CS Degrees Low in 2007 But Bouncing Back

An anonymous reader writes "The number of undergraduate computer science degrees awarded last year hit a new low with the Class of 2007. The degrees awarded, 8,000, as tracked by the Computing Research Association, is only half of what it was five years ago. In 2003-04 — the high point of this decade — 14,185 students were awarded bachelors degrees in computer science from the 170 PhD granting universities tracked by the CRA. That said, after a decade of severe declines, the number of students at top universities declaring themselves as computer science majors is finally seeing an increase. Though it's only a small increase, it's an increase nonetheless. Experts attribute the shift to changes in job market, and also to changes in curriculum and the marketing of comp sci programs."

Comments

Re:Computer Science in HS

[jawtheshark]

Including Big-O notation? Datastructures (linked-lists, hashtables, b-trees, 2-3 trees)? Database design with practical SQL? Turing machines? Church thesis?

That's just the first year computer science.... You highschool offered exactly what of those? If you say VB/Java/C(++)/Pascal, you're not even entering in the realm of computer science.

Is anonymous reader one of the new grads?

[mcmonkey]

8,000 is not half of 14,185.

And how can we be at the end of "a decade of severe declines" when the high point was five years ago? A decade of decline does not necessarily mean a strictly decreasing sequence, but if the number of degrees granted in 2003-2004 was higher than the numbers for 2000-2001, 2001-2002, and 2002-2003--sounds like five years of decline, not a decade.

And maybe I'm just a cynic, but "changes in curriculum and the marketing of comp sci programs" sounds like "we're turning science programs into vo-tech training for engineers and programmers."

This story will probably just spur another dozen threads of whining about all the math required for any decent comp sci program.

Now get off my lawn.