If you plan on getting your master's degree in computer & information sciences, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #4 in the country in terms of popularity. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
College Factual looked at 41 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Computer & Information Sciences Master's Degree Schools in the Southwest Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 9,585 master's degrees in computer & information sciences to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Computer & Information Sciences School for Your Master's Degree
The computer & information sciences master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality computer & information sciences program can vary widely even among the top schools. 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 & information sciences students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of computer & information sciences students who choose to seek a master'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 easy is it for computer & information sciences 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 & information sciences related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for computer & information sciences students working on their master's degree.
Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Computer & Information Sciences Master's Degree Schools in the Southwest Region ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.
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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).
by our College Data Analytics Team
The computer & information sciences master's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality computer & information sciences program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
