By the time Shinika Balasundar graduated from San José State in December with a computer engineering degree, she had completed internships at three of the nation’s top electric car companies, earning her a full-time position at a major global electronics manufacturer.
Balasundar acquired the skills that landed her those competitive internships not only through the university’s rigorous academic program, but also its nationally acclaimed Formula One club, Spartan Racing, where she learned how programming interacts with hardware.
So it was of little surprise to Balasundar when she heard that San José State students ranked only behind the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in a 2025 national assessment of programming and software engineering skills.
Since 2023, Spartan coders have climbed from number 49 out of 50 up to No. 2 on CodeSignal’s annual skills ranking, overtaking top-tier universities including CalTech, UC Berkeley and its neighbor in Silicon Valley, Stanford, which ranked 17.
“Everything that made me a good engineer today is honestly because of the school and the club together,” said Balasundar, who recently started San José State’s computer engineering master’s program. “The high ranking was very much justified.”
As the rapid rise of artificial intelligence creates an inflection point for computer science education, some educators are reconsidering whether and how to incorporate coding fundamentals into instruction. At San José State, officials believe they’ve found a winning combination. Academic rigor, research jobs, exposure to nearby industry and clubs give their students a competitive edge and opportunities to apply what they’re learning — all for just under $9,000 a year in in-state tuition and fees.
CodeSignal assessments for computer science and technical skills include either three or four problems and take 60 to 90 minutes to complete. The tests are web-based and mandated by employers interviewing candidates for software engineers, product managers or data scientists.
Tigran Sloyan, CEO of CodeSignal, said San José State’s ranking isn’t merely due to its close proximity to Silicon Valley. The campus, he said, has developed programs that are “closer to what companies look for beyond the resume” and the skills that employers care about.
While AI is ever-present and useful for computer science students, programs at San José State are rooted in computing fundamentals, said Jorjeta Jetcheva, chair of the computer engineering department.
“We want students to be successful, not just now, not just when they’re graduating, but for many years to come,” said Jetcheva, who earned her Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University. “We need to have more experts in the future, not fewer, to test, validate and understand what the code is doing.”
Most computer science education takes place in two departments, computer engineering and computer science, as well as in the university’s new College of Information, Data and Society. But this education and training has spread beyond these boundaries into other fields. San José State also offers degrees in computational linguistics and artificial intelligence, embeds computational skills in its chemistry and business programs and will launch undergraduate computer science degrees in biology and geology this fall.
All of this expansion has occurred even as the number of applications to study computer science declined by 13% in 2026 — following a national trend. But as interest in basic computer science declines, more students want to specialize. For example, the number of applicants for the computer science and linguistics bachelor’s program has more than doubled since 2024, from 61 to 131.
“The landscape of higher education around computer science is differentiating,” said Vincent Del Casino, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. “There may be a decline in computer science, but these other areas are simultaneously picking up and all of them rely at some level on computer science education.”
Del Casino said the campus has steadily invested in hiring faculty, both from industry and academia. Last year, San José State was second in the California State University system in hiring tenure-track faculty, and some of those hires also have industry experience.
Jetcheva, a former engineer and research scientist, said many of her students have to juggle school with work or family responsibilities, which “makes all of their accomplishments even more impressive.”
“I came to San José State with a very strong and concrete intention of supporting students,” she said. “A lot of my focus has been on applying for grants that directly benefit the students and remove barriers, such as income or lack thereof, from the challenges that they face.”
Meghana Indukuri, who will graduate this month with a bachelor’s in software engineering, worked on two paid National Science Foundation research projects — one in robotics and another on deep learning and protein design. She said some students use the university’s proximity to high-tech businesses to do internships while they’re in school, but that doing research is another way to gain specialized experience.
“They are two pathways to the same skill sets,” said Indukuri, who will begin a computer science master’s program at UCLA in the fall. “I’m developing software that other people can use, and so is industry.”
Chris Pollett has taught computer science at San José State for almost 15 years. He said the high ranking is an indication that the word is out about the university’s high-quality programming.
“We’ve always been one of the major suppliers locally for tech talent,” said Pollett. “A lot of people come to San José State specifically because they want to get a job in Silicon Valley. Once they’re here, they’re with a lot of like-minded people and they’re very motivated.”
Students say opportunities to apply what they’re learning prepare them for jobs. The SJSU Robotics club is building a new Mars rover for next year’s national University Rover Challenge. The competitive programming club TEA Time recently advanced to the national finals of the International Collegiate Programming Contest. Spartan Racing produced a Formula One car that placed first for endurance and second overall in a national competition last year.
Balasundar knew she wanted to join the Formula One club before even accepting a spot at San José State. As a member, she wanted to create code that would allow her to make adjustments while the car was moving. So she created a telemetry system that uses radio.
“Every single thing I was learning in class had a direct application on the vehicle,” she said. “It may be directly correlated or was adjacent, but I could see the value add of going through the main curriculum that the school provided and how it actually plays into an engineering aspect.”
This story was originally published by EdSource.