a master's degree in computer software & applications is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #50 out of 343 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
College Factual reviewed 5 schools in the Far Western US Region to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of computer software & applications. Combined, these schools handed out 391 master's degrees in computer software & applications to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Computer Software & Applications School for Your Master's Degree
The computer software master'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
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 Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master'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
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to computer software & applications students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other computer software & applications students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
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 easy is it for computer software & applications to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized computer software & applications related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for computer software & applications students working on their master's degree.
More Ways to Rank Computer Software & Applications Schools
The computer software school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Computer Software & Applications Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region.
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Any student who is interested in a master's degree in computer software & applications has to take a look at University of Southern California. USC is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Los Angeles.
Computer Software & Applications master's degree recipients from University of Southern California receive an earnings boost of approximately $39,831 above the typical income of computer software & applications graduates.
It is hard to beat Academy of Art University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in computer software & applications. Located in the large city of San Francisco, Academy of Art University is a private for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.
After graduation, computer software master's recipients generally earn about $55,139 in the first five years of their career.
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 computer software master'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:
