Best Colleges for Artificial Intelligence: AI Majors, AI Tracks, and How Admission Works

Which Are the Best Colleges for Artificial Intelligence?

The best colleges for artificial intelligence are easier to compare by structure than by rank, because the structure decides how a student gets in and whether the choice can be changed later. Seven selective universities in this guide now grant a bachelor’s degree with artificial intelligence as the major. Two of them, Northwestern and USC, enroll their first AI majors in fall 2026, so most published lists of the best colleges for artificial intelligence predate them. The table sets out each program as its own university describes it.

Which of the Best Colleges for Artificial Intelligence Offer a Standalone AI Major?

Carnegie Mellon has the oldest program. Its School of Computer Science describes the BSAI as the nation’s first bachelor’s degree in artificial intelligence, introduced in fall 2018. The curriculum pairs a five-course computer science core with seven courses in mathematics and statistics, a three-course AI core, and four AI electives drawn from decision making and robotics, machine learning, perception and language, and human-AI interaction. The program says it has admitted anywhere from 35 to 50 new AI majors in the past. Our Carnegie Mellon admissions guide covers the university as a whole.

MIT’s version is Course 6-4, the SB in Artificial Intelligence and Decision Making, which students have been able to declare since fall 2022. The department describes it as a major that integrates electrical engineering, computer science, statistics, operations research, and brain and cognitive sciences. Requirements include three mathematics subjects, two foundation subjects, and five of what the department calls Center subjects.

Penn Engineering announced its BSE in Artificial Intelligence on February 13, 2024 and called it the first undergraduate major of its kind among Ivy League universities. Current Penn students could transfer in for fall 2024, and first-year applicants could apply for fall 2025. The degree totals 37 course units and offers optional concentrations in areas such as robotics, machine learning, and vision and language.

Two programs are new this fall. Northwestern’s AI major is administered by the Department of Computer Science in the McCormick School of Engineering and is the first offering of McCormick’s new bachelor of science in engineering degree; students in any Northwestern school may add AI as a second major. USC’s BS in Artificial Intelligence was designed by three departments (computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and industrial and systems engineering), appears on the Common Application, and offers three tracks: computing foundations and applications; computer engineering, signal processing, and controls; and AI systems and operations engineering.

Two public universities round out the group. UC San Diego’s BS in Artificial Intelligence sits in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and draws electives from cognitive science, data science, mathematics, and other departments. Purdue lists two degrees of 120 credits each: a BS in Artificial Intelligence in the College of Science, offered at West Lafayette and Indianapolis, and a BA in Artificial Intelligence in the College of Liberal Arts that pairs computer science with philosophy coursework.

How Do Students Get Into an AI Major at Each College?

There are three routes, and families should know which one applies before the application is filed.

The first route is admission to a school or to the university, followed by a declaration. Carnegie Mellon applicants apply to the School of Computer Science, start undeclared, and declare one of four majors (computer science, artificial intelligence, computational biology, or human-computer interaction) in the spring of the first year. The program’s own FAQ says that not everyone is technically guaranteed a place in the AI major, that to date it has not turned anyone down, and that it reserves the right to cap the number. MIT admits to the whole university, not to a major; its admissions office states that students are then free to choose any course of study without additional requirements or admission procedures, which includes Course 6-4. At Northwestern, first-year McCormick students declare or change to AI with a change of major form.

The second route is a choice made on the application. Penn’s program page tells prospective students that they can declare the AI major when they apply to Penn Engineering. USC lists its BSAI on the Common Application. UC San Diego is the strictest case: for the 2026-2027 academic year, only students admitted directly into the AI major by the admissions office may major in it. The department will not approve internal switches, including from its own computer science and computer engineering majors, and a student who leaves the AI major cannot switch back until the policy is revisited in 2027.

The third route is a computer science degree with an AI concentration, covered below. Our guide to computer science admission structures explains how direct admission, admission by college, and admit-then-declare systems change the strategy, and the same logic applies to AI.

How Do the AI Curricula Compare Across Colleges?

The degrees share a core of mathematics, programming, and machine learning, and differ in what surrounds it.

Two patterns stand out. Carnegie Mellon, Penn, and MIT each require coursework in ethics or the social responsibilities of computing, and both Carnegie Mellon and Penn require a course in cognitive science, which a standard computer science degree does not. The engineering-based programs also reach into areas a computer science major may never see: Penn’s AI core includes signals and systems and optimization and control, and one of USC’s three tracks is built around hardware, signal processing, and controls.

Which Top Colleges Teach AI Inside a Computer Science Degree?

Several of the strongest AI departments in the country do not grant an AI degree. Their students major in computer science and specialize, which is why a list of the best colleges for artificial intelligence cannot stop at the universities with the major.

A student at one of these universities can reach the same advanced coursework as an AI major elsewhere. Our comparison of Stanford and MIT for computer science shows how two top programs organize it differently. Carnegie Mellon also offers an AI minor and an additional major that are open to students from any primary major.

Is There a Business School Route Into AI?

Wharton announced an undergraduate concentration in Artificial Intelligence for Business on April 2, 2025, alongside an MBA major of the same name. Students have been able to declare it since fall 2025. It is a concentration within the Wharton undergraduate degree, not a separate AI major, and it is jointly administered by the Statistics and Data Science department and the Operations, Information and Decisions department. Coursework covers applied machine learning, data science, and a required ethics course. A student who wants to build AI systems should look at the engineering programs above; a student who wants to manage their use in a company may prefer this route. Our Wharton guide covers admission.

Does Choosing an AI Major Make Admission Harder?

None of the program pages cited in this guide gives an acceptance rate for its AI major, so any specific figure a family sees for one is an estimate. What can be said is where each major sits. At Carnegie Mellon the AI major is inside the School of Computer Science. CMU does not publish admission figures by college; the school’s own 2015 account reported 350 admits from 6,756 applicants, under 5.2%, in a year when the university’s other undergraduate programs admitted 19%. The university-wide rate is now 11.1%.

At UC San Diego the AI major is the most restricted of the computing majors: it can be entered only at the point of admission, and it is not offered through the selective major process that continuing students use to reach the department’s other majors. At Penn, USC, and Northwestern the major sits in the engineering school, and that is where the application is directed. Our analysis of acceptance rates by major shows how wide the gap between computing and other fields can be at the same university.

How Should a Family Build a College List for a Student Interested in AI?

Oriel Admissions advises families to start with the routes, not the rankings. A list made up only of programs that require the major on the application concentrates risk, because a denial from the major is usually a denial from the university. A balanced list for a student set on AI mixes at least one university where the major is declared after enrolling, one or two where AI is studied through computer science, and public options where the student’s residency helps.

Check the switching rules for every school on the list. UC San Diego is closed to internal switches for now. Carnegie Mellon allows students in its other colleges to transfer into the AI major only in limited numbers, no earlier than the end of the sophomore year, and with six core courses completed. Our guide to choosing an intended major explains when a second-choice major helps and when it does not.

Early rounds matter at several of these universities. Oriel Admissions calculates from Carnegie Mellon’s Common Data Set for 2025-2026 that the university admitted 20.6% of its Early Decision applicants for the Class of 2029 (553 of 2,680) against 11.1% overall, and our Early Decision acceptance rate comparison covers the others. Families comparing AI with the broader field can also read our rankings of the best colleges for computer science and the best colleges for engineering.

What Should a High School Student Do Now to Prepare for an AI Major?

The published curricula point to mathematics first. Carnegie Mellon’s AI major requires seven mathematics and statistics courses, including calculus in three dimensions, linear algebra, probability, and regression. Penn’s requires seven course units of mathematics and natural science, and its program page states that strong preparation in mathematics is vital for any Penn Engineering degree. A student should reach calculus in high school, take statistics if the school offers it, and learn to program in Python.

Beyond coursework, admissions readers look for evidence that the interest is real. Carnegie Mellon’s AI program tells applicants to describe their interest in AI and any experience in AI-related areas in the personal essay. That experience can come from research in high school, from a project a student can show, or from competition. The USA AI Olympiad holds its next first round on February 19, 2027, with registration open until January 31, 2027, and established contests such as the AMC 12 and the Regeneron Science Talent Search remain the better-known signals.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources: Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science: B.S. in Artificial Intelligence, MIT EECS: 6-4 Artificial Intelligence and Decision Making, MIT Admissions: majors and minors, Penn Engineering: B.S.E. in AI curriculum and FAQ, Northwestern Engineering: new AI major announcement, USC Viterbi: undergraduate degree in artificial intelligence (August 14, 2025), UC San Diego CSE: B.S. Artificial Intelligence (updated August 3, 2026), Purdue University catalog: Artificial Intelligence, BS, Stanford Bulletin 2026-27: Computer Science (BS), Stanford Institutional Research and Decision Support: Common Data Set 2025-2026, Georgia Tech catalog: Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, UC Berkeley CDSS: undergraduate majors, Wharton: Artificial Intelligence for Business announcement (April 2, 2025), Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science: Meeting the demand (July 22, 2015)

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