UIUC Civil Engineering (Bachelor's): Tuition, Graduate Salary, and Debt
- Bachelor's in Civil Engineering
- Public university
- Champaign, IL
- About 180 graduates a year
College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025
The short answer
UIUC civil engineering graduates earn more than graduates of most civil engineering programs nationally, $73,397 in their first year. Where this program stands out is debt. The typical graduate leaves with $19,054 in federal loans, less than at 86% of civil engineering programs in the country. It is one of the higher-paying civil 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 civil engineering bachelor's programs that report the figure.
Five years out, UIUC graduates earn more than the national figure and about $7,039 more than the Illinois median.
Debt and first-year pay at every Illinois civil 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 24% between the first and fifth year.
Year 1 and year 5 figures come from different graduating classes, so the growth rate is an estimate.
Does family income change the outcome?
Graduates who received Pell Grants, which go to students from lower-income families, earned slightly more in their first year than other graduates. They also borrowed less. At this program, the outcome does not look worse for students with less money.
Paying back the loans
On a standard 10-year plan, the median debt means a payment of about $202 a month, or 3.3% 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. Separately, 55 parents took out Parent PLUS loans for these students, with a median of $40,286.
Where graduates work, and what the pay is worth
69% of graduates (82 of 119) were working in Illinois one year after graduating. Prices in the Champaign area are about 7% below the national average, so a $73,397 salary here buys what about $79,173 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 civil engineering, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.
Civil Engineers
$99,760Median pay in Illinois. 13,910 people work in this job in Illinois. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 22,700 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
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.
Environmental Engineers
$107,990Median pay in Illinois. 940 people work in this job in Illinois. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 2,300 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
Petroleum Engineers
$144,910Median pay nationwide. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 2% from 2025 to 2035, with about 1,000 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.
About UIUC
Civil Engineering ranks 16th 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 $73,397 one year after graduating and $90,751 five years after. The median across civil engineering bachelor's programs in Illinois is $70,535.
The median federal loan balance is $19,054, which ranks the lowest of 6 civil engineering bachelor's programs in Illinois. That works out to about $202 a month over 10 years.
On the numbers, yes for most students. Debt equals 26% of first-year earnings, against a national median of 35%, and the share of borrowers in default two years into repayment is 10% or less.
Most do. 69% (82 of 119) 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 civil 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