By Emily Cerf

New rankings from the Wall Street Journal and the Burning Glass Institute place UC Santa Cruz as the number 12 school for high-paying tech salaries. 

UC Santa Cruz alumni in tech jobs earn an average yearly salary of $136,978, according to the report. This is a $14,886 premium above the median annual salary for graduates in the field.

Last year, UC Santa Cruz ranked as the number two public school for high-paying jobs in engineering and the number nine public school for high-paying jobs in data science and software in a similar report from the Wall Street Journal.  

The rankings reflect the value of proximity to the Silicon Valley tech hub, where UC Santa Cruz has a campus; the main residential campus is just an hour away. The UCSC Silicon Valley campus is a multidisciplinary hub for research and teaching relevant to the tech and engineering industry, with programs in human-computer interaction, natural language processing, and more. 

Students at UC Santa Cruz incorporate tech into their studies across the academic disciplines through programs in entrepreneurship, humanities and technology, and technology for social good. Courses in the Baskin School of Engineering emphasize learning the modern directions of the information technology industry. 

Career Success services at UCSC and Baskin Engineering collaborate closely with leading tech companies to create workshops and professional development programming that gives students insight into industry and offer opportunities for networking. Multiple internship and job fairs throughout the year connect students directly to potential employers from the nearby tech industry and beyond and an active alumni network supports students in their transition to career. 

UC Santa Cruz's unwavering commitment to nurturing intellectual curiosity, fostering critical thinking, and instilling a sense of social responsibility underscores its dedication to providing top-tier education and driving positive societal impact. The campus is one of very few members of the Association of American Universities (AAU) with both Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Serving (AANAPISI) designations.

Data from the Wall Street Journal came from a Burning Glass Institute analysis of experience and pay data from Lightcast, a labor-market data firm, and Glassdoor, a company-ratings website.