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Chicago, Illinois has 5 accredited schools offering graphic design programs, with tuition ranging from $52,386 to $68,164 per year for indexed programs. Chicago has a population of about 2,707,648. Median household income is $75,134 (Census ACS 2023, 5-year). About 43.3% of adults 25+ hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. In the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metro area, the top-earning graphic design-related role is Art Director at a median $104,570 annually (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
The accredited institutions listed below are the closest in our directory that offer graphic design programs near Chicago, ranked by BOC Score and straight-line distance from Chicago city center. The list is rebuilt from federal IPEDS data on every site update.
Every school list on this site is ordered by the BOC Score, computed from the most recent school-level data published by the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard and IPEDS). To qualify, a school must be currently operating and accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Each eligible school is then scored on five measures, percentile-ranked against schools at the same credential level:
Schools without enough outcome data appear after ranked schools, without a score. On this page, schools are ordered by distance from Chicago. Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Source:Accreditor: Higher Learning CommissionIPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source: IPEDS / College Scorecard (2023 cohort). Browse all Illinois schools on the Illinois graphic design page.
Chicago is part of the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN metro area (BLS area code 16980). Where MSA-level wages are published, the table below shows MSA medians; otherwise it falls back to Illinois statewide.
| Occupation | Median Wage | Source | COL-Adjusted (US=100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Graphic Designer | $66,490 | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $64,180 |
| Art Director | $104,570 | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $100,936 |
| Web and Digital Interface Designer | $87,920 | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $84,865 |
| Special Effects Artist and Animator | $83,200 | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN | $80,309 |
Source: BLS, May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes wage data at the metro (MSA) and state level – not by individual city.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 2,707,648 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B01003) |
| Median household income | $75,134 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B19013) |
| Adults 25+ with bachelor’s+ | 43.3% | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B15003) |
| Regional Price Parity (US=100) | 103.6 (above U.S. average) | BEA RPP 2024 |
Our directory has 5 accredited schools offering graphic design programs near Chicago. The closest is Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, IL (3.1 miles), and the farthest of the schools shown is Columbia College Chicago (4.0 miles). 2 of the highlighted schools are flagged as offering distance education.
Based on BLS OEWS May 2025 wage data, the top-paying graphic design-related roles near Chicago are: Art Director ($104,570), Web and Digital Interface Designer ($87,920), Special Effects Artist and Animator ($83,200). These reflect MSA-level medians where published, with Illinois statewide fallback for occupations not reported at the metro level.
Cicero, IL is 3.8 miles from Chicago and has its own set of local graphic design programs – see the city’s page. For online programs, distance matters less; for hybrid or in-person formats, comparing both can help.
Chicago’s median household income of $75,134 (Census ACS 2023) is one input. Online programs let students stay in Chicago while attending lower-cost out-of-state schools, and Illinois public universities often offer reduced in-state online tuition.
Confirm institutional accreditation via the U.S. Department of Education database (U.S. Dept. of Education database), and check for any program-specific accreditation listed by the school.
Compare every accredited online degree program with city-level data for Chicago:
Data verified: July 30, 2026. Salary, employment, and tuition figures on this page are sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS May 2025; Employment Projections 2024–2034) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (2023 cohort). The source agency and data year are cited inline with every statistic.
Back to Best Online Graphic Design Programs in Illinois (2026)
