The Continuing American Decline in CS

abb_road writes "America's recent dismal showing in the ACM Programming finals may be more than just a bad year; a BusinessWeek article suggests that the loss is indicative of the US's continuing decline in producing computer scientists. Despite the Labor Dept's forecast of a 40% increase in 'computer/math scientist' jobs, planned CS enrollments have plummeted from 3.7% in 2000 to just 1.1% last year. Other countries, particularly China, India and Eastern Europe, are working hard to pick up the slack, with potentially serious long-term effects for the US economy. From the article: 'If our talent base weakens, our lead in technology, business, and economics will fade faster than any of us can imagine.'"

Comments

Why not study a related field instead?

[clevershark]

Perhaps Americans are instead signing up for MBA programs combined with courses in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu, and other languages needed to effectively manage software projects when a great number of your programmers/coders live on the Indian subcontinent.

Re:Hmmmmm

[JanneM]

Tech jobs are being outsourced overseas in a great number of cases, so getting a CS degree is not some automatic ticket to a job like it used to be and doesn't mean long term stability if you can find a job

No degree is an automatic ticket to a long term stable job.

By the age of 18, kids have been using/learning about computers and using the Internet for a while, many have developed some level of technical skill, and are possibly getting jobs without having to go through 4+ years of drudgery.

Tinkering with your computer by yourself makes you a programmer the way tinkering with your car by yourself makes you a mechanic: you have a nice hobby, not a career.

Unless you're working for the biggest companies, programming is a grind. It's not glamorous, seldom exciting, and while the paychecks are nice, you sometimes end up working crazy schedules which don't allow you to enjoy the money.

Welcome to the real world. Or how do you think lawyers, accountants, physicians or engineers spend their days (not to mention policemen, nurses, opticians, construction foremen, taxi drivers, ticket conductors, tool die makers, high-voltage transformer technicians, sewage service personnel ...)?

You want fame, fortune and an easy life? Join a reality TV show.

Protectionist dogma

[typical]

If we truly* have such a shortage of computer scientists, then let's recruit the foreigners and bring them in as immigrants.

This is one of my favorite statements to make to Southerners.

There are lots of low-skill workers in southern states who are heavily opposed to allowing Mexicans into the country. They claim to be opposed to "illegal immigration". They claim that it takes money out of their pocket, as they subsidize, with their taxes, Mexican workers.

They say that they aren't in favor of protectionist laws, that they aren't trying to just be subsidized by higher-skill workers.

Yet the moment you propose eliminating the immigration quota, which should make them incredibly happy -- it would essentially eliminate any tax subsidization that they are upset about -- they continue being upset. They *really* want that troublesome competition to just vanish...