For the fourth year in a row, enrollment in undergraduate computer science programs has increased — this time by 10 percent. Ph.D-granting institutions now have an average computer science department enrollment of 300. According to the Computing Research Association (CRA), the increase could have been much higher if universities didn’t have enrollment caps. “We don’t have a way to gauge — at least in the current survey — how many students wanted to be admitted,” explained CRA’s Peter Harsha.
Efforts to diversify the development field don’t seem to be having much effect. The percentage of students enrolled in computer science programs who are female has actually decreased to 11.7 percent. However, America’s computer science programs remain popular with students from other countries; the survey found that 56.7 percent of master’s degrees in computer science were awarded to nonresident aliens.
