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.
College Factual looked at 58 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Computer Science Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Great Lakes Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 4,789 bachelor's degrees in computer science to qualified students.
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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.
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 the Great Lakes Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that 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.
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ADBLOCK #171
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Computer Science in the Great Lakes Region
Explore 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.
11 Top Great Lakes Region Schools for a Bachelor's in CompSci
It is difficult to beat University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in computer science. Located in the city of Champaign, UIUC is a public university with a very large student population.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign get an earnings boost of around $55,046 over the average earnings of computer science graduates.
Purdue University - Main Campus is a good decision for students interested in a bachelor's degree in computer science. Purdue is a fairly large public university located in the small city of West Lafayette.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science program at Purdue University - Main Campus earn $25,302 above the typical college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in computer science needs to look into Northwestern University. Northwestern is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Evanston.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science degree program at Northwestern University make $30,497 above the typical college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Rose - Hulman Institute of Technology is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in computer science. Located in the city of Terre Haute, Rose - Hulman Institute of Technology is a private not-for-profit school with a small student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science program at Rose - Hulman Institute of Technology earn $30,810 above the standard college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Case Western is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Cleveland.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science program at Case Western Reserve University make $26,204 more than the typical college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
IU Bloomington is a very large public university located in the small city of Bloomington.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from Indiana University - Bloomington earn a boost of about $8,425 above the typical earnings of computer science graduates.
UIC is a very large public university located in the city of Chicago.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science major at University of Illinois at Chicago earn $8,556 more than the average college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
Located in the large city of Chicago, Illinois Tech is a private not-for-profit school with a moderately-sized student population.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from Illinois Institute of Technology earn a boost of about $16,521 above the average earnings of computer science graduates.
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Additional Noteworthy Schools
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 in the Great Lakes Region 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).
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.
