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Forest Lake, Minnesota has 30 accredited schools offering software development programs, with tuition ranging from $5,061 to $68,104 per year for indexed programs. Forest Lake has a population of about 20,678. Median household income is $89,879 (Census ACS 2023, 5-year). About 35.7% of adults 25+ hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. In the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI metro area, the top-earning software development-related role is Software Developer at a median $130,920 annually (BLS OEWS, May 2025).
The accredited institutions listed below are the closest in our directory that offer software development programs near Forest Lake, ranked by BOC Score and straight-line distance from Forest Lake 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 Forest Lake. 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:Accreditor: Higher Learning CommissionIPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source:Accreditor: Higher Learning CommissionIPEDSCollege Scorecard
Source: IPEDS / College Scorecard (2023 cohort). Browse all Minnesota schools on the Minnesota software development page.
Forest Lake is part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI metro area (BLS area code 33460). Where MSA-level wages are published, the table below shows MSA medians; otherwise it falls back to Minnesota statewide.
| Occupation | Median Wage | Source | COL-Adjusted (US=100) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software Developer | $130,920 | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | $124,924 |
| Software Quality Assurance Analyst and Tester | $102,130 | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | $97,452 |
| Computer Programmer | $118,000 | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | $112,595 |
| Computer Systems Analyst | $112,090 | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI | $106,956 |
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 | 20,678 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B01003) |
| Median household income | $89,879 | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B19013) |
| Adults 25+ with bachelor’s+ | 35.7% | Census ACS 2023 5-yr (B15003) |
| Regional Price Parity (US=100) | 104.8 (above U.S. average) | BEA RPP 2024 |
Our directory has 30 accredited schools offering software development programs near Forest Lake. The closest is Century College in White Bear Lake, MN (14.7 miles), and the farthest of the schools shown is Macalester College (24.1 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 Forest Lake are: Software Developer ($130,920), Computer Programmer ($118,000), Computer Systems Analyst ($112,090). These reflect MSA-level medians where published, with Minnesota statewide fallback for occupations not reported at the metro level.
Lino Lakes, MN is 8.5 miles from Forest Lake 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.
Forest Lake’s median household income of $89,879 (Census ACS 2023) is one input. Online programs let students stay in Forest Lake while attending lower-cost out-of-state schools, and Minnesota 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 Forest Lake:
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 Minnesota (2026)
