Information Science is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #33 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
In 2023, College Factual analyzed 100 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Information Science Master's Degree Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 6,396 master's degrees in information science to qualified students.
Choosing a Great Information Science School for Your Master's Degree
The IS master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
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 for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
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
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to information science students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of information science students who choose to seek a master'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 information science 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 information science related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for information science students working on their master'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 Information Science Master's Degree Schools list to help you make the college decision.
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Featured Information Science Programs
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
To stay competitive in today's information technology world, employees need to have training that goes beyond traditional computer programming and IT expertise.
Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Information Science in the United States
Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in information science. 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 master's degree in information science needs to take a look at Johns Hopkins University. Johns Hopkins is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Baltimore.
Those information science students who get their master's degree from Johns Hopkins University receive $33,719 more than the standard IS student.
Northwestern University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in information science. Northwestern is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Evanston.
Those information science students who get their master's degree from Northwestern University earn $26,090 more than the standard IS graduate.
Located in the city of Seattle, UW Seattle is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Master's recipients from the information science degree program at University of Washington - Seattle Campus earn $14,943 more than the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
GWU is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Washington.
Master's recipients from the information science degree program at George Washington University earn $14,455 above the average graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Boston U is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Boston.
Information Science master's degree recipients from Boston University earn a boost of about $17,167 above the typical earnings of information science majors.
Located in the city of Newark, NJIT is a public school with a fairly large student population.
Those information science students who get their master's degree from New Jersey Institute of Technology receive $14,837 more than the average IS grad.
Located in the city of Pittsburgh, Pitt is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those information science students who get their master's degree from University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus receive $2,286 more than the typical IS grad.
Located in the suburb of Dallas, SMU is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Information Science master's degree recipients from Southern Methodist University receive an earnings boost of around $39,899 above the typical earnings of information science graduates.
UMCP is a very large public university located in the suburb of College Park.
Those information science students who get their master's degree from University of Maryland - College Park make $18,450 more than the typical IS graduate.
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
The IS master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
