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Best Computer Science Doctor's Degree Schools

2023 Best Computer Science Doctor's Degree Schools

97 Colleges
$112,216 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Computer Science Doctor's Degree School for You

Computer Science is the #12 most popular major in the country with 59,565 degrees and certificates awarded in 2020-2021.

There are so many programs in today's world that it can tough to figure out which one is the right one for you. You can choose a traditional brick and mortar school, or with the growth of online education, you can attend a school half-way across the country without even leaving your house. Also there are many trade schools that offer short-term programs that open up more career options.

To assist you in seeing some of the education options that are available to you, Course Advisor has created its Best Computer Science Doctor's Degree Schools ranking. This report analyzed 97 schools in the United States to see which ones offered the best doctor's degree programs for students. The factors used to develop this ranking include those related to how in-demand the school is, the overall quality of the school, and post-graduation wages, and more.

View our full ranking methodology.

2023 Best Computer Science Doctor’s Degree Schools in the United States

Check out the compsci doctor's degree programs at these schools if you want to get the best education that money can buy.

Top 15% Best Computer Science Doctor's Degree Schools

Our 2023 rankings named California Institute of Technology the best school in the United States for computer science students working on their doctor’s degree. Located in the medium-sized city of Pasadena, Caltech is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.

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#2

Stanford University

Stanford, CA

The excellent doctor’s degree programs at Stanford University helped the school earn the #2 place on this year’s ranking of the best computer science schools in the United States. Located in the suburb of Stanford, Stanford is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly large student population.

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#3

Brown University

Providence, RI

The excellent doctor’s degree programs at Brown University helped the school earn the #3 place on this year’s ranking of the best computer science schools in the United States. Located in the city of Providence, Brown is a private not-for-profit school with a fairly large student population.

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You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The school came in at #4 on this year’s Best Computer Science Doctor’s Degree Schools list. Located in the midsize city of Cambridge, MIT is a private not-for-profit college with a large student population.

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#5

Cornell University

Ithaca, NY

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Cornell University. The school came in at #5 on this year’s Best Computer Science Doctor’s Degree Schools list. Cornell is a very large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Ithaca.

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#6

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, PA

Carnegie Mellon University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for computer science students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #6 on the list. Located in the large city of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon is a private not-for-profit school with a large student population.

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#7

Duke University

Durham, NC

With a ranking of #7, Duke University did quite well on this year’s best schools for computer science students working on their doctor’s degree. Duke is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Durham.

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#8

Harvard University

Cambridge, MA

Harvard University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for computer science students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #8 on the list. Harvard is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the medium-sized city of Cambridge.

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University of California - Berkeley landed the #9 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best doctor’s degree computer science programs. UC Berkeley is a very large public school located in the city of Berkeley.

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#10

Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH

With a ranking of #10, Dartmouth College did quite well on this year’s best schools for computer science students working on their doctor’s degree. Dartmouth is a medium-sized private not-for-profit school located in the remote town of Hanover.

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#11

Vanderbilt University

Nashville, TN

Vanderbilt University did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for computer science students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #11 on the list. Vanderbilt is a large private not-for-profit school located in the large city of Nashville.

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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign did quite well in this year’s ranking of the best places for computer science students to get a doctor’s degree. It came in at #12 on the list. UIUC is a very large public school located in the city of Champaign.

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#13

Northwestern University

Evanston, IL

Northwestern University landed the #13 spot in the 2023 rankings for the best doctor’s degree computer science programs. Northwestern is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Evanston.

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Southern Methodist University ranked #14 on this year’s Best Computer Science Doctor’s Degree Schools list. SMU is a large private not-for-profit school located in the large suburb of Dallas.

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Honorable Mentions

These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Computer Science Doctor's Degree Schools award.

Rank College Location
15 University of Maryland - College Park College Park, MD
16 University of Chicago Chicago, IL
17 Georgetown University Washington, DC
18 Tufts University Medford, MA
19 Washington University in St Louis Saint Louis, MO

Computer Science by Region

View the Best Computer Science Doctor's Degree Schools for a specific region near you.

Region
Southeast
New England
Rocky Mountains
Plains States
Middle Atlantic
Far Western US
Southwest
Great Lakes

One of 10 majors within the area of study, computer science has other similar majors worth exploring.

Related Major Annual Graduates
Computer Information Systems 88,434
Information Technology 40,555
Information Science 18,325
Computer Systems Networking 14,700
Computer Software & Applications 14,336

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 25 schools only.

  • Read more about our ranking methodology.
  • 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 Negative Space.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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