
Computer Science Enrollment is Going Down, and Taking Software Jobs With It - rwalling
http://www.softwarebyrob.com/articles/Computer_Science_Enrollment_Going_Down_Taking_Software_Jobs.aspx
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lupin_sansei
There's no need to worry, the shortage of programmers will take care of
itself. As programmers get more scarce their price will rise, and eventually
people will notice and will be encouraged to move into programming (just like
what happened during the dot com era). If there's another shake out then the
market will weed out the worst programmers and the cycle will start again.

There's enough programming for both high priced productive programmers, and
H1B and outsourcing to go round. There's not a finite amount of programming to
do, it grows each year as more and more companies decide to get a better
website, people decide to socialise on the web more etc.

Frameworks and libraries such as ASP/NET/Prototype/ROR/Catalyst/Web.py and co
are making programmers more productive too, which increases what they can
deliver for a given amount of money.

The high price of software development will also encourage more startups like
Wufoo who can offer forms on the web for a fraction of the cost of custom
development.

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willarson
a) Completing a CS degree does not a programmer make.

b) Geek/boring stereotypes have never seemed overtly powerful in my
experience, the worse perception is that CS is _hard_ , and many college
students don't like that word.

c) This problem is happening in all the sciences, and I think its mostly a
numbers game. China and India (and Pakistan, and etc etc) just have a hell of
a lot more people than the US does. As such they ought to have more people
with a high apptitude for programming.

d) He uses .NET, ehh, I guess I don't really have a fourth point.

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Elfan
a) Completing a CS degree does not a programmer make.

Indeed the author seems to think that CS degree == vocational programming
training. I think that's the _problem_ with current CS degree programs.

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acgourley
But since most people DO think that, CS degree = programming job.

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mattculbreth
Cool article. I'm perplexed as to why it's going down, reasons given or not.
It's such a cool, exciting space.

Actually my school gets a mention: " "There is some early evidence that an
emphasis on interesting end-goals may help increase the enrollment of women in
computer science courses: researchers at Georgia Tech have created an
introductory programming course for non-CS majors that emphasizes the use of
programming to manipulate digital media; the class is 2/3 female."

I can assure you that NO class at Georgia Tech is 2/3 female.

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amichail
I suspect that most software development jobs are indeed unrewarding.

Pursuing your own startup is something else altogether. If you want to
increase CS enrollment, focus more on startups.

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jsjenkins168
I agree totally with your second point.

However I think (based on my CS experience) that most professors don't gear
their curriculum towards startups b/c they themselves either dont understand
or are not interested in startups. Many have not been outside the academic
space enough to know what its about.. If they were into startups, they would
probably be in the industry rather than teaching.

Unless of course they generated wealth and then came back to teach, I've seen
that before..

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tx
Why bother with all that hard math if you can make $80k+ your _first year_
after you get an associate degree in (for example) nuclear medicine.

Point I'm making is that US economy is turning into "services economy", while
science/engineering/manufacturing is slowly drifting overseas.

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lupin_sansei
There's hard math in computer science now?

The US is still primarily a farming and (high tech) manufacturing economy:

"Exports: $1.2 trillion Primarily soybeans, fruit, corn, industrial supplies,
transistors, aircraft, motor vehicle parts, computers"

<http://www.heritage.org/research/features/index/country.cfm?id=Unitedstates>

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fireandfury
It took me a pretty long time to get excited about engineering. It's kind of
funny, because University really made me dislike education/learning so much
that I had to go discover all the good stuff on my own.

In the article, I definitely agree that we need to get more young people
excited about programming and other kinds of engineering (I've heard
enrollment is dropping in these areas).

I think teachers should show Steve Wozniak interviews in middle schools and
high schools. That to me is the true spirit of engineering. It would get kids
excited about engineering and show them that it's not just about memorizing
formulas and solving homework problems.

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amichail
Are academics upset with this decline in CS enrollment? After all, those who
have tenure presumably would not care and might indeed prefer teaching smaller
classes.

Students might also prefer it as their peers would be genuinely interested in
the subject, their classes would be smaller, and their employment
opportunities would be better.

Companies like MS and Google will not outsource all of their development. So
there will always be great jobs available.

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Goladus
I think if you told it in the right way, people would be fascinated to hear
about the mating habits of flying mammals.

