Numbers can be dull things, columns of digits nobody remembers past the meeting where they were presented, but every so often a number tells you something true about a place, and at the Georgia Institute of Technology the number is this: 23,279. That is how many students were enrolled across the College of Computing as of spring 2025, a figure that would make the college, on its own, a substantial academic institution by enrollment. It did not get there by accident, and it did not get there quickly.
A Longer History Than the Name Suggests
Georgia Tech College of Computing likes to date its founding to 1990, and that is fair enough, but the real story starts earlier, in 1963, when a small group of faculty, among them Vladimir Slamecka, Vernon Crawford, Nordiar Waldemar Ziegler, and William Atchison, noticed something odd happening at the intersection of library science, mathematics, and the still-new field of computer technology.
What they noticed became, in 1964, the Master of Science in Information Science, which was later renamed the School of Information and Computer Science, before the college itself was established in 1990. Georgia Tech’s current history traces the College of Computing’s roots to that 1963 effort and the 1964 launch of the M.S. in Information Science.
The college has not stopped growing since. It counts more than 12,000 alumni who have passed through since that 1990 founding, and the college now comprises five schools and 19 degree programs, with 163 academic faculty and 46 research faculty. Its FY2025 research expenditures reached $42,725,188, supported by more than 50 college-affiliated research centers, labs, and groups.
The Numbers, Laid Out
By the college’s own most recent accounting, it now comprises five schools offering 19 degree programs, staffed by 163 academic faculty and 46 research faculty. In fiscal year 2025, research expenditures reached $42,725,188, spread across more than 50 college-affiliated research centers, labs, and groups. Its graduates do well for themselves, too: a Georgia Tech career survey found a median starting salary of $115,000 for bachelor’s graduates in computer science, and $138,500 for those who go on to a master’s.
The Rankings Keep Moving, and Usually Upward
Ask anyone at the College of Computing about rankings, and you will get a specific kind of answer, cautious but unmistakably proud. In the 2026 U.S. News & World Report rankings, Georgia Tech placed No. 6 overall among the nation’s best computer science graduate programs, while its graduate program in artificial intelligence climbed to No. 5, the second consecutive year that particular program has moved up.
The graduate program in systems ranked No. 6, theory at No. 13, and programming languages at No. 15. On the undergraduate side, the news was, if anything, better: Georgia Tech’s undergraduate computer science program jumped two spots to No. 5 in the country, a program that has now ranked in the top ten every year since U.S. News began including computer science in its undergraduate rankings in 2020. Its undergraduate artificial intelligence program sits at No. 5, and its undergraduate cybersecurity program at No. 2.
“We have stayed in the top 10 since 2018, thanks to the hard work and dedication of our faculty and staff,” said Charles Isbell, the college’s dean at the time of an earlier ranking milestone, adding that the standing was also clear evidence of the broad impact that our research and our alumni have across the nation and around the world.
A Dean Who Was Already in the Building
When Georgia Tech went looking for its next dean, it did not have to look far. Dr. Vivek Sarkar became dean and John P. Imlay Jr. Chair of the College of Computing, effective June 1, 2024, following a national search that ultimately settled on someone already inside the institution, having most recently chaired the School of Computer Science and held the Stephen Fleming Chair for Telecommunications at Georgia Tech. Dr. Sarkar’s own research sits in high-performance computing, where his work on parallel systems, programming models, compilers, and runtime systems has influenced how complex computations get done, in both academia and industry, for years.
“We are thrilled to announce Dr. Vivek Sarkar as the new dean of the College of Computing,” said Steven W. McLaughlin, Georgia Tech’s provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs, at the time of the appointment. “He is an outstanding leader in the School of Computer Science and will bring that leadership to the entire College.”
Nancy Amato, board chair of the Computing Research Association, offered her own read on the choice: “Georgia Tech has made a great choice in selecting Dr. Vivek Sarkar as the next dean of its College.” Dr. Sarkar, for his part, described a fairly specific ambition for the role: “My goal is for Georgia Tech to become the best possible partner for CRA.”
More Than a Department, Less Than a Silo
The College of Computing has always resisted being contained by any single discipline, and its degree offerings reflect that instinct. Among its programs is a Bachelor of Science in Computational Media, offered jointly with Georgia Tech’s School of Literature, Media, and Communication in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, proof that even inside a college devoted entirely to computing, the interesting work keeps happening at the seams between fields.
The five schools that make up the college – Computer Science, Cybersecurity and Privacy, Interactive Computing, Computing Instruction, and Computational Science and Engineering – tell a broader version of the same story. They span foundational computer science, cybersecurity, human-computer interaction, computing education, and computational approaches to science and engineering, giving the college a reach that extends well beyond a traditional computer science department.
The Hall of Fame the college maintains for its most accomplished alumni and friends tells its own version of this history, honoring people recognized as academic pioneers, entrepreneurs, and builders of the field, a reminder that a college founded to teach computing has, since 1990, become something closer to an engine for it, one still adding schools, still climbing rankings, and still, by any measure, growing.
Also Read: The Rise of Smart Minds: Top AI & Computing Institutions 2026
