2024 Best Information Science Master's Degree Schools

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.

College Factual looked at 103 colleges and universities when compiling its 2024 Best Information Science Master's Degree Schools ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 6,396 master's degrees in information science to qualified students.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Information Science School for Your Master's Degree

Your choice of information science for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality is 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

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 complete 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.

One Size Does Not Fit All

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.

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.

15 Top Schools for a Master's in IS

1

Northwestern University
Evanston, IL

40 Annual Graduates

$101,303 Median Starting Salary

Northwestern University is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in information science. Northwestern is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Evanston.

Information Science master's degree recipients from Northwestern University earn a boost of approximately $26,090 over the average earnings of information science graduates.

More information about a master’s in information science from Northwestern University

2

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL

367 Annual Graduates

It's hard to beat University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign if you want to pursue a master's degree in information science. Located in the small city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in information science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

3

University of California - Berkeley
Berkeley, CA

370 Annual Graduates

University of California - Berkeley is a great choice for individuals pursuing a master's degree in information science. UC Berkeley is a very large public university located in the midsize city of Berkeley.More information about a master’s in information science from University of California - Berkeley

4

Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD

60 Annual Graduates

$108,932 Median Starting Salary

Every student who is interested in a master's degree in information science has to look into Johns Hopkins University. Johns Hopkins is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Baltimore.

Master's recipients from the information science program at Johns Hopkins University make $33,719 above the typical college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.

More information about a master’s in information science from Johns Hopkins University

5

University of Washington - Seattle Campus
Seattle, WA

203 Annual Graduates

$90,156 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large city of Seattle, UW Seattle is a public university with a very large student population.

Master's recipients from the information science program at University of Washington - Seattle Campus make $14,943 more than the typical graduate in this field shortly after graduation.

More information about a master’s in information science from University of Washington - Seattle Campus

6

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI

242 Annual Graduates

$60,266 Median Starting Salary

U-M is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Ann Arbor.

Students who graduate with their master's from the is program state that they receive average early career earnings of $60,266.

More information about a master’s in information science from University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

7

The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX

132 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Austin, UT Austin is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in information science from The University of Texas at Austin

8

Harvard University
Cambridge, MA

11 Annual Graduates

Harvard is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the medium-sized city of Cambridge.More information about a master’s in information science from Harvard University

9

George Washington University
Washington, DC

67 Annual Graduates

$89,668 Median Starting Salary

GWU is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Washington.

Those information science students who get their master's degree from George Washington University make $14,455 more than the standard is graduate.

More information about a master’s in information science from George Washington University

10

Southern Methodist University
Dallas, TX

116 Annual Graduates

$115,112 Median Starting Salary

Located in the suburb of Dallas, SMU is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.

Information Science master's degree recipients from Southern Methodist University receive an earnings boost of around $39,899 above the average income of information science graduates.

More information about a master’s in information science from Southern Methodist University

11

Boston University
Boston, MA

286 Annual Graduates

$92,380 Median Starting Salary

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 get an earnings boost of approximately $17,167 above the average earnings of information science majors.

More information about a master’s in information science from Boston University

12

University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus
Pittsburgh, PA

106 Annual Graduates

$77,499 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large city of Pittsburgh, Pitt is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Information Science master's degree recipients from University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus get an earnings boost of around $2,286 above the average earnings of information science majors.

More information about a master’s in information science from University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus

13

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC

36 Annual Graduates

UNC Chapel Hill is a fairly large public university located in the city of Chapel Hill.More information about a master’s in information science from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

14

Drexel University
Philadelphia, PA

144 Annual Graduates

$80,473 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large city of Philadelphia, Drexel is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.

Those information science students who get their master's degree from Drexel University receive $5,260 more than the standard is student.

More information about a master’s in information science from Drexel University

15

University of Maryland Global Campus
Adelphi, MD

462 Annual Graduates

$81,658 Median Starting Salary

UMGC is a very large public university located in the large suburb of Adelphi.

Those information science students who get their master's degree from University of Maryland Global Campus receive $6,445 more than the typical is graduate.

More information about a master’s in information science from University of Maryland Global Campus

Additional Noteworthy Schools

Here are some additional great schools for Information Science students that almost earned our Best Information Science Master's Degree Schools award.

Rank	College	Location
16	New Jersey Institute of Technology	Newark, NJ
17	Syracuse University	Syracuse, NY
18	University of Maryland - Baltimore County	Baltimore, MD
18	University of Maryland - College Park	College Park, MD
19	DePaul University	Chicago, IL
20	University of Utah	Salt Lake City, UT
21	University of Wisconsin - Madison	Madison, WI
22	University of Delaware	Newark, DE
23	The University of Texas at Dallas	Richardson, TX
24	Missouri University of Science and Technology	Rolla, MO
25	New York University	New York, NY

Information Science by Region

View the Best Information Science Master's Degree Schools for a specific region near you.

Region
Southeast
New England
Rocky Mountains
Plains States
Middle Atlantic
Far Western US
Southwest
Other U.S. Territories
Great Lakes

View All Rankings >

Information Science Related Rankings by Major

Information Science is one of 10 different types of Computer & Information Sciences programs to choose from.

IS Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
General Information Science	6,396

Majors Similar to IS

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Computer Information Systems	18,992
Computer Science	14,364
Information Technology	9,181
Computer Software & Applications	3,555
Computer Systems Analysis	628
Computer Systems Networking	566
Computer Programming	378
Other Computer & Information Sciences	251
Data Processing	199

Notes and References

• 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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to The Opte Project. More about our data sources and methodologies.