SUMMARY
Choosing to study Information Technology is not only a valuable choice, but often a necessary first step for scholars choosing to pursue a career as an information systems technology engineer, an information systems administrator, or an information technology/support technician. Interestingly, information technology is somewhat popular ranking as the 43rd most popular degree. In the last year, there were 11,399 information technology diplomas received. In-state tuition for information technology at private schools is, on average, 3.6 times more expensive than their public peers.
There are 334 institutions which offer this degree. 334 colleges is fairly average in terms of the number of institutions which offer each degree. If you're hoping to surround yourself with other information technology undergrads, consider looking at colleges in Florida which have more students admitted to information technology than any other state. Zooming out, the best region to pursue information technology is in the Southeast region with University of Central Florida, Florida International University, and George Mason University best representing the region. Interestingly, our pick of the best conference to major in information technology is the American Athletic Conference with University of Central Florida, University of South Florida-Main Campus, and University of Cincinnati-Main Campus representing the conference. On that topic, our belief is that the best school for information technology is Cornell University. You might also want to check out our list of best colleges.
The objectively best school does not have to be the 'best' school for you. There are tons of angels to weigh when choosing ​university. External stuff such as campus amenities, transportation services, and food would definitely alter one's decision on which college to attend. Here at Authority, we've weighed the pros and cons for you. If, for example, you want to know which information technology college is home to the best campus, the answer is New York University. If you are very interested in which school has the top campus, then we have an entire page dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through student reviews, professor reviews, government databases, and more in order to evaluate every major in the United States in an unbiased and informative way. You can explore our well researched list for the schools with the best student life here and, from that list, our pick of the school with the best student life for information technology is Cornell University. Curious why? Continue scrolling to discover more about our top recommendations. Many of our picks might shock you.
If price is a primary deciding factor in your choice of where you attend university, you might be cautious about Cornell University. Cornell University is the most expensive college for information technology, at least regarding out of state attendance. We do have an entire list of the most expensive schools that could put the expense at Cornell University into perspective. You could also be interested to know that information technology is the 172nd most expensive program in America, with an average associated cost of $32,300. On a broader scale, the most costly state for information technology on our list is Connecticut at University of Connecticut and Sacred Heart University, the main colleges in the state, of $36,466 and $42,800. To zoom out even further, the most costly region of the country for information technology is the Mid East region which is best demonstrated with Cornell University with a cost of $56,550, Carnegie Mellon University with a cost of $55,816, and Lehigh University with a cost of $54,790.
Our cheapest region for information technology is the Rocky Mountains region which is represented by Brigham Young University-Provo with a cost of $5,790, Western Governors University with a cost of $6,380, and Colorado State University-Global Campus with a cost of $8,400. In better news, the most affordable school for information technology is University of South Florida-Sarasota-Manatee. Our comprehensive list of the most affordable colleges can be found here.
In-state learners can expect to pay about $8,900 for a degree in information technology. That cost grows significantly to a median of $20,200 for an out-of-state public-school undergrad. As such, you might be interested in our choice for the school constituting the best value for information technology: Cornell University. Here you can see our comprehensive list on the universities we see as being the best value overall. Do know, this section is based on being an out-of-state student. The value proposition changes when in-state tuition is considered, but as we do not know what state(s) you might qualify for in-state tuition, we are approaching this discussion through out-of-state tuition costs.
Earnings for information technology students can differ, but two years after leaving college graduates will regularly make around $64,200. There is a lot of variation in earnings; top positions can rake in up to $101,700. Even straight out of university, the lowest earning positions within the information technology field earn $40,200, which could be worse. The top earning grads from information technology attended Lehigh University and if you are looking for universities with all of the highest earning graduates, we have that too.
The prevailing diversity of information technology is quite high, coming in the 92nd percentile of all programs. The school with the most composite diversity for information technology is Carnegie Mellon University and here you can find our comprehensive list of the colleges which have the most diversity. The financial diversity of the Information Technology major only ranks in the 53rd percentile compared to all other majors. Racial diversity is greater than financial diversity, ranking in the 96th percentile. White collegians compose the largest share at 45% of those majoring in information technology. Additionally, 73% of undergrads seeking an information technology major are men.
The median rating for information technology professors is 3.8 stars, which is 5% lower than the median across all majors; which is a subpar score. If you want the most popular information technology instructor in the country, consider looking up Tanes Kanchanawanchai from Northern Virginia Community College. This might surprise you, but the highest ranked instructors for information technology according to students come from George Mason University. As we consider data other than just rankings it becomes clear that the school with the overall best professors for information technology is New York University. You can find more detail on our ever evolving ranking methodology for the best overall professors here, along with some of the top examples of professors in the country.
Finally, the hardest school to get into for information technology is United States Naval Academy. While we think of this list more as a novelty, we do have a detailed page for the hardest colleges to get into. That being said, here at Authority we hope you understand that looking at higher education through a lens only derived from superlatives can cause issues. We encourage you to read our other pages on different universities and explore a couple of our background pages on important things to look out for as you continue your school search.