Ranked #16 in popularity, computer science is one of the most sought-after bachelor's degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual reviewed 20 schools in the Southwest Region to determine which ones were the best for bachelor's degree seekers in the field of computer science. Combined, these schools handed out 2,633 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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
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 consider 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 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 bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
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 schools 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 in the Southwest Region list to help you make the college decision.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
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It is difficult to beat Texas A&M University - College Station if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in computer science. Texas A&M College Station is a very large public university located in the midsize city of College Station.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science major at Texas A&M University - College Station get $10,766 above the average graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
University of Arizona is a great choice for individuals interested in a bachelor's degree in computer science. University of Arizona is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Tucson.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science major at University of Arizona earn $10,722 above the typical graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Arizona State University - Tempe is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in computer science. Located in the midsize city of Tempe, ASU - Tempe is a public university with a very large student population.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from Arizona State University - Tempe receive an earnings boost of about $5,368 over the typical income of computer science graduates.
It's difficult to beat Southern Methodist University if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in computer science. SMU is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Dallas.
Those computer science students who get their bachelor's degree from Southern Methodist University earn $18,361 more than the average compsci graduate.
University of Oklahoma is a fairly large public university located in the suburb of Norman.
Bachelor's recipients from the computer science degree program at University of Oklahoma Norman Campus get $3,292 more than the standard college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the city of Waco, Baylor is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Computer Science bachelor's degree recipients from Baylor University earn a boost of approximately $7,396 over the average income of computer science majors.
UT Arlington is a fairly large public university located in the city of Arlington.
Those computer science students who get their bachelor's degree from The University of Texas at Arlington make $9,441 more than the standard compsci grad.
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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
