinois. That works out to about $179 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 24% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 36%.
Most do. 53% (17 of 32) 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 biomedical engineering 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