Bachelor of Science in Behavioral Health and Wellness

A second-year medical resident can treat 80 percent of people with a heart condition by giving simple guidance: eat better, get more exercise and sleep, and stop smoking. Easy, right? The problem is knowing what to do is much easier than knowing how to do it. Lifestyle habits are engrained from years of subtle abuse of our bodies. In that way, these aren’t issues for medicine; they’re issues for psychology.

As a student in the Bachelor of Science in Behavioral Health and Wellness program at the Lewis College of Human Sciences, you will develop your understanding of how lifestyle choices impact health over time, and how to design individualized programs to promote healthy living, most often related to nutrition, exercise, and tobacco and alcohol use. You’ll also become a patient advocate, educating patients on how to steer through the daunting bureaucracy of health care services.

Program Overview

We're interested in how lifestyle choices affect health and wellness. Our students learn to create individualized programs to promote healthy living, most often related to nutrition, exercise, and tobacco and alcohol use. They also learn to be great patient advocates.

The behavioral health and wellness degree program will provide students with a broad understanding of how lifestyle choices impact health, and how health professionals design programs to promote healthy lifestyle choices. Students will develop an understanding of three core areas:

• Intervention development and implementation
• Community care coordination
• Public health policy

Promoting skills in these interrelated areas will prepare graduates for a wide range of health/wellness professions in private business and industry, community organizations, and healthcare environments.

The behavioral health and wellness degree is designed as an interdisciplinary program, combining coursework in psychology, sociology, political science, and nutritional science to address health promotion at the individual, institutional, and societal levels. The curriculum of the behavioral health and wellness major will provide students with a broad understanding of the psychological, social, and cultural context of health behavior, including related theories, skills, and emerging technology.

A flexible curriculum allows the degree to be customized around student interests and career goals. Students can choose to specialize in health psychology, public health, or nutrition. The degree program will include a capstone project designed to integrate and apply the concepts and skills learned throughout the curriculum. The capstone will be an individually tailored project defined in collaboration with a faculty adviser which will typically involve a field placement and may include a research component.

Why Illinois Tech is one of the best value universities in the country

As an Illinois Tech student, you’ll automatically be considered for our university’s generous institutional scholarships. On average, this adds up to a savings of $107,472 on tuition and housing for every student during your four years at Illinois Tech ($134,340 for five years, based on fall 2021 figures).

We’re committed to dramatically reducing the cost of your degree, so you can focus on learning at one of the most dynamic and innovation-driven universities in the country.

Want some more great reasons?

• On top of our institutional scholarship, on average, Illinois Tech awards our students an additional $34,412 each in need-based tuition aid over four years ($43,015 for five years). (among FAFSA filers, fall 2021)
• We’re the #44 Best Value School in the nation (U.S. News & World Report)
• 98% of our students receive some form of financial aid
• The mean starting salary of our undergraduates is $63,938

Located in the great global city of Chicago, Illinois Tech is a top-tier, nationally ranked, private research university with programs in engineering, computer science, architecture, design, science, business, human sciences, and law. As Chicago’s only comprehensive tech-focused university, Illinois Tech offers a bachelor of science, master of science, professional master’s, and Ph.D. degrees, as well as certificates, in in-demand STEM fields and other areas of innovation. Options include in-person, hybrid, and online courses. Undergraduate students can take part in dual-degree and pre-med/pre-health programs, as well as Illinois Tech’s Accelerated Master’s Program, which allows them to receive both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in as few as five years.

Illinois Tech is the only university to offer all students the Elevate program. Elevate guarantees that students participate in hands-on experiences—internships, research, competitions, study away, career-focused short courses, and more—that empower them with the twenty-first-century skills that employers seek. Elevate also ensures students receive personalized academic and career mentorship from a team of advisers and are uniquely career-ready upon graduation.

Illinois Tech is ranked #1 in Illinois among private colleges for return on investment (after aid, PayScale) and is the #44 ranked best value school in the United States (U.S. News & World Report). Illinois Tech graduates achieve a 92.8% employment rate within six months of graduation (2021 class). Its alumni include the inventor of the cell phone, the pioneer of barcode technology, and the head scientist for Amazon Alexa, among other leaders.

Students enjoy studying and living on a historic campus just minutes from downtown Chicago, which offers networking, internship, and career opportunities. Less than a mile from Lake Michigan’s stunning beaches, Illinois Tech’s campus has been acclaimed as “one of America’s most beautiful college campuses.” Illinois Tech students come from more than 106 countries and all 50 states.