Stanford CS Degrees Drop 42% Year-Over-Year, Berkeley Falls 61%

is the writing on the wall?

I think the answer is mostly AI - students are quite terrified about what AI will do to software engineers.

Personally I believe in the Jevon's paradox side of things so I still got my degree in CS even though I could have switched.

Besides AI, I think people are also realizing that the Golden Age of Tech where you could be a SWE at FAANG without actually knowing how to code, and work 10-2pm is largely over. CS is no longer the easy path to a cushy well-paying job, since if you can't perform, you'll get laid off.

So the students that remain in CS genuinely like it / believe in their capabilities.

@itsandrewgao A lot of people only got into CS for the money and ease of finding a job. Now that this era is done, students are sorting into other areas of study.

1. Cal's 61% decline figure is from Cal EECS chair Jelani Nelson for Co2027 (https://www.dailycal.org/news/campus/academics/uc-berkeley-cs-major-enrollment-on-pace-to-drop-by-59-as-part-of-nationwide/article_8ceded3c-d939-4f60-8aa4-110be003c4e3.html).

I know Berkeley does do major impaction so that could be part of it. As for Stanford--

Chart is missing this year's data!

Unfortunately I zoned out when Prof Mehran was talking about how many CS master's degrees were conferred so I can't say if that is down as well. It was a separate ceremony.

@RapaNews Aero/Astro, Materials Science, Bioengineering, Physics, Product Design, are up substantially

@tanayj yeah Cal is definitely more pronounced due to confounding institutional factors

Idk but it's not uniformly down. As one data point --- applications for our lab-based OS lab class 140e jumped from ~113 last year to > 180 this year. We wound up accepting/graduating 93 vs 74 the previous.

Fwiw, on the ee mailing list I saw claims of similar-ish jumps in some low level ee courses.

As to the larger point --- to be unnaturally diplomatic: I'd say numbers of majors down isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Of course in a better world your graph looks the same except with the y-axis labeled "Stanford administrators"--- perhaps then we could have more than 1 TA per 32 students. (Or worse).

@babarganesh congrats to your kid! if I was starting again now I would explore MechE and EE

@itsandrewgao People think AI solving everything including coding means CS will be less valuable.

I think the opposite

@itsandrewgao My theory is that LLM's are going to replace developers in the current sense, and the degree/ career path will be worth far less.

This is only for a few years until humans aren't needed at all. Or it's just the founders telling it what to build.

yeah, you're probably right about the timing. it was probably good enough to do the kind of coding they do in CS school, without the complexities of having to work inside a large corporate code base.

my kid is starting school as a CS major this fall. I wonder whether he will end up finishing in CS. time will tell

@itsandrewgao Which degrees increased, MS&E?

@itsandrewgao There are no entry level CS jobs. AI has obliterated the need for jr.devs and engineers.

@itsandrewgao Equally interesting would be the degrees that are seeing rapid growth...

@itsandrewgao is this enrollees or degrees conferred? if degrees conferred, it's actually weird (AI didn't hit until junior/senior year, when major is pretty much baked in)

@babarganesh degrees conferred!

@itsandrewgao the smartest kids smell where this is going before everyone else

@itsandrewgao think this really depends on what degrees saw an increase? e.g. i always thought symsys was a great way to both get technical cs knowledge + build humanities skills, and maybe people are thinking similarly in the age of AI

@itsandrewgao No entry level jobs for US citizens because of OPT and H1B