Education, Elevated
Higher education is experiencing a fundamental shift—and Illinois Tech is on the leading edge, driving this change. This is by design: we focus on experiential, industry-aligned learning, where students of all backgrounds develop real-world skills that help them elevate their future.
Illinois Tech 2024 Rankings
More than 130 years ago, Illinois Tech was founded with a mission that still drives all that we do today: to provide a world-class education that enables students of all backgrounds to prepare for meaningful roles in a changing society. That ethos guides the university’s approach to educating all learners, no matter where they are physically or where they are in their academic and personal journeys.
Illinois Tech does this by pairing its industry-aligned, tech-driven curriculum with guaranteed access to real-world experiences. These opportunities prepare our students to address pressing global challenges and empower them with the twenty-first century skills that employers seek.
By providing these high-value opportunities to all learners and by offering innovative programs and platforms that meet learners where they are, Illinois Tech has seen unprecedented growth: the university experienced its highest fall enrollment in more than 30 years in fall 2023, a 23 percent increase over fall 2022.
Create a High-Impact Experiential Learning Program
We welcome you to click above to read and download our new white paper, Beyond the Classroom, which examines how we have created a blueprint for a high-impact experiential learning program that Elevates our graduates’ career outcomes.
Education Through Experience
Illinois Tech’s one-of-a-kind Elevate program guarantees our students access to experiential opportunities such as internships, research, competitions, study away, and more. Supported with personalized academic and career mentorship through Elevate, our students gain exceptional career readiness.
Illinois Tech is a pioneer in experiential learning, having launched the Interprofessional Projects (IPRO) Program nearly 30 years ago. IPRO joins students from diverse majors to work together in teams to solve real-world problems, often on behalf of project sponsors. In this required program, students gain twenty-first century skills literacy such as social and emotional learning, teamwork, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving.
Outcomes and Economic Mobility
Illinois Tech’s approach to education is built upon a bedrock foundation: preparing our students to achieve exceptional career outcomes. And our numbers highlight just how successful Illinois Tech’s career-focused approach is: Illinois Tech graduates have a job placement rate of 91 percent (among 2022 graduates reporting) and among the highest mean starting salaries in the nation ($75,352 for undergraduates and $87,258 for graduate students).
Bloomberg Philanthropies has recognized Illinois Tech as an American Talent Initiative High-Flier, an honor given to national leaders in college access and success for lower-income students.
Access and Opportunity for All
Illinois Tech’s commitment to quality and innovation includes launching new programs that increase access to a world-class education for all learners.
Ascend is unique to traditional community-college transfer pathways in that it enables learners who have applied to Illinois Tech and need additional academic preparedness or who see affordability as a barrier to study at one of the seven City Colleges of Chicago while they take part in first-year experiences such as living on campus and accessing student support at Illinois Tech. Discover+ enables students to explore multiple disciplines at Illinois Tech before choosing a specialization or a multidisciplinary major. Tech+ combines two majors into one to create a single, four-year undergraduate degree that integrates relevant, tech-focused coursework with a human-centered education to create meaningful pathways into careers. Our M.B.A. program in Mandarin provides working professionals with a world-class business degree, meeting the learners where they are in academic and language preparation, and in their homes.
New pathways provide opportunities for learners from diverse backgrounds. Through our partnership with Coursera, we offer four fully online, affordable, and in-demand degrees with performance-based admissions.
An Education with an Impact
‘Leadership is Community’
Marilyn Flowers turned a passion for computing into a career path—and embraced her role as a student leader to make a difference for her community and others at Illinois Tech.
‘I’m Learning and Creating the Career I Want’
Alison Yurchak (BME, M.S. CHE 5th Year) always knew she was an engineer. When she arrived at Illinois Tech, she learned how she could make a difference through engineering in medicine.
‘I Want to Serve Humanity’
Hamid Mohiuddin (PSYC 3rd Year) aims to address health care disparities as an Obama Foundation Voyager scholar, which provides students with a $10,000 stipend and housing for a work-travel experience.
Illinois Tech inspired Rohit Prasad to follow his passions. Advice he received from a graduate school adviser allowed him to thrive and make lasting contributions to the future of AI.
Rohit Prasad (M.S. Electrical Engineering ’99)
Myetie Hamilton (M.P.A. ’03) didn't have to look for inspiration as a child growing up: her grandfather, and his actions, instilled in her a passion to advocate for and help others succeed.
Myetie Hamilton (M.P.A. ’03)
Judge John Fitzgerald Lyke, Jr. has seen every side of the criminal courtroom, and it all started at Chicago-Kent.
John Fitzgerald Lyke, Jr. Law '94
Alzira Maldonado Protsishin (M.A.S.ARCH ’14) never wavered in pursuit of her dreams—and, with the support of her family, she’s impacting Chicago, and beyond, through architecture.
Alzira Maldonado Protsishin (M.A.S. ARCH ’14)
Considered the "Father of the cell phone," Marty Cooper fought to prove his 1973 invention—a handheld, mobile telephone—was the future of communication.
Martin “Marty” Cooper (EE ’50, M.S. EE ’57)
With a desire to help solve problems, Marilyn Barrios decided to leave a career in information technology sales to go back to school to study cybersecurity—and now she’s helping Motorola Solutions design more secure systems.
Marilyn Barrios (ITM, M.A.S. ITM ’18)