Re:Why do so few people major in computer science?
by armchair_hunter on Monday May 29, 2017 @06:37PM
(#14441879)
The chart shows degrees conferred, not how many people are enrolled in a degree. I've been teaching CS at universities since 2010 and I've seen a tremendous growth in CS enrollment. On the flip side, a large number of students fail.
This spring, I failed about about a third of my pupils in the intro class and in following data structure course.
If this holds true for future semesters -as it has for the past few- only around half actually make it through data structures.
CS is hard, and not just because of how exacting the syntax is. It is completely new for many students. Engineering is hard, but a student has expectations they could draw on from math and physics. Same with biology related fields and chem related fields. There are expectations from high school a student can draw upon.
This spring, I failed about about a third of my pupils in the intro class and in following data structure course. If this holds true for future semesters -as it has for the past few- only around half actually make it through data structures.
CS is hard, and not just because of how exacting the syntax is. It is completely new for many students. Engineering is hard, but a student has expectations they could draw on from math and physics. Same with biology related fields and chem related fields. There are expectations from high school a student can draw upon.