Which Illinois public relations and advertising program has the lowest debt?

Illinois State reports the lowest median federal debt, $22,500, with first-year pay of $43,874.

How much do public relations and advertising graduates earn in Illinois?

The median across 9 Illinois public relations and advertising bachelor's programs is $41,234 in the first year after graduating and $66,959 five years after.

Public Relations and Advertising (Bachelor's) Programs in Illinois, Ranked by Graduate Pay and Debt

Q: How many public relations and advertising bachelor's programs are in Illinois?

9 Illinois programs report first-year pay for their graduates, and 8 of them also report federal debt.

9 programs report first-year pay
8 also report federal debt
Bachelor's in Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication

College Scorecard June 2026 release · BLS wages May 2025

The short answer

The median Illinois public relations and advertising bachelor's program pays its graduates $41,234 in their first year, $1,557 more than the national median. North Central College reports the highest first-year pay ($48,549), and Illinois State the lowest median debt ($22,500).

Median first-year pay$41,234National $39,677

Median pay after 5 years$66,959National $58,304

Median federal debt$24,750National $24,693

Debt-to-earnings59%National 62%

All 9 programs, ranked

Each figure is the median for the program's graduates. Programs that don't report a figure are listed last when you sort by it.

#	School	Year 1 pay	Year 5 pay	Debt	Debt to pay
1	North Central CollegeNaperville · private nonprofit	$48,549	$66,959	$26,899	55%
2	UIUCChampaign · public	$48,063	$75,277	$23,250	48%
3	Illinois StateNormal · public	$43,874	$62,349	$22,500	51%
4	Loyola ChicagoChicago · private nonprofit	$43,308	$67,395	$25,000	58%
5	DePaul UniversityChicago · private nonprofit	$41,234	$68,064	$24,500	59%
6	Columbia College ChicagoChicago · private nonprofit	$39,794	$56,607	$26,000	65%
7	Eastern Illinois UniversityCharleston · public	$38,369	Not reported	$23,745	62%
8	Bradley UniversityPeoria · private nonprofit	$38,351	$56,266	$26,819	70%
9	Lewis UniversityRomeoville · private nonprofit	$24,202	Not reported	Not reported	Not reported

Lewis University reports pay but not debt, so it is ranked only by pay.

Debt and first-year pay at every Illinois public relations and advertising 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 the 8 programs that report both earnings and debt are shown.

Quick picks

Highest first-year pay

Lowest median debt

Lowest debt for the pay

"Debt for the pay" is median debt divided by first-year pay. Only programs that report both figures are included.

Careers this field leads to

These are the jobs that the federal crosswalk from fields of study to occupations links to public relations and advertising, largest first. Pay is the median across all experience levels.

Training and Development Specialists

$67,380

Median pay in Illinois. 15,140 people work in this job in Illinois. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 11% from 2025 to 2035, with about 46,000 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree, plus less than 5 years of related work experience.

Bottom 10%: $39,430Top 10%: $119,970

Public Relations Specialists

$76,380

Median pay in Illinois. 6,200 people work in this job in Illinois. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 2% from 2025 to 2035, with about 23,000 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.

Bottom 10%: $47,690Top 10%: $139,570

Human Resources Managers

$151,370

Median pay in Illinois. 13,520 people work in this job in Illinois. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 16,800 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree, plus 5 years or more of related work experience.

Bottom 10%: $90,820Top 10%: $267,520

Fundraisers

$66,440

Median pay in Illinois. 4,470 people work in this job in Illinois. Nationally, jobs are projected to grow 6% from 2025 to 2035, with about 10,000 openings a year. Typical education to start: bachelor's degree.

Bottom 10%: $43,580Top 10%: $107,820

Common questions

North Central College in Naperville reports the highest median first-year pay, $48,549. Its median federal debt is $26,899.

Public Relations and Advertising (Bachelor's) programs in the US, ranked179 programs by pay and debt

About this data

Earnings and debt only include students who received federal financial aid, and earnings only count graduates who were working and not enrolled in more school.
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 rankings when their main campus is in another state.
Medians are across the public relations and advertising bachelor's programs that report each figure, so the counts differ by figure. Scorecard figures describe graduating classes from several years ago. BLS wages are from May 2025.

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
NCES, CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk, and IPEDS institution directory, 2024