2024 Best Computer Engineering Master's Degree Schools in California

Computer Engineering is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #39 most popular master's degree program in the country. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.

College Factual looked at 16 colleges and universities when compiling its 2024 Best Computer Engineering Master's Degree Schools in California ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,115 master's degrees in computer engineering during the 2020-2021 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Computer Engineering School for Your Master's Degree

Your choice of computer engineering for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.

A Great Overall School

The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a good 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 host of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Early-Career Earnings

One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.

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 engineering students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other computer engineering 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 engineering 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 engineering related body.

Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for computer engineering students working on their master's degree.

More Ways to Rank Computer Engineering Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Computer Engineering Master's Degree Schools in California ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Computer Engineering in California

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in computer engineering.

10 Top California Schools for a Master's in CE

1

Santa Clara University
Santa Clara, CA

168 Annual Graduates

$125,788 Median Starting Salary

Santa Clara University is a wonderful decision for students pursuing a master's degree in computer engineering. SCU is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the city of Santa Clara.

Master's recipients from the computer engineering degree program at Santa Clara University make $10,595 above the typical graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.

More information about a master’s in computer engineering from Santa Clara University

2

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

49 Annual Graduates

University of Southern California is a wonderful decision for individuals interested in a master's degree in computer engineering. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in computer engineering from University of Southern California

3

San Jose State University
San Jose, CA

511 Annual Graduates

$124,052 Median Starting Salary

San Jose State University is a great choice for students pursuing a master's degree in computer engineering. Located in the city of San Jose, San Jose State is a public university with a very large student population.

Computer Engineering master's degree recipients from San Jose State University earn a boost of approximately $8,859 over the typical earnings of computer engineering graduates.

More information about a master’s in computer engineering from San Jose State University

4

University of California - San Diego
La Jolla, CA

82 Annual Graduates

$122,641 Median Starting Salary

It's hard to beat University of California - San Diego if you wish to pursue a master's degree in computer engineering. Located in the city of La Jolla, UCSD is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Computer Engineering master's degree recipients from University of California - San Diego earn a boost of approximately $7,448 above the typical income of computer engineering graduates.

More information about a master’s in computer engineering from University of California - San Diego

5

University of California - Irvine
Irvine, CA

87 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Irvine, UC Irvine is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in computer engineering from University of California - Irvine

6

University of California - Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA

3 Annual Graduates

UCLA is a fairly large public university located in the city of Los Angeles.More information about a master’s in computer engineering from University of California - Los Angeles

7

University of California - Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA

12 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Santa Cruz, UC Santa Cruz is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in computer engineering from University of California - Santa Cruz

8

California State University - Fullerton
Fullerton, CA

89 Annual Graduates

$88,293 Median Starting Salary

Cal State Fullerton is a very large public university located in the suburb of Fullerton.

Master's students who receive their degree from the ce program make around $88,293 in the first couple years of working.

More information about a master’s in computer engineering from California State University - Fullerton

9

University of California - Riverside
Riverside, CA

41 Annual Graduates

UCR is a fairly large public university located in the city of Riverside.More information about a master’s in computer engineering from University of California - Riverside

10

California State University - Northridge
Northridge, CA

16 Annual Graduates

CSUN is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Northridge.More information about a master’s in computer engineering from California State University - Northridge

Best Computer Engineering Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Computer Engineering Schools in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Washington	183	3
Oregon	158	11
Nevada	105	33

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to CE

One of 41 majors within the Engineering area of study, Computer Engineering has other similar majors worth exploring.

CE Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Software Engineering	547
General Computer Engineering	534
Computer Hardware Engineering	31
Other Computer Engineering	3

Majors Similar to CE

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Electrical Engineering	1,849
Mechanical Engineering	984
Civil Engineering	915
Biomedical Engineering	502
Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering	303
Systems Engineering	278
General Engineering	261
Materials Engineering	222
Operations Research	202
Other Engineering	200

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). More about our data sources and methodologies.