Adjunct computer science professor pay per course
From real computer science adjunct and lecturer postings across U.S. colleges and universities, refreshed daily. Live and recently closed listings both count.
- Median per course · computer science
- $3,400
- Middle half of listings (25th–75th)
- $1,257 – $6,475
- Typical range (5th–95th)
- $833 – $10,733
- Institutions disclosing pay
- 51
Based on 87 listings that disclose per-course pay.
Highest-paying institutions
Median per course among institutions with at least three disclosed-pay computer science listings.
- Santa Clara University$10,230n=3
- Brandeis University$6,573n=4
- Augsburg University$6,475n=3
- Edmonds College$6,387n=4
- Rize Education$3,000n=3
- Southern New Hampshire University$2,500n=9
- Cuyahoga Community College$947n=6
- Laredo College$850n=5
By state
States with at least five disclosed-pay computer science listings.
- California$10,082n=10
- Massachusetts$6,573n=13
- Illinois$1,294n=9
- Ohio$947n=6
- Texas$850n=9
Twelve-month trend
$7,225Nov 2025
$3,000Dec 2025
$6,598Jan 2026
$4,206Feb 2026
$15,211Mar 2026
$3,500Apr 2026
$3,000May 2026
$3,050Jun 2026
$2,500Jul 2026
$2,600Aug 2026
$4,000Sep 2026
$5,000Oct 2026
Median per-course pay of listings posted each month.
What the median means per year
Adjuncts are paid per course, so annual income depends on load. At $3,400 per course:
- 2 courses × 2 terms
- $13,600
- 3 courses × 2 terms
- $20,400
- 4 courses × 3 terms
- $40,800
Before tax, no benefits. Most institutions cap adjuncts below the load that would trigger benefits eligibility.
Frequently asked questions
- How much do adjunct computer science professors make per course?
- Across 87 computer science adjunct postings that disclose pay, the median is $3,400 per course; the middle half of listings fall between $1,257 and $6,475.
- Do online adjunct computer science jobs pay less?
- Online computer science listings show a median of $2,500 per course against $3,400 overall (from 11 online postings with disclosed pay). Institutions usually pay online and in-person sections at the same rate; the gap reflects which institutions hire online.
- What would that be per year?
- At the $3,400 median, three courses a term over two terms is about $20,400 before tax, with no benefits. Loads are usually capped below the level that would trigger benefits eligibility.
Where these numbers come from
- Every figure is computed from adjunct, lecturer, and part-time faculty postings that OpenLecture tracks across 4,000+ U.S. institutions, refreshed daily. Closed listings stay in the sample, so the picture covers roughly the past year.
- Only postings that state a per-course amount are compared. Hourly and annual quotes are reported separately and never converted.
- Where a range is posted, the top of the range is used. Figures below $500 or above $25,000 per course are excluded as mislabelled periods.
- Medians are shown, not averages, so a handful of outliers cannot move them. Pages with fewer than 25 disclosed-pay listings carry a warning.
- Roughly a quarter of adjunct postings disclose pay at all; these numbers describe the institutions that do.