Schools that responded to our Military Times Best: Colleges 2018 survey were considered for the second annual Military Times 10 Best Cybersecurity Programs review. For this project, we evaluated information provided by schools in the survey, federal data and public information specific to computer science and cybersecurity. Federal data came from the Education, Veterans Affairs and Defense departments.
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A school’s performance in our Military Times Best: Colleges evaluation accounted for half of the weight of this evaluation. The remaining weight was divided evenly among the following four metrics: the presence and number of ABET-accredited computer science programs at a school, the presence and number of Centers of Academic Excellence designations given to a school by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, the proportion of degrees awarded at a school that fall under computer science generally, and the proportion of degrees awarded at a school that fall under computer security specifically.
2016 enrollment data are as reported by the colleges in our survey for the fall 2016 semester, except where otherwise indicated. Military enrollment figures are measured similarly and apply to service members and veterans actually tracked by a school, not just students using military-related benefits, except where otherwise indicated.
ABET accreditation shows whether a school has an ABET-accredited computer science program. Schools with a ”+” have more than one.
NSA recognition shows whether a school has a cybersecurity program recognized as among the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense, a joint initiative from the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security. Schools with a ”+” have more than one such recognition.
Computer science/security degrees per 1,000 shows how many degrees were awarded in those fields at schools during the 2015-16 school year, for every 1,000 degrees the school awarded that year. Computer security degrees are a subset of computer science degrees and are included in the computer science numbers.
