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.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 345 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Computer Science Bachelor's Degree Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 43,697 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 complete 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.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Computer Science in the United States
Learn about the top ranked colleges and universities for computer science students seeking a a bachelor's degree. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
Cornell University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in computer science. Cornell is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Ithaca.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from Cornell University receive an earnings boost of approximately $79,498 over the typical earnings of computer science graduates.
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in computer science needs to take a look at Duke University. Located in the city of Durham, Duke is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Those computer science students who get their bachelor's degree from Duke University make $60,198 more than the average compsci graduate.
Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in computer science needs to take a look at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Located in the medium-sized city of Cambridge, MIT is a private not-for-profit school with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science degree program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology get $81,334 above the average college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
It's difficult to beat Columbia University in the City of New York if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in computer science. 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 receive $45,478 more than the average compsci graduate.
Located in the city of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science degree program at Carnegie Mellon University earn $98,106 above the standard college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
UC Berkeley is a very large public university located in the city of Berkeley.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from University of California - Berkeley receive an earnings boost of approximately $76,708 over the average income of computer science majors.
Located in the medium-sized city of Providence, Brown is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science program at Brown University get $77,907 above the average graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Located in the city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science program at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign earn $51,372 above the average graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Dartmouth is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit college located in the remote town of Hanover.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science major at Dartmouth College earn $59,761 more than the average college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Located in the large city of Seattle, UW Seattle is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science degree program at University of Washington - Seattle Campus get $55,729 above the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Stanford is a large private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Stanford.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science major at Stanford University get $65,455 more than the average college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
USC is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Los Angeles.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science major at University of Southern California earn $64,126 above the standard college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
Vanderbilt is a large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Nashville.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from Vanderbilt University earn a boost of about $49,086 over the average income of computer science graduates.
UMCP is a very large public university located in the large suburb of College Park.
Those computer science students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Maryland - College Park receive $26,598 more than the typical compsci graduate.
WPI is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the midsize city of Worcester.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from Worcester Polytechnic Institute earn a boost of around $20,730 above the typical earnings of computer science majors.
Located in the large suburb of Saint Louis, WUSTL is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from Washington University in St Louis get an earnings boost of about $37,144 above the average income of computer science graduates.
Boston U is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Boston.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from Boston University receive an earnings boost of approximately $16,892 above the typical earnings of computer science graduates.
Princeton is a medium-sized private not-for-profit university located in the city of Princeton.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science program at Princeton University make $73,466 above the average college grad in this field shortly after graduation.
UCSD is a very large public university located in the large city of La Jolla.
Those computer science students who get their bachelor's degree from University of California - San Diego make $38,848 more than the standard compsci student.
Purdue is a fairly large public university located in the small city of West Lafayette.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science major at Purdue University - Main Campus earn $21,628 more than the standard college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
RPI is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit school located in the small city of Troy.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute receive an earnings boost of approximately $31,785 above the typical earnings of computer science majors.
Located in the city of Philadelphia, UPenn is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from University of Pennsylvania earn a boost of about $51,520 over the typical earnings of computer science majors.
Located in the city of Washington, Georgetown is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science degree program at Georgetown University get $19,816 above the average 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 degree program at Northwestern University get $26,823 above the average college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
This list shows the rest of the colleges awarded a Best Computer Science Bachelor's Degree Schools badge.
Showing in this list means the school was ranked in the top 20% of the 345 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).