Best Value / By Major

Best Value Colleges for Computer Science

Schools ranked by payback period — how quickly you recoup your investment through higher earnings.

50

Schools Ranked

$68,283

Avg. Earnings

<1 yr

Best Payback

23,553

Graduates

How we calculate value: Payback = (4 years of net price) / (major earnings - $35k baseline). A 2-year payback means you recoup your investment in 2 years through higher earnings vs. not attending college.

#	School	Net Price/yr	Major Earnings	Payback
1	Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA · Private	$2,834	$127,993	<1 yr
2	Harvard University Cambridge, MA · Private	$2,669	$128,737	<1 yr
3	Stanford University Stanford, CA · Private	$7,081	$136,499	<1 yr
4	Brown University Providence, RI · Private	$10,219	$153,718	<1 yr
5	Cornell University Ithaca, NY · Private	$9,785	$122,485	<1 yr
6	Pomona College Claremont, CA · Private	$9,365	$128,737	<1 yr
7	Williams College Williamstown, MA · Private	$5,576	$96,183	<1 yr
8	Duke University Durham, NC · Private	$7,160	$106,898	<1 yr
9	Northwestern University Evanston, IL · Private	$5,849	$98,403	<1 yr
10	Columbia University in the City of New York New York, NY · Private	$8,106	$103,078	<1 yr
11	Washington University in St Louis St. Louis, MO · Private	$8,149	$99,517	<1 yr
12	University of Washington-Seattle Campus Seattle, WA · Public	$8,393	$101,221	<1 yr
13	Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN · Private	$7,694	$102,409	<1 yr
14	University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA · Private	$12,020	$125,015	<1 yr
15	Brigham Young University-Idaho Rexburg, ID · Private	$5,422	$77,966	<1 yr
16	Washington and Lee University Lexington, VA · Private	$6,505	$91,744	<1 yr
17	University of California-Berkeley Berkeley, CA · Public	$13,423	$125,388	<1 yr
18	Dartmouth College Hanover, NH · Private	$12,172	$113,015	<1 yr
19	University of Chicago Chicago, IL · Private	$8,375	$91,211	<1 yr
20	University of Washington-Bothell Campus Bothell, WA · Public	$9,439	$101,221	<1 yr
21	Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA · Private	$21,526	$160,116	<1 yr
22	Harvey Mudd College Claremont, CA · Private	$18,077	$142,581	<1 yr
23	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Champaign, IL · Public	$11,505	$101,592	<1 yr
24	Purdue University-Main Campus West Lafayette, IN · Public	$8,450	$85,981	<1 yr
25	University of Connecticut-Avery Point Groton, CT · Public	$9,414	$79,473	<1 yr
26	Georgetown University Washington, DC · Private	$12,505	$88,639	<1 yr
27	Bowdoin College Brunswick, ME · Private	$14,896	$104,192	<1 yr
28	University of Connecticut-Waterbury Campus Waterbury, CT · Public	$10,112	$79,473	<1 yr
29	University of Connecticut-Hartford Campus Hartford, CT · Public	$10,515	$79,473	<1 yr
30	University of Minnesota-Morris Morris, MN · Public	$6,691	$63,997	<1 yr
31	Brigham Young University Provo, UT · Private	$12,676	$83,848	1 yrs
32	California State University-Dominguez Hills Carson, CA · Public	$6,333	$60,320	1 yrs
33	University of California-San Diego La Jolla, CA · Public	$14,310	$86,972	1.1 yrs
34	Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, NC · Private	$10,228	$71,015	1.1 yrs
35	Portland State University Portland, OR · Public	$12,964	$80,186	1.1 yrs
36	Grinnell College Grinnell, IA · Private	$16,112	$91,744	1.1 yrs
37	California State University-Northridge Northridge, CA · Public	$10,780	$75,047	1.1 yrs
38	California State University-Fullerton Fullerton, CA · Public	$9,017	$67,101	1.1 yrs
39	William & Mary Williamsburg, VA · Public	$10,995	$71,202	1.2 yrs
40	University of Arizona Tucson, AZ · Public	$13,644	$79,199	1.2 yrs
41	CUNY City College New York, NY · Public	$7,521	$59,169	1.2 yrs
42	CUNY Queens College Queens, NY · Public	$7,582	$59,873	1.2 yrs
43	Michigan Technological University Houghton, MI · Public	$11,794	$75,047	1.2 yrs
44	Tufts University Medford, MA · Private	$19,827	$97,959	1.3 yrs
45	University of California-Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA · Public	$14,583	$81,554	1.3 yrs
46	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC · Public	$11,619	$72,083	1.3 yrs
47	CUNY Hunter College New York, NY · Public	$6,908	$56,415	1.3 yrs
48	College of the Ozarks Point Lookout, MO · Private	$7,796	$58,673	1.3 yrs
49	Emory University Atlanta, GA · Private	$16,646	$83,177	1.4 yrs
50	Boston College Chestnut Hill, MA · Private	$17,098	$84,100	1.4 yrs

Top Earners in Computer Science

See schools ranked by earnings alone, without considering cost.

Best Value Rankings

Explore best value colleges across all majors and categories.

Payback uses earnings by major from the College Scorecard's field-of-study file, last updated June 2026, against net price from the June 2026 release. Scorecard publishes the two separately, so they are different vintages.