Find top computer science programs ranked by admission chances for your profile. CS is the most popular — and most competitive — major in the country.
Find Your Matches FreeComputer science is now the most requested major in US admissions, and many universities admit CS applicants at far lower rates than the school overall. At some public flagships, direct-admit CS acceptance rates are less than half the university-wide rate. That means your reach/target/safety math changes when you declare CS — Admit Coach factors your intended major into every chance estimate.
MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley — world-leading research and recruiting, but brutally competitive for CS specifically.
Georgia Tech, UIUC, Michigan, UT Austin, Purdue — top-10 CS departments with somewhat more accessible admission.
Arizona State, NC State, Iowa State, Rutgers — solid curricula, strong regional recruiting, realistic targets for most profiles.
Hundreds of accredited universities offer quality CS degrees with high acceptance rates. Employers care about skills and internships more than school name.
Nationally-ranked universities that award computer science degrees, ranked by national standing (IPEDS completions data). Click any school for its full profile and a free admission-chance estimate.
| University | Location | Acceptance Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Princeton University | Princeton, NJ | 4% |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Cambridge, MA | 5% |
| Stanford University | Stanford, CA | 4% |
| Harvard University | Cambridge, MA | 4% |
| Yale University | New Haven, CT | 4% |
| University of Pennsylvania | Philadelphia, PA | 5% |
| Duke University | Durham, NC | 6% |
| California Institute of Technology | Pasadena, CA | 3% |
| Johns Hopkins University | Baltimore, MD | 6% |
| Northwestern University | Evanston, IL | 7% |
| Brown University | Providence, RI | 5% |
| Columbia University in the City of New York | New York, NY | 4% |
| Cornell University | Ithaca, NY | 7% |
| University of Chicago | Chicago, IL | 5% |
| University of California-Los Angeles | Los Angeles, CA | 9% |
| University of California-Berkeley | Berkeley, CA | 12% |
| Rice University | Houston, TX | 8% |
| Dartmouth College | Hanover, NH | 6% |
| Vanderbilt University | Nashville, TN | 6% |
| University of Notre Dame | Notre Dame, IN | 9% |
| University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | Ann Arbor, MI | 18% |
| University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | Chapel Hill, NC | 17% |
| Georgetown University | Washington, DC | 12% |
| Carnegie Mellon University | Pittsburgh, PA | 11% |
Data from IPEDS & College Scorecard. Browse all 3,500+ universities →
The strongest CS programs include MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and UC Berkeley, followed closely by public powerhouses like Georgia Tech, UIUC, Michigan, and UT Austin — but more than 1,300 US universities award computer science degrees, and many mid-selectivity schools place graduates into the same companies. Admit Coach ranks CS-offering schools by your personal admission chances using federal IPEDS data, not just prestige.
Yes, at many universities — CS is the most popular intended major, and direct-admit CS acceptance rates at competitive schools often run 2–3x lower than the university-wide rate. Some schools also require a secondary application into the CS major after freshman year. Admit Coach flags this by factoring your intended major into each school's chance estimate.
Competitive CS programs typically expect a 3.7+ GPA and 1400+ SAT with strong math grades; the most selective programs (MIT, CMU, Stanford) skew above 3.9 and 1520. Less selective but fully accredited CS programs accept students with a 3.0 GPA and no test scores. Admit Coach compares your numbers to each school's real admitted-student ranges to classify reach, target, and safety options.