No Application Required? Clemson’s New Online Computer Science Master’s Degree

In December 2023, we covered two new online master’s degrees in technology from Dartmouth College and the University of California at Berkeley. Priced to sell below $45,000—and only about a third of what Dartmouth charges for its on-campus version—both Dartmouth’s Master of Engineering in Computer Engineering and Berkeley’s Master of Advanced Study in Engineering programs continue the trend towards disruptive low pricing among new master’s degrees.

As we pointed out in that feature article, this trend was discussed at length during the October 2023 EdX Global Forum in Washington, DC. We also noted that these new programs from Dartmouth and Berkeley might soon encounter competition with similar online offerings from other top universities. And that sort of competition already appears to be on the way.

Now, another new online computer science master’s program has just launched, this one from Clemson University in South Carolina. Clemson is a public land-grant R1 research university, and with 28,747 students, it is the second-largest university in South Carolina by enrollment.

Like the Dartmouth computer science and Berkeley engineering degrees, Clemson also offers its new online master of science in computer science degree in collaboration with Coursera, one of the most innovative online education firms that we’ll talk more about below. Classes start in August 2024 and the university estimates most working adult students will complete the degree in 20 to 36 months.

In announcing the degree, Professor and C. Tycho Howle Director of the Clemson School of Computing, Dr. Brian Dean, said in a prepared statement that:

This Master of Science in Computer Science program is timely, industry-relevant, and thoughtfully designed to be approachable to learners from many backgrounds, for example those looking for opportunities for mid-career advancement. The modern and cutting-edge curriculum ensures that learners can succeed, whether they hold a formal computer science background or whether their computing background comes from prior real-world experience. We are excited to be able to partner with Coursera to offer this program at Clemson University.

Dr. Dean may have sold his school’s new program a bit short in that statement. That’s because Clemson’s degree offers significant competitive advantages not found in the Dartmouth or Berkeley offerings.

Performance-Based Admissions

The first competitive advantage is Clemson not requiring an application for its program. This is yet another example of the accelerating trend among online programs towards performance-based admissions or PBA, which we discuss at length in our March 2023 feature article “Performance-Based Admissions: Online Ed’s Most Disruptive Trend in Decades.”

Experience at universities such as the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus, dating back to 2019, suggests that performance admissions might amount to such a powerful competitive advantage that a university offering it could potentially blow away competing programs. That’s because applicants to performance admissions programs don’t need to submit the huge list of application requirements most other programs require.

As we discuss further in our article, for graduate programs, these requirements typically include GRE scores, official undergraduate grade transcripts, two or three letters of recommendation, a statement of objectives in the form of an essay, a resume, and a lengthy application form that often contains additional short-answer essay questions.

Research conducted by Coursera reveals that a substantial proportion of potential program applicants who are otherwise qualified never apply to graduate programs because of all these application requirements; they’re the second most influential enrollment disincentive behind the cost of tuition.

For the Clemson program, all applicants need to do to win admission is satisfy two requirements. First, they must have graduated from an accredited undergraduate degree program in the United States or an equivalent program abroad. That program doesn’t necessarily need to be a computer science or engineering program.

Second, they need to earn at least a B average on only the first two courses required for the master’s degree, which means by that time, they will have also completed 20 percent of the 10 courses required by the program. The program automatically admits them once they complete the two courses with sufficient grades.

Incidentally, Clemson’s modified performance admission implementation differs slightly from the “pure” form of performance admissions practiced by CU Boulder’s engineering college. That’s because, at Boulder, applicants don’t even need a bachelor’s degree.

Artificial Intelligence Emphasis

The second competitive advantage is that the Clemson program, while ostensibly a computer science degree, embodies a substantial focus on artificial intelligence that’s not as prominent in the courses required by the Dartmouth and Berkeley programs. For example, at Clemson, five courses out of the ten required for graduation—in other words, half the program—are courses that emphasize AI or machine learning.

Clemson says it took this step in response to soaring demand for AI skills. One October 2023 estimate that the school cites measured the year-over-year increase in United States job postings asking for these skills at 1,848 percent.

Competitive Tuition and Return on Investment

The third of Clemson’s competitive advantages is the surprising price. Tuition only costs $20,280, which is 35 percent less than the university’s hybrid program on campus in Clemson, South Carolina.

To put that cost in perspective, it is less than half the tuition charged for the comparable online programs by both Dartmouth and Berkeley. It’s also only about 17 percent of what Dartmouth charges for its on-campus computer science master’s degree.

But consider the return on that investment Clemson’s graduates are likely to earn. According to figures provided by Coursera’s Chief Content Officer Marni Baker Stein, in the Carolinas and Georgia, Clemson’s degree prepares graduates for nearly 200,000 open jobs within that region with an average salary of $114,600. And based on Lightcast’s job posting report covering the 12 months between January and December 2023, of those 200,000 jobs, those that prefer or require a master’s degree pay 12 percent more than the jobs for bachelor’s graduates.

To help students land one of those jobs, Clemson touts this program’s hands-on learning approach, through which students complete complex projects within real-world computing environments. The school says this approach helps students build a substantial portfolio of projects for potential employers to review.

In a statement, Coursera’s Stein said, “We’re honored to partner with Clemson on this affordable, accessible, and incredibly relevant degree. Together, we’ll educate future technical leaders, who will thoughtfully use AI to solve society’s most pressing challenges and create a positive impact.”

The new partnership with Clemson for a potentially lucrative technical master’s degree with performance admissions amounts to a big win for Coursera. However, this glowing news accompanies controversy surrounding the firm’s recent financial performance.

Two Stanford University computer science professors, Dr. Andrew Ng and Dr. Daphne Koller founded Coursera as a provider of massive open online courses just before the MOOC craze caught fire in 2012. Today the firm is one of the world’s leading providers of online courses, education certificates, and degree programs. Coursera now has a whopping 142 million global registered learners as of December 2023, about four times its pre-Covid user base.

Currently, the company might best be known as the driving force behind the trend towards performance admissions within online degree programs. Dr. Quentin McAndrew, Coursera’s global academic strategist whom we featured in our article on performance admissions, told Dice in June 2024 that a quarter of the company’s degree programs now feature performance admissions. Besides Clemson and the University of Colorado, those colleges include the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Northeastern University in Boston, the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Indiana’s Ball State University, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of London.

But curiously enough, despite these stunning accomplishments, Coursera has never once turned a profit in any quarter during the firm’s entire 12-year history. And despite hundreds of thousands of new learners online during the Covid era between 2020 and 2022, Coursera still couldn’t post profits during the period.

That disconnect between the company’s achievements and its financial performance appears to be continuing. Most recently, in late April 2024, Dow Jones reported that Coursera’s first-quarter earnings fared better than analysts expected because of reduced losses. During the quarter, the firm lost $21.3 million, or 14 cents per share. That compares with a greater loss during the first quarter of 2023 of $32.4 million, or 22 cents per share.

However, revenue didn’t meet expectations, nor did the firm’s relatively weak earnings guidance. Revenue climbed by 15 percent to $169.1 million, from $147.6 million in the first quarter of 2023, which was still below FactSet’s consensus of $170.4 million. Coursera then provided guidance for overall 2024 revenue between $695 and $705 million, about 4 percent less than FactSet’s consensus, which predicted revenue at $737 million.

Not surprisingly, Coursera’s stock tanked. On April 29, the stock price fell 11 percent within a few hours. At the time of this writing in summer 2024, the stock is trading at only $7.60. That’s about 63 percent less than the stock’s recent December 2023 high of $20.72 and 86 percent lower than the $53.55 at which it had traded three years ago during April 2021.