Top CS Grad Schools List

Over the past year or so I've been looking high and low for Computer Science graduate schools offering DL masters degrees -- particularly those that have some measure of prestige. Often I will find a program and then I'll forget about it because I haven't kept good notes. To rectify this, I've created a list of top-rated grad schools for CS majors by looking at every university in the list of top CS grad schools by US News. I have also created a subsequent list of institutions offering DL masters degrees and placed them in an honorable mention list. Take a look and if you have any suggestion for improving this list let me know.

http://ww2.cs.fsu.edu/~peeler/topschools.html

 

JoAnn,

you got all my favorites. Don't forget that Geteducated.com has a listing of technical degrees.

Also, the suspense is killing me, which school are you going to attend for graduate school?

Thanks for the list.

Regards,

 

As you indicate, these are your favourites. Given that the list of DL CS is short anyway, could you comment on some that you left off? For example, DePaul and Florida Institute of Technology both have CS and computer related masters fully DL at mid range cost

Best wishes----Jim

 

One note about U of Illinois (where I currently am in their MCS program) costs - they use 4 semester hour classes, so you only need 9 classes to finish the program. This makes the $2576 tuition look a little more palatable.

One thing that makes it less palatable is the hefty tuition increase each of the last 2 years (from around $2200 two years ago to the current fees).

I would add Kansas Ctate to the list of interesting options.

http://www.dce.ksu.edu/dce/engg/cis/

 

Thanks for the comments! If you scroll down to the Honorable Mention list you will see Depaul listed. My honorable mention list consists of schools that I have personally researched; however, I have not researched every school so I'm sure there are a lot of schools missing. As for FIT, the last time I looked at their program they didn't offer CS by distance; however, I'll take another look. I tried not to list degrees which had a major slant towards management.

Thanks for reading!

 

(sigh) Yes, over the past few years tuition seems to have gone up every where faster than inflation. Of course, my employer's tuition reimbursement plan has remained capped at $4000 / year . Also, when I get time I want to add another column to my list that shows the overall degree cost taking into account the number of classes that must be taken to earn the masters degree.

You see, that is why I created the list. I have looked at that program before but since I never wrote it down I forgot about it. Thanks for reminding me!

 

Sorry, I missed it on the first pass through the list!

FIT has a DL MS CS and a MS CIS. The CIS is for non BS CS grads and has prereqs. See: http://segs.fit.edu/academics/degrees/

 

I've looked at that page many times hoping the astersisk in front of the major code for both CS and CIS would disappear. If you scroll down to the bottom of the list you will see what I mean:

*Program is not available via distance learning.

Do you have any information that would indicate that this is a typo? If so, please tell!

FIT does have some interesting management type degrees offered via distance learning (if I were so inclined.)

 

Thank you for your list. One note on Stanford: in order to take classes, I believe your company has to be a member of their network. Essentially, your company has to be an engineering company as well as pay an annual fee.

 

I don't know about having to be an engineering company but you are right, you have to pay a yearly fee and the company has to assign someone the responsibility of "advertising" the class schedule and encouranging people to take classes. The yearly fee for an associate member is only $500. Compared to the tuition its almost nothing. If I thought my employer would go for it and I would offer to pay the fee myself. The HR department won't even agree to proctor my exams so I know that wouldn't go for that.

I need to remove Johns Hopkins. Although they offer some CS courses online, they don't offer the degree completely online.

 

Two things: doesn't Carnegie require that you live within a certain distance or take courses at certain satellite locations? Also, Harvard requires at least one semester or Summer term of residency. great list, though--who says a quality education can't be obtained online? Your list proves that one need not resort to for-profits to get their online educations.

 

Based on my reading, you can take the courses at any sponsoring employer where 6 or more students will take the same class.

I didn't list only "pure" distance learning (although some of them are.) I for one don't think a short residency is a bad thing. YMMV.

Personally, I prefer name-brand, DL institutions -- thus the list. I think that if everything else is equal, degrees from name-brand institutions are a better value.

 

Hi,

The list is great. I am thinking if I should take a master degree in software engineering after my study.

In the top list, how is the score calculated?

Also, is there any criteria for entering into your 'honor list'?

I am thinking if they would enter into your list:

1) Texas Tech University
2) U. Mich Dearborn
3) U. Colorado Colorado Springs

actually I am not very sure about these schools if they are accredited or 'name-brand' in your sense.

 

Thanks!

My score is taken from the US News Computer Science graduate school rating. I think they derive the score based on some sort of survey. If you are interested I believe the describe their methodology. I haven't actually examined it very closely myself.

My criteria is that the school be regionally accredited AND have a significant on-campus program. Thanks for the additional schools. Based on your suggestion I have already placed Texas Tech and U. Michigan-Dearborn on my honorable mention list. I'm going to wait until U. of Colorado-Colorado Springs program is fully up and running before listing it. Thanks for the suggestions!

 

University of Maryland Baltimore County

I recently added to my Top CS Degree List a distance learning program for a Master of Science in Information Systems at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. It looks like a very respectable program.

http://ww2.cs.fsu.edu/~peeler/topschools.html

 

Kennessaw State University (GA)

Today, I added another program to the honorable mention list. Kennessaw State University offers a Master of Science in Applied Computer Science by distance learning. It's pretty expensive though at a fixed cost of $5000 / semester. Its unusual for a CS type program in that it is a cohort program.

 

JoAnn,

does Bellevue MSCIS fit as honorable mention?

http://www.bellevue.edu/degrees/mscis.asp

or

University of Illinois Springfield MSMIS?

http://mis.uis.edu/

 

Bellevue would seem to meet my criteria. I will add this program to my list.

As for UIS, I'm not including MIS degrees in the list since many of them are more managment oriented than technology. Just so I don't have to evaluate every program's cirriculum as well, I've decided to leave MIS degrees off.

Thanks for the info on Bellevue!

 

hmm...a rather subtle question..

how are you differenciate between 'IS' and 'MIS' degrees for your listing?

though i understand the list is absolutely yours and I would respect your decision and criteria....

 

I don't try to get too fancy. As you know, the "M" in MIS stands for managment. I only want to include degrees whose focus is on information technology, software development and computer science. As a management oriented degree, from what I've observed, most MIS degrees don't meet my criteria. But to answer your question I exclude MIS degrees simply for the "M" in the major and include IS degrees because they don't have the "M".

I suppose that there might be some MIS degrees that "mostly" meet my criteria; however, I think it would be a can a worms for me to try to evaluate every DL MIS degree I find.

Thanks for asking.