The Georgia Institute of Technology has received a considerably larger number of applications for its MOOC-inspired online computer science master’s degree than applicants for its on-campus counterparts combined.
Over an enrollment period of 21 days, 2,359 people applied for Georgia Tech’s online computer science master’s degree program, a survey of the course found.
The total number of enrollment for all traditional, campus-based computer science master’s degrees for the entirety of last year was 1,806.
“[That’s] very strong application numbers with virtually no marketing,” Georgia Tech noted in a summary of the survey.
That doesn’t mean the program has gone without publicity.
The program is based on – and uses the technology behind – massive open online courses (MOOCs) built by Udacity, but differs in that none of the courses are free.
In total, the program would cost a student more than $6,500, which is still a deep discount when compared to the $44,000 price tag for on-campus students.
That discount, and that the program is the first MOOC-like degree of its kind, inspired a flood of national news coverage when the experiment was announced in May.
See Page 2 for a more detailed breakdown of what the applicants are like.
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