Bachelor's · Santa Cruz, California
Is Computer Engineering at University of California-Santa Cruz worth it?
Medium confidence Medium confidence: 40–99 graduates behind the earnings figures.
The verdict · all families, in-state, half paid with loans
Pays back fast: graduates typically recover the cost in about 1.4 years.
- Earnings 1 year after graduating
- $111,418
- Treasury AY2020-21, AY2021-22 pooled earnings cohort measured in CY2022, CY2023, inflation adjusted to 2024 dollars
- Earnings 4 years after graduating
- $133,880
- Treasury AY2017-2018, AY2018-2019 pooled earnings cohort measured in CY2022, CY2023, inflation adjusted to 2024 dollars
- Typical federal debt at graduation
- $18,146
- NSLDS pooled AY2022-23, AY2023-24 cohort
- Net cost to graduate, all families
- $79k (likely $79k – $99k)
- AcadYr 2024-25, reported in IPEDS DCY2025-26
- Earnings bump, year 4
- $95k a year vs high-school graduates aged 25–34 in CA
- 2023 ACS 5-year pooled, adjusted to 2024 dollars
- Payback
- 1.4 years (likely 1.2–1.7)
- Bump vs net cost plus loan interest
- 10-year net return
- $672k (likely $533k – $810k)
- Today's dollars
- 20-year net return
- $1.78M (likely $1.46M – $2.13M)
- Today's dollars
- Odds of finishing (school-wide)
- 74%
- Fall 2019 or AcadYr 2019-20 cohort (differs by institutional calendar), reported in IPEDS DCY2025-26
- Borrowers making progress / in default, 2 years in
- not reported / ≤ 20%
- NSLDS AY2016-17, AY2017-18 pooled cohorts measured in 2018-19, 2019-20
Change income, residency or loans Compare Computer Engineering at other schools
Other majors at University of California-Santa Cruz
- Computer Science (Bachelor's)$123,422
- Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering (Bachelor's)$118,290
- Economics (Master's)$110,425
- Biomedical/Medical Engineering (Bachelor's)$98,567
- Computer/Information Technology Administration and Management (Bachelor's)$94,589
- Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology (Bachelor's)$88,305
- Business/Managerial Economics (Bachelor's)$82,064
- Economics (Bachelor's)$76,382
- Biomathematics, Bioinformatics, and Computational Biology (Bachelor's)$74,517
- Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research (Master's)$73,343
- Physics (Bachelor's)$72,553
- Cognitive Science (Bachelor's)$72,125
Computer Engineering at other schools in California
- University of California-Los Angeles$228,705
- University of Southern California$166,369
- Santa Clara University$163,765
- University of California-San Diego$149,139
- California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo$148,950
- University of California-Davis$145,422
- University of California-Santa Barbara$144,703
- University of California-Irvine$132,357
- San Diego State University$116,842
- University of California-Riverside$107,193