Computer Science is of the hottest bachelor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #16 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
College Factual reviewed 39 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for bachelor's degree seekers in the field of computer science. Combined, these schools handed out 8,758 bachelor's degrees in computer science to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Computer Science School for Your Bachelor's Degree
The compsci bachelor'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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we include a college's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a combination of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on computer science students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - How many other computer science students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor'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 easy is it for computer science to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
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.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Computer Science Bachelor's Degree Schools in California ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
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Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in computer science has to take a look at University of California - Berkeley. Located in the medium-sized city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science major at University of California - Berkeley make $70,922 more than the typical college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Stanford University is a good decision for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in computer science. Located in the suburb of Stanford, Stanford is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science program at Stanford University earn $59,669 above the typical college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in computer science needs to take a look at University of Southern California. Located in the city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Those computer science students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Southern California receive $58,340 more than the standard compsci student.
It is hard to beat University of California - San Diego if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in computer science. Located in the city of La Jolla, UCSD is a public university with a very large student population.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from University of California - San Diego get an earnings boost of around $33,062 over the typical earnings of computer science graduates.
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a fairly large public university located in the suburb of San Luis Obispo.
Those computer science students who get their bachelor's degree from California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo earn $32,197 more than the standard compsci graduate.
Located in the large city of Irvine, UC Irvine is a public university with a very large student population.
Those computer science students who get their bachelor's degree from University of California - Irvine make $3,217 more than the typical compsci graduate.
Located in the large suburb of Claremont, Harvey Mudd College is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly small student population.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from Harvey Mudd College get an earnings boost of around $53,321 above the typical income of computer science majors.
UCSB is a fairly large public university located in the midsize suburb of Santa Barbara.
Those computer science students who get their bachelor's degree from University of California - Santa Barbara make $28,832 more than the standard compsci graduate.
Located in the large city of San Diego, USD is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from University of San Diego get an earnings boost of about $26,004 above the average income of computer science graduates.
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).
The compsci bachelor'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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
