Competition for the best tech school in North America has always been intense. But while the horse race between MIT, Stanford and other elite institutions has traditionally been about rankings, employers are increasingly paying attention to another metric: enrolment size. As demand for tech talent continues to grow, the best combination of quality and scale may offer the strongest opportunity for talent recruitment.
The QS World University Rankings are one of the most widely used tools for comparing universities, assessing more than 1,400 institutions worldwide based on factors such as academic reputation, employer reputation and research impact. In computer science, a top-25 ranking places a school among an elite group shaping the future of technology.
However, rankings alone don’t tell the full story. While they signal quality and reputation, enrolment figures show the scale of a university’s talent pipeline. For employers, both matter. A highly ranked program with a small graduating class can create a limited and highly competitive talent pool, while a larger top-ranked program offers access to high-quality talent at greater scale.
Figuring out enrollment numbers is like finding a needle in a haystack – undergrad enrolment figures are often buried across websites, fact sheets and institutional reports. In this piece, we’ve gathered undergraduate computer science enrolment data at the top 25 North American schools on the QS Computer Science Subject Rankings.
Each piece of the puzzle, all in one place.
Top tech schools with the most tech students
*Universities marked with an asterisk do not publicly report total program enrolment. For these institutions, enrolment was estimated using available intake or graduation data. These estimates do not materially impact the overall findings of this analysis.
** Updated 2026 enrolment figures were not publicly available for these institutions at the time of publication.
The numbers show that UWaterloo is at the top of the list for both quality and scale.
It ranks 15th among North America’s top computer science programs and has the largest enrollment among the top-25, with 4,932 undergraduate students enrolled in its computer science program. The second biggest school, Georgia Institute of Technology trails behind with 4,000 students.
While rankings are important indicators of academic quality and institutional reputation, enrolment size tells a different story — of talent capacity and the ability to bolster business expansion. When employers compare locations for company expansion, the size of the talent pipeline matters almost as much as the quality of graduates.
The top three schools on this list – the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and Carnegie Mellon University have a total of 3,345 CS students in their programs – that’s 1,587 fewer students than UWaterloo alone.
On a broader scale, North America is still home to the world’s most significant concentration of tech talent. Out of the top 50 computer science programs globally, 22 are in North America, meaning nearly half of the world’s leading institutions are concentrated on a single continent. If you want to recruit both quality and quantity of tech talent, North America is the place to look.
The Toronto-Waterloo Corridor supplies a strong talent pipeline
One of the key advantages offered by Waterloo is its proximity to Canada’s largest city – Toronto. Just 100 kilometres apart, the UWaterloo and the University of Toronto (UofT) are connected by Highway 401 and help anchor the Toronto-Waterloo Corridor, the country’s most significant centre for technology talent and innovation.
When combined, UWaterloo and the UofT* provide access to nearly 7,000 undergraduate computer science students, creating one of North America’s largest technology talent pipelines. For employers, this provides access to a large, highly skilled workforce that can support growth, innovation and long-term expansion.
CBRE’s latest Scoring Tech Talent report confirms what many already know: Waterloo and Toronto are legitimate tech powerhouses. In 2025, Waterloo ranked seventh among North America’s leading tech talent markets and retained its title as the top small market, while Toronto secured third place overall, ahead of New York City and Austin.
(*Based on 2026 enrolment data for UWaterloo and the most recent publicly available undergraduate enrolment data (2025) for the UofT.)
Waterloo vs. Northeast Corridor: Tech schools
Waterloo and New York City differ dramatically in size, but both are neck-to-neck in terms of tech talent ecosystems. The NYC metropolitan – also referred to as the Northeast Megalopolis area – is home to New York University and three Ivy League universities – Columbia, Princeton and Yale. It may surprise you to learn that UWaterloo has 2,000 more students enrolled in computer science than all of these universities put together.
Geography often influences recruitment. Just as employers in NYC draw talent from NYU and the surrounding Ivy League institutions, companies in Waterloo benefit from access to the UWaterloo talent pipeline. When the broader Toronto-Waterloo Corridor is considered, the available pool grows even further.
This comparison highlights an important distinction: while reputation and rankings remain important measures of quality, talent scale can also influence a company’s ability to recruit and grow. When it comes to hiring, you want to be in the right place with the right people. Waterloo offers both.
Waterloo vs. Silicon Valley: Talent strength
Silicon Valley, home to two top universities in the QS rankings – Stanford and UC Berkeley – is the world’s most recognized technology hub. These two institutions have approximately 3,108 undergraduate computer science students but, while they are higher rated, they just can’t compete with Waterloo’s talent resources.
Beyond size
Rankings and enrolment figures provide useful indicators of a university’s reputation and scale, but these alone do not guarantee graduates’ success in industry. What matters is an institution’s ability to consistently produce skilled talent, connect students with industry needs and help transform ideas into economic impact. This is where the University of Waterloo distinguishes itself from many of its peers.
Alongside its large computer science cohort and strong QS ranking, UWaterloo has built a reputation for experiential learning and entrepreneurship. Through the world’s largest co-operative education program, most students graduate with 2+ years of on-the-job training, giving them the opportunity to apply classroom learning in a paid, real-world context throughout their undergraduate degree.
This emphasis on practical experience is complemented by a strong culture of entrepreneurship. UWaterloo ranks #1 in Canada and #21 globally for startup founders, with 18% of Canadian founders counting themselves among its alumni. Together, these strengths help explain why Waterloo graduates are sought after not only for their technical skills but also for their ability to innovate, adapt and create new opportunities.
Best, biggest and brightest
Waterloo is among the best, biggest and brightest when it comes to tech schools in North America. It combines academic excellence with one of North America’s largest technology talent pipelines, so if you’re looking for work-ready talent with entrepreneurial spirit (and lots of it), Waterloo is the place to be.