Computer Programming isn't the most popular master's program in the world, but it's not the least popular either. To be more precise it ranks #167 in popularity out of 343 majors in the country. As such, the degree program isn't offered at every college in the United States, but there are schools that do have a program in the field that are top-notch when it comes to quality.
College Factual looked at 3 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Computer Programming Master's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 259 master's degrees in computer programming to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Computer Programming School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of computer programming for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality programming program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a college's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a combination of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to computer programming students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other computer programming students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
Student Debt - How much debt computer programming students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized computer programming related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for computer programming students working on their master's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Computer Programming Master's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Computer Programming in the Great Lakes Region
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in computer programming.
Top Great Lakes Region Schools for a Master's in Programming
Any student who is interested in a master's degree in computer programming needs to take a look at DePaul University. DePaul is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Chicago.
Students who graduate with their master's from the programming program state that they receive average early career wages of $94,629.
Build on your IT degree and become an asset to your company by learning to create and maintain interactive and e-commerce websites with this specialized online master's from Southern New Hampshire University.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).