The 50 colleges that score highest for Software engineering on public federal data: selectivity, graduate earnings, program size, academic strength and graduate depth. It is a starting point for your research, not a judgment of quality.
50 colleges · each name links to its page, with sources · data snapshot October 2, 2026 · Updated October 2, 2026
How we rank programs · showing the top 50 of 50 core colleges ranked, those with enough graduates and earnings data · All top-programs lists
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| Rank | College | State | What we measured | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stanford University | CA | Median earnings $214,907 · 341 graduates last year · 18% of the school's degrees | |
| 2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | MA | Median earnings $225,141 · 366 graduates last year · 26% of the school's degrees | |
| 3 | Columbia University in the City of New York | NY | Median earnings $188,619 · 474 graduates last year · 16% of the school's degrees | |
| 4 | Cornell University | NY | Median earnings $223,309 · 527 graduates last year · 12% of the school's degrees | |
| 5 | Harvard University | MA | Median earnings $203,169 · 208 graduates last year · 9% of the school's degrees | |
| 6 | University of Chicago | IL | Median earnings $178,068 · 210 graduates last year · 8% of the school's degrees | |
| 7 | University of Pennsylvania | PA | Median earnings $189,924 (field-wide) · 106 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 8 | University of California-Los Angeles | CA | Median earnings $228,705 · 458 graduates last year · 5% of the school's degrees | |
| 9 | Carnegie Mellon University | PA | Median earnings $268,121 · 255 graduates last year · 13% of the school's degrees | |
| 10 | Duke University | NC | Median earnings $190,149 · 521 graduates last year · 20% of the school's degrees | |
| 11 | University of Southern California | CA | Median earnings $189,301 · 388 graduates last year · 6% of the school's degrees | |
| 12 | Princeton University | NJ | Median earnings $217,952 · 213 graduates last year · 16% of the school's degrees | |
| 13 | Brown University | RI | Median earnings $214,479 · 287 graduates last year · 11% of the school's degrees | |
| 14 | Northwestern University | IL | Median earnings $155,106 · 141 graduates last year · 5% of the school's degrees | |
| 15 | University of California-San Diego | CA | Median earnings $157,207 · 622 graduates last year · 7% of the school's degrees | |
| 16 | Vanderbilt University | TN | Median earnings $160,021 · 250 graduates last year · 9% of the school's degrees | |
| 17 | New York University | NY | Median earnings $127,201 · 46 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 18 | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | IL | Median earnings $170,446 · 753 graduates last year · 8% of the school's degrees | |
| 19 | University of California-Berkeley | CA | Median earnings $204,379 · 890 graduates last year · 9% of the school's degrees | |
| 20 | Washington University in St Louis | MO | Median earnings $177,066 · 247 graduates last year · 10% of the school's degrees | |
| 21 | Boston University | MA | Median earnings $136,294 · 423 graduates last year · 9% of the school's degrees | |
| 22 | University of California-Irvine | CA | Median earnings $128,635 · 842 graduates last year · 10% of the school's degrees | |
| 23 | Dartmouth College | NH | Median earnings $201,702 · 143 graduates last year · 9% of the school's degrees | |
| 24 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | MI | Median earnings $142,071 · 114 graduates last year · 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 25 | University of Maryland-College Park | MD | Median earnings $139,514 · 1,054 graduates last year · 12% of the school's degrees | |
| 26 | Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus | GA | Median earnings $128,497 · 171 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 27 | Tufts University | MA | Median earnings $156,343 · 204 graduates last year · 10% of the school's degrees | |
| 28 | Emory University | GA | Median earnings $159,541 · 101 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 29 | Purdue University-Main Campus | IN | Median earnings $136,507 · 902 graduates last year · 10% of the school's degrees | |
| 30 | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | NC | Median earnings $137,047 · 404 graduates last year · 6% of the school's degrees | |
| 31 | University of Washington-Seattle Campus | WA | Median earnings $175,070 · 555 graduates last year · 6% of the school's degrees | |
| 32 | University of California-Davis | CA | Median earnings $145,422 · 488 graduates last year · 6% of the school's degrees | |
| 33 | Case Western Reserve University | OH | Median earnings $143,580 · 142 graduates last year · 9% of the school's degrees | |
| 34 | Stony Brook University | NY | Median earnings $128,038 · 358 graduates last year · 7% of the school's degrees | |
| 35 | University of California-Santa Barbara | CA | Median earnings $147,803 · 255 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 36 | University of Notre Dame | IN | Median earnings $114,902 (field-wide) · 17 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 37 | California Institute of Technology | CA | Median earnings $200,511 · 94 graduates last year · 40% of the school's degrees | |
| 38 | University of Virginia-Main Campus | VA | Median earnings $148,175 · 56 graduates last year · 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 39 | University of Rochester | NY | Median earnings $155,464 · 113 graduates last year · 6% of the school's degrees | |
| 40 | George Washington University | DC | Median earnings $150,716 · 74 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 41 | Northeastern University | MA | Median earnings $135,416 · 125 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 42 | Johns Hopkins University | MD | Median earnings $143,108 (field-wide) · 11 graduates last year · under 1% of the school's degrees | |
| 43 | Texas A&M University-College Station | TX | Median earnings $125,216 · 568 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 44 | Ohio State University-Main Campus | OH | Median earnings $123,731 · 416 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 45 | University of Colorado Boulder | CO | Median earnings $121,938 · 386 graduates last year · 5% of the school's degrees | |
| 46 | Brandeis University | MA | Median earnings $123,460 · 64 graduates last year · 6% of the school's degrees | |
| 47 | Tulane University of Louisiana | LA | Median earnings $118,931 · 49 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 48 | North Carolina State University at Raleigh | NC | Median earnings $112,479 · 524 graduates last year · 8% of the school's degrees | |
| 49 | University of California-Santa Cruz | CA | Median earnings $123,640 · 809 graduates last year · 16% of the school's degrees | |
| 50 | University of Miami | FL | Median earnings $121,589 · 90 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees |
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