We live in an information age, and information is processed by computers. As a result, degrees in computer science continue to command a premium. Unlike many fields (notably in the humanities and social sciences), even a bachelor’s degree in computer science is likely to land you a high-paying entry-level job. Moreover, higher pay tracks additional education in computer science, so an MS and PhD in it make good economic sense. Or course, the field is exciting in itself, with many new advances occuring in computer science (witness IBM’s Watson program becoming a Jeopardy champion). With a PhD in computer science, you can work not only in business and industry but also as a university professor (and at a pay higher than many other university professors because the business world is competing to hire you). Below are the very top schools in the U.S. and Canada in computer science (as objectively gauged by the Academic Ranking of World Universities).
25 Best Computer Science Programs
1 Stanford University
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
3 University of California, Berkeley
4 Princeton University
5 Carnegie Mellon University
6 Cornell University
7 University of Southern California (USC)
8 The University of Texas at Austin
9 Harvard University
10 University of Toronto
11 California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
12 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
13 University of Maryland, College Park
14 University of California, San Diego
15 University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
16 Purdue University – West Lafayette
17 Columbia University
18 University of Washington
19 Georgia Institute of Technology
20 University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
21 University of British Columbia
22 Yale University
23 University of Colorado at Boulder
24 Duke University
25 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill