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Santa Clara, California has 39 accredited schools offering software development programs, with tuition ranging from $1,202 to $61,293 per year for indexed programs. Santa Clara has a population of about 129,239. Median household income is $173,670 (Census ACS 2023, 5-year). About 65.3% of adults 25+ hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. In the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA metro area, the top-earning software development-related role is Software Developer at a median $213,110 annually (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
The accredited institutions listed below are the closest in our directory that offer software development programs near Santa Clara, ranked by BOC Score and straight-line distance from Santa Clara city center. The list is rebuilt from federal IPEDS data on every site update.
Every school list on this site is ordered by the BOC Score, computed from the most recent school-level data published by the U.S. Department of Education (College Scorecard and IPEDS). To qualify, a school must be currently operating and accredited by an agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. Each eligible school is then scored on five measures, percentile-ranked against schools at the same credential level:
Schools without enough outcome data appear after ranked schools, without a score. On this page, schools are ordered by distance from Santa Clara. Advertising never affects these rankings. Read the full methodology.
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:IPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source: IPEDS / College Scorecard (2023 cohort). Browse all California schools on the California software development page.
Santa Clara is part of the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA metro area (BLS area code 41940). Where MSA-level wages are published, the table below shows MSA medians; otherwise it falls back to California statewide.
| Occupation | Median Wage | Source | COL-Adjusted (US=100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software Developer | $213,110 | San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $193,034 |
| Software Quality Assurance Analyst and Tester | $166,530 | San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $150,842 |
| Computer Programmer | $154,920 | San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $140,326 |
| Computer Systems Analyst | $157,140 | San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA | $142,337 |
Source: BLS, May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes wage data at the metro (MSA) and state level – not by individual city.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 129,239 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B01003) |
| Median household income | $173,670 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B19013) |
| Adults 25+ with bachelor’s+ | 65.3% | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B15003) |
| Regional Price Parity (US=100) | 110.4 (above U.S. average) | BEA RPP 2024 |
Our directory has 39 accredited schools offering software development programs near Santa Clara. The closest is Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA (2.0 miles), and the farthest of the schools shown is Notre Dame de Namur University (20.3 miles). 9 of the highlighted schools are flagged as offering distance education.
Based on BLS OEWS May 2025 wage data, the top-paying software development-related roles near Santa Clara are: Software Developer ($213,110), Software Quality Assurance Analyst and Tester ($166,530), Computer Systems Analyst ($157,140). These reflect MSA-level medians where published, with California statewide fallback for occupations not reported at the metro level.
Sunnyvale, CA is 3.5 miles from Santa Clara and has its own set of local software development programs – see the city’s page. For online programs, distance matters less; for hybrid or in-person formats, comparing both can help.
Santa Clara’s median household income of $173,670 (Census ACS 2023) is one input. Online programs let students stay in Santa Clara while attending lower-cost out-of-state schools, and California public universities often offer reduced in-state online tuition.
Confirm institutional accreditation via the U.S. Department of Education database (U.S. Dept. of Education database), and check for any program-specific accreditation listed by the school.
Compare every accredited online degree program with city-level data for Santa Clara:
Data verified: August 11, 2026. Salary, employment, and tuition figures on this page are sourced from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (OEWS May 2025; Employment Projections 2024–2034) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard (2023 cohort). The source agency and data year are cited inline with every statistic.
Back to Best Software Development Schools in California (2026)
