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Santa Rosa, California has 35 accredited schools offering software development programs, with tuition ranging from $1,172 to $52,161 per year for indexed programs. Santa Rosa has a population of about 177,216. Median household income is $97,410 (Census ACS 2023, 5-year). About 34.8% of adults 25+ hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. In the Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA metro area, the top-earning software development-related role is Software Developer at a median $148,630 annually (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
The accredited institutions listed below are the closest in our directory that offer software development programs near Santa Rosa, ranked by BOC Score and straight-line distance from Santa Rosa 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 Rosa. 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 Rosa is part of the Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA metro area (BLS area code 42220). 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 | $148,630 | Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA | $137,876 |
| Software Quality Assurance Analyst and Tester | $124,400 | Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA | $115,399 |
| Computer Programmer | $108,060 | Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA | $100,241 |
| Computer Systems Analyst | $113,520 | Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA | $105,306 |
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 | 177,216 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B01003) |
| Median household income | $97,410 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B19013) |
| Adults 25+ with bachelor’s+ | 34.8% | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B15003) |
| Regional Price Parity (US=100) | 107.8 (above U.S. average) | BEA RPP 2024 |
Our directory has 35 accredited schools offering software development programs near Santa Rosa. The closest is Santa Rosa Junior College in Santa Rosa, CA (1.0 miles), and the farthest of the schools shown is City College of San Francisco (51.7 miles). 6 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 Rosa are: Software Developer ($148,630), Software Quality Assurance Analyst and Tester ($124,400), Computer Systems Analyst ($113,520). These reflect MSA-level medians where published, with California statewide fallback for occupations not reported at the metro level.
Rohnert Park, CA is 6.8 miles from Santa Rosa 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 Rosa’s median household income of $97,410 (Census ACS 2023) is one input. Online programs let students stay in Santa Rosa 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 Rosa:
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)
