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Why do so few people major in computer science?

danwang.co

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Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#11

Post by simonsarris »

Slight note about Dan Wang picking 2005: That was the peak of CS degrees awarded because it's 4/5 years after the height of the dot-com bubble. So the upward bump in the mid-2000's is somewhat explainable as an anomaly.

I think his point 1 is underrated. CS degrees are flat because aptitude is flat.

You can compare CS degrees to other degrees over time at nsf.gov:

https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/2016/nsb20161/#/report/chapte...

We have more grads than ever, but they are dumber than ever (we have the data to prove this), getting less difficult degrees.

I have a bad feeling that we are running up against some diminishing returns on education and hiding it with numbers like the total number of grads. The number of grads for difficult degrees and the quality of grads seems to be another story.

> In 1970s 1-in-2 college grads aced Wordsum test. Today 1-in-6 do. Using that as a proxy for IQ of the median college grad, in the 70’s it was ~112, now its ~100.

More stats: https://medium.com/@simon.sarris/why-is-computer-science-enr...

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#12

Post by xxSparkleSxx »

I think the market is just way over saturated. Hiring practices for developers point to just that.

I mentioned in a different thread how simole it is for my travel-nurse of a sister to get a new job (her stints around the Bay Area paid ~100k and she only has 2 years of experience).

Developers jump through hoop after hoop for employment, this wouldn't happen if they were in demand like a nurse. The market is just responding appropriately, though maybe not how the masters would prefer it.

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#13

Post by akhilcacharya »

>Why is the marginal student not drawn to study CS at a top school, and why would a top student not want to study CS at a non-top school, especially if he or she can find boot camps and MOOCs to bolster learning?

Because I'm not smart enough to get into MIT/Stanford/UCB/CMU?

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#14

Post by david-cako »

A better question is "why do we care".

Software is about the only career I can think of where there are movements created to inject social status into it so that people get into it who are only interested so long as it comes with social status/trendiness.

The major also doesn't fix the thought process. You either have it or you don't.

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#15

Post by lelandbatey »

In case anyone would like a mirror, I've tried to save the page as best I can here: http://mirror.xwl.me/why-so-few-computer-science-majors/peop...

I seem to have the only working mirror which includes his graph, though the link to the original on his site is: http://i2.wp.com/danwang.co/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/bache...

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#16

Post by romanovcode »

david-cako wrote: post #14

A better question is "why do we care". Software is about the only career I can think of where there are movements created to inject social status into it so that people get into it who are only interested so long as it comes with social status/trendiness. The major also doesn't fix the thought process. You either have it or you don't.

I think it is also the only career which people try to inject diversity just for the sake of it.

Maybe I just live in developer bubble and don't know any better, but I've never seen a movement like "Girls do Plumbing!", "Black girls construction bootcamp" or "Mining for equality!".

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#19

Post by lightblade »

xxSparkleSxx wrote: post #12

I think the market is just way over saturated. Hiring practices for developers point to just that. I mentioned in a different thread how simole it is for my travel-nurse of a sister to get a new job (her stints around the Bay Area paid ~100k and she only has 2 years of experience). Developers jump through hoop after hoop for employment, this wouldn't happen if they were in demand like a nurse. The market is just resp…

Nurse is licensed though. That's instant credibility.

Re: Why do so few people major in computer science?

#20

Post by ritchiea »

xxSparkleSxx wrote: post #12

I think the market is just way over saturated. Hiring practices for developers point to just that. I mentioned in a different thread how simole it is for my travel-nurse of a sister to get a new job (her stints around the Bay Area paid ~100k and she only has 2 years of experience). Developers jump through hoop after hoop for employment, this wouldn't happen if they were in demand like a nurse. The market is just resp…

I'm a freelancer/run-my-own small dev consultancy and I pretty much never jump through hoops. The level of demand doesn't create the hoops. Some combination of needing to create the appearance of "only hiring the best of the best of the best just like everyone else" & fear of a bad hire creates the hoops.

I don't have trouble finding work and often need to bring on additional help. The hoops are cultural.

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