 once we thought of the internet as this thing with infinite capabilities it was basically just a fad that came along missing from the article is the percentage of foreign enrolement i would bet the numbers of students from asia china specificly has gone up quite a bit and is the only thing keeping the overall numbers from plummiting you can t get the chicks with that anymore about time us geeks were outcasts again i was getting sick of hearing about geeks breeding and ending up with autistic children proving that intelligence is a genetic defect and a do not breed flag adam l duncan beberg URL beberg URL tech s major decline college students turning away from bits and bytes by ellen mccarthy washington post staff writer tuesday august NUMBER NUMBER page eNUMBER if john yandziak had been entering college a few years ago he might have sought a stake in the new economy he might have dreamed of becoming an ace code cracker for the cia or the national security agency or imagined toppling an empire with revolutionary software maybe he would have tried to use the internet to end world hunger but as yandziak attends his first college classes this week he s harboring different academic ambitions the ashburn native says he wants to do something more social and more interesting than working with computers besides he said while packing for a charlottesville dormitory room you can t get the chicks with that anymore the tech industry s financial problems are enough to bankrupt the dreams of some fair weather students but now there s another consequence of the tech bust enrollment growth in undergraduate computer science departments has come to a halt the number of undergraduates majoring in computer science fell NUMBER percent in NUMBER according to a report by the computing research association and educators in the field say the trend seems to be accelerating with some colleges seeing much greater drops as the new academic year begins the word is out among department deans that the bust s fallout has trickled into the classroom said maria clavez president of the association of computing machinery i ve heard everything from no change to modest decline to more dramatic declines said clavez who will become the dean of science and engineering at princeton university in january it can be hard to see this because at some colleges the number of people who want to study computer science so far exceeds the available space but it is going to have an effect at virginia tech enrollment of undergraduates in the computer science department will drop NUMBER percent this year to NUMBER at george washington university the number of incoming freshmen who plan to study computer science fell by more than half this year interest in undergraduate computer science programs had grown rapidly in the past decade in NUMBER schools with phd programs in computer science and computer engineering granted NUMBER NUMBER degrees according to the computing research association the numbers rose through NUMBER when NUMBER NUMBER degrees were awarded the labor department projects that software engineering will be the fastest growing occupation between NUMBER and NUMBER with other computer related industries trailing close behind but in the short term that growth may slow based on the changes among college students for example NUMBER of the NUMBER NUMBER plus undergraduates studying information technology and engineering at george mason university were computer science majors last year this year the enrollment in that major is down to NUMBER although a newly created and more general information technology major has attracted NUMBER students having it ease off for a while is a bit of a relief said lloyd griffith dean of george mason s information technology and engineering school particularly with the field as it has been they don t want to spend four years on something and then not get a job freshman enrollment for the university of maryland s computer science major is expected to be about NUMBER this fall down from NUMBER last year maryland decreased its total freshman enrollment by NUMBER percent but that alone does not account for the drop said steve halperin dean of maryland s college of computer mathematical and physical sciences we are seeing a decrease in the number of freshmen who are declaring their interest in pursuing computer science as a major halperin said that s a factual statement but i would say that at this point we don t expect to see a decrease in the number of graduates many of the kids who are no longer expressing an interest in majoring in cs would have fallen off yandziak who began at the university of virginia on saturday is not convinced that s the case he graduated in the top NUMBER percent of his class with a NUMBER NUMBER grade point average and nailed the highest possible score on his advanced placement exam in computer science all of my classes have been easy for me math and sciences were always fun so i looked for professions in which i could use those things yandziak said i m just not sure i want my life to be immersed in technology i want to do something that will contribute to the practical world harris n miller president of the information technology association of america said the last time there was a dearth of computing professionals salaries skyrocketed and workers benefited from the labor shortage there was a tremendous imbalance in the late NUMBERs potentially you have the same sort of thing going on right now people are saying i don t need this kind of it training right now miller said our concern as an industry is that if they begin to again see major declines in enrollment down the road four years as the economy picks up once again companies are going to find themselves in a shortage situation economic potential weighs heavily in many student career choices but other factors including program difficulty personal interests and social influences also come into play said judy hingle director of professional development at the american college counseling association the perception of computer science as an isolating nerdy profession is one that many in the industry have tried to squelch that stereotype went underground during the tech bubble but reemerged during the bust all the hipness is gone yandziak said once we thought of the internet as this thing with infinite capabilities it was basically just a fad that came along lamont thompson a recent graduate of calvin coolidge senior high school in the district is headed to morehouse college in atlanta to study business marketing with the intention of going into real estate development technology comes natural to people my age it s not fascinating anymore thompson said to be honest with you when i think computer science i think of some guy sitting behind a computer all day in a dark room it s a necessity but i wouldn t take it any further 