Computer Science

Computer science programmes teach how computation works and how to build software that is correct, efficient and maintainable — algorithms, data structures, operating systems, networks, languages and the discrete mathematics underneath them. It is the most theoretical of Florida's four computing programmes, and the usual route into software development.

The degrees this program covers

Florida awards this at every level: state-college certificates, an A.S. or A.A., the bachelor's degree most software work expects, and master's and doctoral degrees above it. ⚠ Ask the transfer question early, because it is the one that costs people a year: an A.S. in a computing field is a CAREER degree built to lead to work and does not always transfer into a university computer science bachelor's, where the A.A. route normally does. ⚠⚠ And check the SECOND programming course specifically — Florida numbers it five different ways, all at upper division, and it is the commonest point at which a state-college sequence fails to substitute. ⚠ Accreditation comes from ABET's COMPUTING commission, not its engineering commission, and nothing in software employment requires it; there is no licence.

Careers this program leads to

Each one sets out the courses along the way, the licence or certification at the end, and the sources behind it.

Computer Hardware Engineer

Computer hardware engineers design and test the physical machine — processors, boards, memory systems, embedded controllers and the peripherals around them. ⚠ It pays better than any other career on this site and it is small: about 76,800 people nationally, and a third of the occupation expects a master's degree.

Cybersecurity Analyst

Cybersecurity analysts defend an organisation's systems and data — hardening configurations, monitoring for intrusion, responding to incidents, testing defences by attacking them, and investigating breaches after the fact. ⚠ A median of $129,180 and 21% projected growth, the fastest of any computing path on this site. ⚠⚠⚠ And the thing nobody says in the advertising: this is NOT an entry-level field. The federal handbook is explicit that analysts typically arrive from systems administration, and a security credential with no operational experience behind it is the commonest disappointment in this job market. This page covers four related roles.

Data Scientist

Data scientists turn messy data into decisions — cleaning and preparing it, building and validating statistical and machine-learning models, and explaining the result to people who will act on it. ⚠ There is no licence, no entrance examination and, for most people now working in the field, no data science degree: the occupation is older than the major.

Database Administrator and Database Architect

⚠⚠⚠ One job title and two occupations, moving in opposite directions. Database ADMINISTRATORS earn a $104,620 median and are projected at 0% growth over 2025-35; database ARCHITECTS earn $139,500 and are projected at +9% — with FEWER people and MORE annual openings. ⚠⚠ And Florida has no undergraduate database degree at all: the dedicated code produces 62 credentials a year and 61 are one UWF master's. So the specialism is assembled from courses, under seven competing statewide numbers in three different colleges.

Graphic Designer and Animator

⚠⚠⚠ This is the first occupation on this site where BLS names ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE as a reason for a projected decline. Graphic design is forecast to shrink 2% from 2025 to 2035: "Automated design tools, such as artificial intelligence (AI), are projected to make graphic designers more productive and reduce the need for these workers." ⚠⚠ $62,960 median, 16,000 openings a year, 20% self-employed — and the animation half pays $102,030 with 63% self-employed.

Instructional Designer

⚠⚠⚠ One job title, two federal occupations pulling in opposite directions. Instructional coordinator: $77,440, 60% master's, growing 1–2%. Training and development specialist: $69,280, 78% bachelor's, twice the jobs, twice the openings, growing much faster than average. ⚠⚠ And you cannot major in it — Florida's public institutions awarded 978 credentials in this field and SIX were bachelor's degrees.

School Teacher (K–12)

School teachers plan and deliver the curriculum, assess what has been learned, manage a classroom and account for every child's progress. ⚠ This page covers elementary, middle, secondary and special education together, because in Florida they share one certification system and differ mainly by which subject examination you sit. ⚠⚠⚠ And it leads with the finding a Florida student most needs: the state ranks around 19th nationally for STARTING pay and 50th for AVERAGE pay. The salary that recruits you is competitive; the one you reach after fifteen years is not.

Software Developer

Software developers design, build and maintain the systems everything else runs on. ⚠ A median of $135,980 nationally and $130,980 in Florida, on a bachelor's degree, and among the highest-paid on this site — above every two-year route and behind only computer hardware engineering. ⚠⚠ It is a CHOICE path: no single major owns it. Counted degrees show computing majors supplying under a third of working developers and ENGINEERING supplying nearly as many. ⚠⚠⚠ And it is the only career here you can enter with no degree at all — about one developer in five has none.

Systems Analyst and IT Manager

⚠⚠⚠ Computer and information systems managers earn $175,140 with 55,600 openings a year — and 26% of them report reaching it with SOME COLLEGE AND NO DEGREE, against 48% with a bachelor's and 14% with a master's. ⚠⚠ The rung below, computer systems analyst, is $105,850 across 521,100 jobs. This is the best-paid management occupation on the site and one of the most credential-loose.

UX Designer and Web Developer

⚠⚠⚠ Web and digital interface designers earn $104,000 against graphic designers' $62,960 — $41,040 for closely related skill pointed at screens rather than print, and BLS expects one to grow and the other to shrink. ⚠⚠ Florida awards 1,133 credentials in this CIP family and NOT ONE is a bachelor's, while BLS gives a bachelor's as the typical entry. The degree-holders came from somewhere else.

Careers that name this program, but not as a route

Marketing Manager and Sales Professional

⚠⚠ Named for one specific and well-paid reason: technical and scientific sales representatives earn $104,920 against $72,080 for the non-technical half of the same occupation. A technical degree plus the ability to sell is one of the better-paid combinations available on a bachelor's.

Network and Systems Administrator

⚠ Not the usual route into this job and a poor fit for it — computer science is theory and software construction, where this work is operations. Named because it is the degree that most easily reaches the roles this ladder leads AWAY to, and because 4 of its 16 institutions also teach networking.

Programs similar to this one

Neighbouring fields that share much of the same coursework, and often the same employers. ⚠ Read these before you commit to a major — which doors a neighbouring degree keeps open is the part no catalog tells you, and it is far cheaper to change now than later.

Information Technology 39 Florida schools

⚠⚠ The distinction that matters most and is least obvious from the names. Computer science is about how computation WORKS — algorithms, theory, building systems from scratch. Information technology is about running and integrating systems that exist. ⚠ IT is far more widely taught in Florida (39 public institutions against 16) and is the faster route to a job; computer science is the one most software-developer job adverts name and the one that transfers into graduate study.

Computer Engineering 10 Florida schools

⚠ The hardware side of the same boundary, and usually an ENGINEERING degree rather than a computing one — which changes the accrediting body and the mathematics. If embedded systems, chips or robotics are the draw, compare the two directly; it is much easier to move from computer engineering into software than the reverse.

Data Science and Analytics 13 Florida schools

The overlap is large and growing: both teach programming and algorithms, but data science adds statistics, machine learning and study design. ⚠ Read both if analytics is the goal — at many institutions the difference is four or five courses.

Statistics 6 Florida schools

The inference half of data work, and the part a computing degree covers least. A statistics minor or double major on a computing degree is the combination most data job adverts are describing.

Management Information Systems 13 Florida schools

⚠⚠⚠ The comparison that matters, and it is about placement rather than content. Computer science sits in the computing school and aims at building; MIS sits in the business school and aims at deciding what to build. ⚠ Software developers earn $135,980 against computer systems analysts' $105,850 — but the management rung above both pays $175,140, and MIS is the degree pointed at it.

Database and Data Management 5 Florida schools

⚠⚠ The main route, and the one that leads to the better-paid half of the work. Database ARCHITECT — the design side — posts a $139,500 median against database administration's $104,620, and the design courses (COP4710, COP3710) sit in the computer science college. ⚠ 16 Florida institutions award computer science against one live database programme.

Web and Interactive Design 34 Florida schools

⚠⚠⚠ Where the bachelor's actually is. This CIP family awards no bachelor's degrees at all in Florida, and BLS gives the typical entry for web developers and digital interface designers as a bachelor's — so the degree-holders came from computing, digital arts or digital media. ⚠ If you want the degree rather than the certificate, start there.

Electrical Engineering 10 Florida schools

Where the software half of embedded and systems work is taught. ⚠ Many electrical graduates end up writing firmware; if that is the work you want, compare the two degrees rather than assuming electrical covers it.

Teacher Education 37 Florida schools

⚠ Named for the same reason and with a sharper edge: Florida treats mathematics, science and computer science as shortage areas, so a subject degree plus the subject-area examination is a genuinely open door into teaching. ⚠⚠ It is also the door most often taken in the other direction — subject graduates who try teaching and leave, because the pay ceiling in Florida is far below what those degrees earn elsewhere.

Graphic and Digital Design 41 Florida schools

⚠⚠⚠ Named because of where BLS says this field is going. Graphic design is projected to DECLINE 2% to 2035 with AI named as a reason; web and digital interface work is not. ⚠ The designers least exposed are the ones who can build as well as draw.

Instructional Design and Educational Technology 10 Florida schools

⚠ Named for the production half of the work: authoring tools, web delivery, video, accessibility and learning analytics. ⚠⚠ Florida's graduate curriculum reflects it — EME6405 Educational Web Design, EME6209 Digital Video, EME6208 Interactive Media — and a technical background is a genuine advantage in a field with no required major.

Florida public institutions offering this program

16 institutions awarded a credential in this field in 2023, at these levels: Associate, Bachelor's, Certificate (12 weeks-1 year), Doctorate (research/scholarship), Master's, Postbaccalaureate certificate. A school appears here if it awards anything in the field, however limited its offering — a technical college teaching only practical nursing has a nursing program. Listed alphabetically, not ranked.

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University

Bachelor's · Master's

Florida Atlantic University

Bachelor's · Certificate (12 weeks-1 year) · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's · Postbaccalaureate certificate

Florida Gulf Coast University

Bachelor's

Florida International University

Bachelor's · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's

Florida Polytechnic University

Associate · Bachelor's · Master's

Florida State College at Jacksonville

Associate

Florida State University

Bachelor's · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's

Saint Johns River State College

Associate

Seminole State College of Florida

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

St Petersburg College

Associate

University of Central Florida

Bachelor's · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's · Postbaccalaureate certificate

University of Florida

Bachelor's · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's

University of Florida-Online

Bachelor's

University of North Florida

Bachelor's · Master's

University of South Florida

Bachelor's · Master's

University of West Florida

Bachelor's · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's

Source: federal IPEDS completions data for 2023, first majors only — the most recent year published. ⚠ It records what was awarded, which is strong evidence of what is offered, but a program launched since 2023 will not appear here. Check the institution’s own catalog before applying.

Updated 21 September 2026. ⚠ Program pages describe a field of study, not one school’s degree — always read the catalog of the institution you are applying to.