Online Computer science Master’s degree
37 programs — 12 with federal cost data, the rest suppressed for small class sizes and listed after them, ordered by median debt against median earnings — lowest first.
Data last updated
Field
Hide for-profit colleges(1 program)What our data shows about for-profit collegesAcross the creative fields on this site, students at private for-profit institutions borrow 27% more than students at public ones ($29,332 against $23,033) and earn 15% less four years after completing ($38,361 against $45,110).The combined effect is severe. Median debt at a for-profit equals 70% of a graduate’s annual earnings, against 47% at a public institution. And 10% of for-profit programs leave graduates owing more than they earn in a year — against 1% of public ones. Ten times the rate.This is a pattern across 212 for-profit programs, not a handful of outliers, and it holds in every creative field we cover. It does not mean no for-profit program is worth taking: some appear high in our best-value rankings, and this filter hides those too. It means the odds are materially worse, and the burden of proof sits with the school.Figures are medians computed from the College Scorecard and IPEDS data behind every table on this site.
| Institution | Programcredential and delivery | at completion | 4 yrs after | Median federal loan debt at completion, divided by median earnings four years later. It answers a single question: how much of one year’s income do you owe on the day you finish?Below 50% is generally considered manageable. Above 100% means graduates owe more than they earn in a year, and repayment on a standard ten-year plan starts to consume a serious share of income.Debt covers federal loans only, so real ratios are often worse. Both figures are medians — half of graduates fall on the wrong side of each. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignIL · PublicRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | $18,835 | $179,395 | 10% |
| Stevens Institute of TechnologyNJ · Private nonprofitRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | $26,806 | $171,253 | 16% |
| North Carolina State University at RaleighNC · PublicRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | $30,750 | $164,757 | 19% |
| University of Illinois SpringfieldIL · PublicRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | $25,099 | $126,156 | 20% |
| University of Southern CaliforniaCA · Private nonprofitRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | $51,250 | $188,871 | 27% |
| Boston UniversityMA · Private nonprofitRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | — | $153,937 | — |
| Columbia University in the City of New YorkNY · Private nonprofitRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | $41,000 | — | — |
| Drexel UniversityPA · Private nonprofitRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | — | $188,550 | — |
| Nova Southeastern UniversityFL · Private nonprofitRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | — | $142,461 | — |
| Stanford UniversityCA · Private nonprofitRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | — | $255,667 | — |
| The University of Tennessee-KnoxvilleTN · PublicRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | — | $135,764 | — |
| University of Colorado BoulderCO · PublicRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | — | $148,463 | — |
| Baylor UniversityTX · Private nonprofitRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| Carnegie Mellon UniversityPA · Private nonprofitRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| Case Western Reserve UniversityOH · Private nonprofitRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| Clemson UniversitySC · PublicRequest information → | Computer scienceMaster’s degree · Online or on campus | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| Fitchburg State UniversityMA · PublicRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| Hofstra UniversityNY · Private nonprofitRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| Indiana State UniversityIN · PublicRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| Indiana University-IndianapolisIN · PublicRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| Inter American University of Puerto Rico-FajardoPR · Private nonprofitRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| Naval Postgraduate SchoolCA · PublicRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| New Jersey Institute of TechnologyNJ · PublicRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| New Mexico State University-Main CampusNM · PublicRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| North Central CollegeIL · Private nonprofitRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| Oregon State UniversityOR · PublicRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| Oregon State University-Cascades CampusOR · PublicRequest information → | Computer scienceMaster’s degree · Online or on campus | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| The College of Saint RoseNY · Private nonprofitRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| Tufts UniversityMA · Private nonprofitRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| University of IdahoID · PublicRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| University of Nevada-RenoNV · PublicRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| University of North DakotaND · PublicRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| University of South Carolina-ColumbiaSC · PublicRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| University of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeWI · PublicRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| Vanderbilt UniversityTN · Private nonprofitRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| Western Michigan UniversityMI · PublicRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
| Worcester Polytechnic InstituteMA · Private nonprofitRequest information → | Computer ScienceMaster’s degree · Fully online | Not reported | Not reported | — |
Source: College Scorecard, Field of Study (retrieved September 2026)
How we are paid: StudyCreative earns revenue when readers ask to be connected with a school. No school pays to appear in these figures, to change them, or to be left out of them. Full disclosure.
One thing these figures cannot tell you
Earnings and debt are reported by the federal government at a four-digit program level, so a figure shown against “Computer science” covers every related program at that institution rather than one named degree. That pooling also spans delivery: where a school runs the same credential both online and on campus, the federal figures combine both sets of students. We cannot separate them, and we do not estimate. Full methodology.