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CS Department Benefits

Boise State Scenes, Fall
Boise State Scenes, Fall, Kristen McPeek Photo

Welcome to the Boise State Computer Science Department! Our mission is to provide a high-quality undergraduate and graduate education in computer science that prepares students for productive careers and lifelong learning.

Program Excellence

  • Graduating seniors score in the top 20% of the national Major Field Test for Computer Science compared to around 200+ other CS departments
  • Employer surveys and industry feedback affirms the quality of graduates over the long term
  • Local employers prefer Boise State CS graduates over those from other programs in the region

Student Benefits

  • Small classes taught by highly regarded faculty members
  • The Kount Learning Center is open seven days a week to help first year and sophomore students
  • Many experiential learning opportunities such as internships and undergraduate research that allow students to “hit the ground running”
  • A collegial department atmosphere, where students and faculty interact frequently

Students and Graduates are in Demand

  • About 70% of junior/senior students have internships at local software companies, providing additional financial security and real world application of computer science principles
  • Local employers prefer Boise State CS graduates over other programs in the region
  • Most students receive job offers before they graduate
  • Hundreds of software, tech and other companies in the Boise area that need CS graduates
  • About 85% of graduates remain in the Boise metro area
  • Computer Science is predicted by the Bureau of Labor to grow substantially over the next ten years
  • High starting salaries (among top 2 or 3 majors, nationally). Last year, the salaries ranged from 60K to 100K (in the Boise metro area), with the average salary of around $74K. Check US Department of Education website to compare salaries with other majors and schools
  • Students have been placed recently at Amazon, AppDetex (Tracer), Boeing, Boise Inc, Clearwater Analytics, Cradlepoint, First to File, Google, Healthwise, HP, Kount, MarkMonitor, Micron, Microsoft, Paylocity, Tsheets/Intuit, VisitPay, Vynyl and many others. Last year 41 different companies hired our students!
  • Easy access: many software/tech and other companies that hire interns/graduating students are conveniently located near the new department building. Refer to the Boise Software Ecosystem map to get a sense of how close some of these companies are
thumbnail screenshot of a map with icon markers

Growth and Investment

  • The CS Department has received major investments from the University and the State in recent years. Since 2014, the number of faculty has more than tripled along with the budget. This growth provides opportunities for a variety of new interesting courses, as well as, additional resources to help students get through the program.
  • The amount of funded research, averaged over three years, has gone up by more than 60 times, which provides many opportunities for undergraduates to get involved in research.
  • These investments have quadrupled the number of CS graduates during this growth.
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