2025 Best Information Technology Master's Degree Schools in California

Information Technology is of the hottest master's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #26 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.

College Factual reviewed 7 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of information technology. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 444 master's degrees in information technology during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Information Technology School for Your Master's Degree

Your choice of information technology for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality it program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

The overall quality of a master'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 school'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.

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 master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master'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 information technology students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of information technology students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
• 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 information technology 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 information technology related body.

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

More Ways to Rank Information Technology Schools

The it 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 Information Technology Master's Degree Schools in California.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Information Technology in California

Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for information technology students seeking a a master's degree.

Top California Schools for a Master's in IT

1

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

35 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a master's degree in information technology has 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 fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in information technology from University of Southern California

2

University of California - San Diego
La Jolla, CA

33 Annual Graduates

University of California - San Diego is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in information technology. Located in the large city of La Jolla, UCSD is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in information technology from University of California - San Diego

3

University of San Diego
San Diego, CA

57 Annual Graduates

$102,908 Median Starting Salary

University of San Diego is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in information technology. Located in the city of San Diego, USD is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population.

Information Technology master's degree recipients from University of San Diego receive an earnings boost of approximately $11,083 over the average income of information technology majors.

More information about a master’s in information technology from University of San Diego

4

California Baptist University
Riverside, CA

31 Annual Graduates

It's difficult to beat California Baptist University if you want to pursue a master's degree in information technology. Cal Baptist is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Riverside.More information about a master’s in information technology from California Baptist University

5

National University
San Diego, CA

64 Annual Graduates

$96,647 Median Starting Salary

National University is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of San Diego.

Master's recipients from the information technology major at National University get $4,822 above the average college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.

More information about a master’s in information technology from National University

6

California State University - San Marcos
San Marcos, CA

18 Annual Graduates

Located in the large suburb of San Marcos, CSUSM is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in information technology from California State University - San Marcos

7

California State University - Dominguez Hills
Carson, CA

37 Annual Graduates

Located in the small city of Carson, CSUDH is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in information technology from California State University - Dominguez Hills

Best Information Technology Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Information Technology Colleges in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Washington	183	197
Nevada	105	44

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to IT

One of 10 majors within the Computer & Information Sciences area of study, Information Technology has other similar majors worth exploring.

IT Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Computer & IS Security	255
Information Technology Project Management	144
Information Technology Management	31
System, Networking, & LAN/WAN Management/Manager	14

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Computer Science	3,877
Computer Information Systems	961
Information Science	642
Computer Software & Applications	364
Data Processing	97
Computer Systems Networking	17
Other Computer & Information Sciences	1

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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to Craig Dennis. More about our data sources and methodologies.