Artificial Intelligence · California

Artificial Intelligence colleges in California

CampusPin lists 330 U.S. colleges in California that offer Artificial Intelligence programs. Compare tuition, acceptance rate, and enrollment in the table below, every figure links back to the institution's official IPEDS data.

Artificial intelligence is the study of building systems that learn, reason, perceive, and make decisions from data, for students who enjoy math, programming, and modeling.

Schools in California that offer Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence programs in California: by the numbers

A quick comparison of the 50 schools (of 330 total) listed above, drawn from each institution's published IPEDS data.

Schools listed

330

Public / private

17 / 33

Universities / 2-year

36 / 14

Cities represented

37

In-state tuition range

$1,104–$57,946

Median in-state tuition

$15,977

Lowest published in-state tuition

Barstow Community College

$1,104

Most selective

California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo

30% acceptance

Largest by enrollment

Ashford University

31,389 students

Figures reflect the schools currently listed and each institution's most recent reported data. Verify current tuition and admissions details with the school before applying.

What you'll study in a Artificial Intelligence program

  • Machine learning algorithms and model training
  • Deep learning and neural network architectures
  • Natural language processing and language models
  • Computer vision and image recognition
  • Knowledge representation, search, and automated reasoning
  • Probability, linear algebra, and statistics for modeling
  • Programming and data structures for AI systems
  • Robotics, perception, and motion control
  • Ethics, bias, and responsible deployment of AI

Where a Artificial Intelligence degree can lead

  • AI Engineer
  • Machine Learning Engineer
  • Research Scientist
  • Data Scientist
  • Natural Language Processing Engineer
  • Computer Vision Engineer

Typical pay: Early-career wages vary by employer, region, and experience (BLS, 2024 computer and information research scientists median $140,910).

An artificial intelligence major teaches you to design software that can learn from data, draw inferences, understand language, and interpret images or motion. Students dig into the theory behind machine reasoning, then build it in code: training models to recognize patterns, representing knowledge so a system can act on it, processing human language, and giving machines a sense of their surroundings through computer vision and robotics. The work blends mathematics, statistics, and programming with hands-on experimentation, and you spend much of your time measuring how well a model performs, finding where it fails, and weighing the ethical and human-factors questions that come with automated decisions. It sits close to computer science but is narrower and more applied: where computer science covers computing broadly and data science centers on drawing conclusions from data, an AI program focuses specifically on building systems that learn and reason, and it leans more toward research methods than the day-to-day product focus of software engineering.

AI programs are commonly offered as a bachelor's or master's degree, and many students continue to graduate study because research-oriented and model-building roles often draw on advanced coursework. Coursework is project-heavy: lab assignments where you train and tune models, a capstone or research project, and often a thesis at the graduate level, since AI is not a licensed profession in the way some health or engineering fields are. There is no general license to practice AI, though work that touches regulated areas such as healthcare or finance may carry its own legal and compliance requirements that should be verified, and some related engineering tracks may involve programmatic accreditation worth confirming. Graduates work across software and technology firms, research labs, healthcare and finance organizations, manufacturing and robotics, government, and academia, typically as engineers who put models into production or as scientists who develop new methods.

In federal data for the closely related occupation of computer and information research scientists, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a 2024 median wage of $140,910 and projects employment to grow about 19.7% from 2024 to 2034; a master's degree is the typical entry-level education for that occupation. National figures are occupation-wide medians across all experience levels, not starting wages or graduate outcomes.

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Use CampusPin's filter-first search to narrow 330+ Artificial Intelligence programs in California by tuition, school size, acceptance rate, and campus setting.

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