January 31, 2005

Recentish articles on declining CS enrollment

Here's a bunch of "sky is falling" type articles on the problems CS faculties are having these days. Most are 6-12 months old, but as far as I can tell, the problem persists and is worsening:


A couple of years ago, when the trend started, CS faculty were happy that the crush of more opportunistic applicants had subsided and that the reduced numbers were students that "really wanted to be in CS." Now, you have to wonder what that core number is, of students that really want to be in computer science. Is it only the hard core techies that still go into CS? Also, what fields are these former CS-bound students going into? Math, physics, biology, business department sponsored IT programs, chemistry, college-level programs on really specific techologies like internet or game programming, certificate programs like the MCSE. Will this trend lead to big shortages in a few years, which will in turn exacerbate the offshoring that everyone is so nervous about?

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