Computer Science Enrollment Up 10% Last Fall

dcblogs writes "Computer science enrollments increased 10% last fall, according to the Computer Research Association. At the peak of the dot-com era, the average enrollment in computer science departments was 398, but by 2007 it had declined in half. Enrollments now average 253 students per department. Enrollments have now increased in the last three years. The CRA's annual survey tracks students enrolled at Ph.D.-granting institutions. Compared to the dot-com era, the interest today in computer science may be 'a more reasoned response to a field that seems positioned at the hub of just about every national priority.'"

The criminal potential is amazing

[countertrolling]

After seeing what Goldman Sachs can do with a computer, who wouldn't sign up?

Re:What is ironic about the dot com era...

[BigDaveyL]

I was in school during the boom and graduated (in 3.5 years) in Dec. 2001. During the boom years, I'd get called every couple of weeks for internship oppurtunites. When the bust hit, it was like pulling teeth. And trying to find a real job was painful - so painful, that I stayed on an extra year and a half to get an MS degree in a related field. And it's been hit or miss since then. It seems like companies are more adverse to actually training/investing in staff then they were evevn 10-12 years ago.

Re:Did CS departments start teaching anything usef

[mini me]

A $100,000 marketing campaign will land you far more jobs than a $100,000 degree. If you are only in college to find a job later in life, you're doing it wrong.

I've got jobs, you looking for work?

[RingDev]

Unemployment in the IT field is under 5%, even with the economic down turn. There are jobs for new grads.

For example, the company I work for is currently looking for a new DBA (preferably senior), a new BI guy, a new SharePoint person, and likely 2 more business/IT analysts. We'd take college grads for any of them but the DBA, and possibly for the DBA if it's the right kind of person.

Experience is important, but we've got work that needs doing and we're not going to waste money waiting for the perfect hire when we can get a skilled person in and spin them up.

-Rick

And the reason is ... ?

[ect5150]

Enrollments are up because unemployment is up. Pure and simple. People lose a job, they go back and get retrained. Enrollment is up across the board - not just in Comp Sci.

Computer Science != IT

[teknopurge]

CS is the study of discrete math and algorithms, not writing code. We didn't have a single class during my undergrad on writing code - things like C and Java were used to describe algorithms but we were expected to learn the languages on our own time, if we didn't already know them.