If you pursue a bachelor's degree in computer science, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #16 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
College Factual reviewed 340 schools in the United States to determine which ones were the best for bachelor's degree seekers in the field of computer science. Combined, these schools handed out 39,196 bachelor's degrees in computer science to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Computer Science School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of computer science for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality compsci program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of bachelor's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their bachelor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to computer science students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of computer science students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How much debt computer science students go into to obtain their bachelor'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 science related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for computer science students working on their bachelor's degree.
When choosing the right school for you, it's important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we've created a number of major-specific rankings, including this Best Computer Science Bachelor's Degree Schools list to help you make the college decision.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.
ADVERTISEMENT
Featured Computer Science Programs
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
Learn the front-end design and back-end development skills employers look for in full stack software developers with this online bachelor's degree in computer science from Southern New Hampshire University.
With a software engineering degree, you'll learn the fundamental concepts and principles – a systematic approach used to develop software on time, on budget and within specifications – throughout your online college classes at SNHU.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Computer Science in the United States
Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for computer science students seeking a a bachelor's degree. Only those schools that rank in the top 15% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Every student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in computer science needs to look into Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Located in the city of Cambridge, MIT is a private not-for-profit school with a large student population.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from Massachusetts Institute of Technology receive an earnings boost of about $52,548 above the typical income of computer science graduates.
Stanford University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in computer science. Stanford is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Stanford.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science degree program at Stanford University earn $70,483 above the standard graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in computer science needs to check out Duke University. Located in the large city of Durham, Duke is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science degree program at Duke University make $49,492 more than the typical graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Cornell University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in computer science. Cornell is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Ithaca.
Those computer science students who get their bachelor's degree from Cornell University make $62,121 more than the average compsci grad.
Located in the midsize city of Providence, Brown is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science degree program at Brown University make $64,458 more than the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Caltech is a small private not-for-profit school located in the city of Pasadena.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from California Institute of Technology receive an earnings boost of approximately $64,050 above the typical earnings of computer science majors.
Harvard is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the midsize city of Cambridge.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from Harvard University earn a boost of around $74,429 above the average earnings of computer science majors.
Located in the large city of New York, Columbia is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Those computer science students who get their bachelor's degree from Columbia University in the City of New York earn $43,260 more than the standard compsci graduate.
Located in the city of Philadelphia, UPenn is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from University of Pennsylvania earn a boost of approximately $61,980 over the typical income of computer science graduates.
UC Berkeley is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Berkeley.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from University of California - Berkeley receive an earnings boost of around $59,607 above the typical earnings of computer science graduates.
Located in the large suburb of Saint Louis, WUSTL is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science program at Washington University in St Louis get $24,287 above the typical college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
USC is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Los Angeles.
Those computer science students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Southern California earn $38,655 more than the standard compsci student.
Located in the city of Seattle, UW Seattle is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science major at University of Washington - Seattle Campus get $36,067 above the average college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Tufts is a large private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Medford.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science major at Tufts University get $30,706 above the typical college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Northwestern is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Evanston.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science major at Northwestern University earn $18,394 more than the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Purdue is a fairly large public university located in the city of West Lafayette.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science major at Purdue University - Main Campus get $16,106 above the average college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those computer science students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign earn $35,619 more than the typical compsci student.
Located in the town of Williamstown, Williams is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from Williams College get an earnings boost of about $43,827 over the typical earnings of computer science graduates.
UNC Chapel Hill is a fairly large public university located in the small city of Chapel Hill.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science major at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill earn $8,519 above the standard graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
UCSD is a fairly large public university located in the city of La Jolla.
Those computer science students who get their bachelor's degree from University of California - San Diego receive $22,095 more than the average compsci graduate.
This list represents the rest of the colleges awarded a Best Computer Science Bachelor's Degree Schools badge.
Showing in this list means the college was ranked in the top 15% of the 340 different United States computer science schools we analyzed.
These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Computer Science Bachelor's Degree Schools award.
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).
college factual
Your choice of computer science for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality compsci program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
