I think CS masters degrees serve one valuable purpose. They are a gateway for foreign graduates to come to the US, work on their CS masters while doing TA work

I think CS masters degrees serve one valuable purpose. They are a gateway for foreign graduates to come to the US, work on their CS masters while doing TA work to reduce the load on the professor and then get a 27 month work permit . In fact it is cheaper to hire foreign graduates under this program compared to a US national because you get to save on FICA taxes which are approximately 15k per year. In fact many universities are already aware on this and have built coursework only masters degrees with no research required, as that provides more tuition to the university at a foreign grad rate and let’s the students graduate earlier so that a fresh batch can take their place.