I don’t think you are going to be able to find admit rates for CS at Georgia Tech because they do not admit by major and kids can change their major once they are admitted…
While about 50% of college grads are unemployed or underemployed, CS grads from top schools are getting multiple offers.
Additionally, with a strong math background, they are able to move to other fields fairly easily, should demand fall.
Thanks to the lead provided by mathmom, I was able to track down some statistics for CMU that seem interesting. We can compare admissions statistics for the Fall 2011 cycle with the Fall 2015 cycle. CMU has several schools, two of which are SCS (computer science) and CIT (engineering). Comparing the numbers for these two schools serves as a crude control for overall changes in the number of applications to CMU.
Fall 2011 CIT | 7448 apps 1793 admits. Admitted CR (670-750), M (740-800)
Fall 2015 CIT | 9807 apps 1667 admits. Admitted CR (680-760), M (750-800)
Fall 2011 SCS | 3490 apps 389 admits, Admitted CR (700-780), M (760-800)
Fall 2015 SCS | 6752 apps 338 admits, Admitted CR (730-800), M (790-800)
Relative to engineering, it looks like CS applications have increased by about 50% over past the 4 years. It also looks like the relative CS admissions rate has dropped to 60% of what it was 4 years ago. Of course, CMU has always been a powerhouse in CS, but I might guess that these trends apply more broadly to schools that admit by major or who don’t want their freshman class to be too lopsided.
@al2simon, note, however, that different schools can take in differing increases in CS majors without the student body becoming “lopsided”. The year I graduated from Northwestern, there were 20 of us who got the BS in CS (granted, there was probably almost an equal number who got the BA and majored in CS). However, it’s probably safe to say that NU would be comfortable taking up to 4-5 times that baseline number of kids interested in CS without much worry that its student body will become imbalanced (and of course, NU doesn’t admit by major).
As I have said before, there are a lot of lemmings in the world.
As far as I know CMU’s SCS has stayed pretty steadily with an incoming class of about 140-150 students. If so it looks like their yield has improved. The year my son started, when asked at the convocation, it seemed like a very, very large percentage of the class were there because they’d been rejected by MIT. (Talk followed about the psychology of being number two.)
@mathmom - SCS’s yield has improved. In 2011 they enrolled 151 students for a yield of 38.8%; in 2015 they’re projecting 147. However, I don’t want my table to be misleading. The number admitted for 2015 was obtained by multiplying the number of applications by the admit rate; unfortunately, these admit rates don’t have any figures past the decimal point so all we can calculate is that the yield for 2015 is between 39.6% and 48.4%.
I was actually quite surprised that the yield is below 50% given the reputation of their program (CMU has early decision).
Many selective colleges show a similar trend. The number of students at Stanford who majored in CS in different years is below. Note that CS Stanford enrollment has also tripled in the past 5 years, and the rate of increase shows no signs of slowing down.
1990 - 76
2001 - 250 (peak prior to decline followed by dot com bust)
2006 - 129 (lowest point after dot com bust)
2009 - 189
2010 - 247
2011 - 287
2012 - 360 (CS has become Stanford’s most popular major for the first time, surpassing HumBio)
2013 - 452
2014 - 574 (CS is on pace to become Stanford’s most popular major of all time in 2015 )
Are these the numbers who graduate with bachelor’s degrees in CS each year? That 574 number looks like about a third the size of each year’s class of students at Stanford.
They are the same numbers I mentioned in the earlier thread, which were the total number of undergraduate students who have declared the major, including multiple years. 574 makes up 14.75% of the students who have declared majors, implying a little under 3900 students have declared majors. You can get more interesting major stats at http://stanfordvisualized.soraven.com/ . For example, number of female students majoring in computer science increased by a factor of more than 6x in the past 5 years, a much steeper rise than among male students. This is the first time female CS majors have ever increased notably more rapidly than males.
Great information on the increase in interest in computer science majors - it’s a great field!
What’s most telling though are CS graduation numbers since a large number of people may think they want to major in CS but a good number drop out after taking a few CS/math courses. Anyone have those numbers? CS declared majors vs how many graduate with the CS degree?
In addition to looking at how many incoming students who intend to major in CS end up graduating in CS, it would also be interesting to see the number of CS graduates who never intended to major in CS. 
A LOT of colleges offer very popular intro to programming courses, which can end up attracting students with no previous CS experience. Even a STEM school like Harvey Mudd.
This isn’t the kind of school that would possibly attract a student like the OP’s nephew, but it’s a possible admissions strategy for a student who is interested in CS but does not have tippy top stats–or doesn’t want the intensity of a place like CMU.
It’s great that more and more people are majoring in CS. However a degree in CS is actually overkill for most programming jobs in the US. I know of many people who either never went to college or got a 1 year computer programming certificate from places like DeVry and are doing very well working for large companies in tech and finance. Often times a minor in CS is all you need to launch a successful career in tech.
The NYT has had a number of articles about the proliferation of “coding schools” in places like SF, NYC. Many of the students are college grads who were unemployed or underemployed, went to these coding schools for 3 to 6 months and easily got jobs paying $70k and up after getting their certificate.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/29/technology/code-academy-as-career-game-changer.html?_r=0
It’s about time our own people wise up to the possibilities of this field. We have imported millions of tech workers from India, China, Philippines, Romania, Russia etc. in the last 2 decades. 70% of H1b visas go to Indian nationals. In addition, Indian outsourcing firms such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant etc. import up to 90% of their workers from India through illegal use of B1 and L1 visas. Many of their hires are underqualified graduates of Indian diploma mills of dubious distinctions. They are paid 1/3 to 1/2 the market rate and often have to be trained by the US citizens they came in to replace. By his own admission, the CEO of Infosys said that only 25% of Indian “engineering” grads are employable. Even then, they needed at least 6 months of intensive training before they can be deployed to the US.
Many US companies are now outsourcing their non-core functions. Payroll was the first to go (to ADP), now they are increasingly outsourcing IT, to companies like IBM(the largest employer of Indian tech workers in the US), Accenture, and the Indian outsourcers I mentioned above. The NYT recently had an article about Disney laying off the entire 250 staff of its IT department and replacing them with these imported Indian code coolies. Many of those laid off were also required to train their replacements in order to receive severance.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/last-task-after-layoff-at-disney-train-foreign-replacements.html
Congress has been asleep while the rug is being pulled out from underneath the middle class. We are losing far too many good tech jobs to imported “talents”, many of dubious distinctions. Employers are no longer willing to train because they pretty much have the entire 3rd world’s workforce at their disposal thanks to these visa schemes, while tech companies like Microsoft and Facebook continue to lobby for more H1b visas.
We need more people who can code to take back these jobs by taking down the barrier to entry in this field. Our colleges make the CS field unnecessarily difficult and theoretical. I don’t think I ever needed to use all the calculus and engineering classes I was required to take on my job in tech. A 4 year degree might also be too much for someone who already has a degree. It costs too much to put your life on hold for 4 more years, not to mention the lost income if you have a family. These coding schools are a perfect career launching/transitioning vehicle. More graduates who are unemployed or underemployed should take advantage of them. Even high school grads can go straight to these coding schools and land well paid jobs in IT without ever setting foot on a college campus. Graduates of these coding schools who are not tens of thousands in college loan debt also don’t have to demand large wages, thereby making themselves much more competitive to the lower cost Indian imports. More parents should make their kids aware of these coding schools as opportunities to get into a great field.
“What’s most telling though are CS graduation numbers since a large number of people may think they want to major in CS but a good number drop out after taking a few CS/math courses. Anyone have those numbers? CS declared majors vs how many graduate with the CS degree?”
I have the impression that there are still a number who drop, but the numbers are improving. As they attract more top students, failure is less likely. With stronger students you also see more students who are doing well but simply shifting into related majors as their interests evolve, such as EE, Systems Eng., Physics, math etc.
I was reading about some of these schools that teach coding for a year, and the students then go out in the marketplace and get great jobs. The author of the article had an interesting analogy. He said these graduates are the “bricklayers” while those who get a BS in Computer Science are the “architects”. The CS majors can normally see the whole picture and plan how everything relates to each other (and come up with new ideas because of their education in theory as well as practical applications.) The other students just follow that plan and code.
Someone earlier asked about how “hot” the CS field currently is. I’d say that it’s burning hot. An engineer friend of mine said that it’s totally changed from when he graduated in the early 1980’s and that the engineer grads today are treated like royalty and that they’d better enjoy it while it lasts – LOL! I’d concur with that statement. Summer interns in tech companies are earning between $6,000 - $10,000/month plus free housing, paid relocation costs, free train pass, and all of their meals, snacks, and drinks free at the worksite. And I think that the CS interns in the finance companies are getting even more than that!
Also the school that you attend can matter. At one such tech company, I heard that there were about 20 summer interns this past summer – half came from MIT and the rest were mostly from the Ivies, Stanford, CMU, and Waterloo. While these companies will take the kids from anywhere, they only recruit at a finite # of colleges – so they veer towards the top CS programs. Plus those with a more rigorous background have the highest likelihood of passing their very difficult technical interviews.
That, and the initial selection effect on the students attending more selective colleges (or CS majors that are additionally selective), is likely the reason why students and graduates from more selective colleges with good CS departments tend to be overrepresented in software hiring, even at larger companies that recruit widely.
I.e. Google (etc.) visits dozens of colleges to recruit, but the interview pass rate is likely to be significantly higher at some colleges than others.
Exactly! Especially since CS intern wannabes usually have to pass 1 - 2 technical phone interviews – and then probably 4 more technical interviews onsite – no easy feat at the the top companies.
On a different note, someone above expressed surprise that CMU’s yield for CS was still only slightly less than 50% when they’re tied for #1 rank in the country. I suspect that the reason why is that most top CS applicants also apply to MIT, Stanford, and UC Berkeley. Most seniors who get accepted to MIT and Stanford will accept there over CMU – and of the remainder, those who hoped to get a better financial aid package from CMU but didn’t might then accept at UC Berkeley – especially the CA residents – or their own state flagship or any school that gave them a big merit scholarship. Generally, CMU is not known for being generous with their financial aid. All of that probably reduces CMU’s yield.
I’m not surprised by CMU’s yield. My son loved CMU, but it’s also in Pittsburgh, not within spitting distance of San Francisco or Boston. I think it’s likely to remain many kid’s second choice. (Though we were all pleasantly surprised by how nice Pittsburgh is, and my son didn’t care about location at all.)
That said, I would say that once you have your acceptances in hand you should look at the universities carefully, not just the location, and the financial aid, but also exactly how the department is structured. One of the things DS liked about CMU (and me not so much!) was that with his AP scores he was able to get out of just about all the Gen Ed requirements. S2 found the Gen Ed requirements at Tufts combined with the requirements of his major and spending a junior year abroad, that he ended up being forced to take some less than ideal courses just for requirements.
Agreed @Calbearsmom, I think financials play a big role for CMU SCS’s yield being low. An example close to home - my D2’s first year roomie at GTech had acceptance to CMU SCS but preferred to stay local on account of the generous Zell-Miller scholarship. In any case, it did not matter much as she had lined up an internship with Microsoft after her 1st year !
The initial technical interviews are tough. My DS, UIUC grad in computer engineering, now has a job, but it took a while to get a hang of the technical interviews. My advise would be to get some coaching before starting the interview process if you really want to work for one of the big name employers in Silicon Valley.