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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."
Agreed. It always infuriated me whenever I'd see CS majors in the computer lab wondering why their workstation was doing something stupid at staring at it dumbstruck.
Things I have actually said to EECS students:
1) "The keyboard doesn't work because it isn't plugged in."
2) "This is how you mount and NFS share."
3) "What do you mean you don't know how to send that to the printer?"
4) "I hope your write cache wasn't on" (said to student switching off a mounted USB hard drive)
5) ssh ecs-linuxws-029; yes "turn down your bad emo music" | write username
6) "What? You need Administror/root privileges? I can help you with that..."