Computer Science at Northwestern University

If you plan to study computer science, take a look at what Northwestern University has to offer and decide if the program is a good match for you. Get started with the following essential facts.

Northwestern is located in Evanston, Illinois and has a total student population of 22,603. In the 2020-2021 academic year, 107 students received a bachelor's degree in computer science from Northwestern.

Want to know more about the career opportunities in this field? Check out the Careers in Computer Science section at the bottom of this page.

Northwestern Computer Science Degrees Available

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science
• Master’s Degree in Computer Science
• Doctorate Degree in Computer Science

Northwestern Computer Science Rankings

The following rankings from College Factual show how the computer science progam at Northwestern compares to programs at other colleges and universities.

Note: While rankings may be a good starting point when you're researching a school, they don't necessarily highlight all of a school's strengths. Don't forget to check out the other details that are available for a school to see if it has what you're looking for in a program.

Bachelor’s Degree Overall Quality & Other Notable Rankings

The computer science major at Northwestern is not ranked on College Factual’s Best Colleges and Universities for Computer Science. This could be for a number of reasons, such as not having enough data on the major or school to make an accurate assessment of its quality.

Ranking Type	Rank
Best General Computer Science Doctor’s Degree Schools	13
Best General Computer Science Bachelor’s Degree Schools	19
Best General Computer Science Master’s Degree Schools	20
Best General Computer Science Schools	27
	30
Most Popular General Computer Science Doctor’s Degree Schools	30
Most Popular General Computer Science Master’s Degree Schools	32
	36
	53
Most Focused General Computer Science Doctor’s Degree Schools	54
Best Value General Computer Science Doctor’s Degree Schools	63
Most Popular General Computer Science Schools	74
	77
Most Focused General Computer Science Master’s Degree Schools	81
Most Popular General Computer Science Bachelor’s Degree Schools	94
Best Value General Computer Science Master’s Degree Schools	164
Best Value General Computer Science Bachelor’s Degree Schools	201
Most Focused General Computer Science Schools	278
Best Value General Computer Science Schools	283
Most Focused General Computer Science Bachelor’s Degree Schools	438

In 2021, 106 students received their master’s degree in computer science from Northwestern. This makes it the #32 most popular school for computer science master’s degree candidates in the country.

There were 14 students who received their doctoral degrees in computer science, making the school the #30 most popular school in the United States for this category of students.

Computer Science Student Demographics at Northwestern

Take a look at the following statistics related to the make-up of the computer science majors at Northwestern University.

Northwestern Computer Science Bachelor’s Program

During the 2020-2021 academic year, 107 computer science majors earned their bachelor's degree from Northwestern. Of these graduates, 73% were men and 27% were women. The typical computer science bachelor's degree program is made up of only 23% women. So female students are more repesented at Northwestern since its program graduates 4% more women than average.

Prospective students may be interested in knowing that this school graduates 14% more racial-ethnic minorities in its computer science bachelor's program than the national average.*

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor's in computer science.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	31
Black or African American	4
Hispanic or Latino	11
White	40
International Students	10
Other Races/Ethnicities	11

Northwestern Computer Science Master’s Program

During the 2020-2021 academic year, 106 computer science majors earned their master's degree from Northwestern. Of these graduates, 71% were men and 29% were women.

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from Northwestern University with a master's in computer science.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	14
Black or African American	0
Hispanic or Latino	4
White	19
International Students	67
Other Races/Ethnicities	2

Northwestern also has a doctoral program available in computer science. In 2021, 14 students graduated with a doctor's degree in this field.

Careers That Computer Science Grads May Go Into

A degree in computer science can lead to the following careers. Since job numbers and average salaries can vary by geographic location, we have only included the numbers for IL, the home state for Northwestern University.

Occupation	Jobs in IL	Average Salary in IL
Software Applications Developers	30,500	$96,610
Computer and Information Systems Managers	17,770	$143,900
Systems Software Developers	17,130	$108,570
Computer Programmers	11,350	$91,860

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• Image Credit: By Madcoverboy at en.wikipedia under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.