I’ll just throw in here that my younger kid just graduated on 5/7/23 from Hope College, an LAC which is completely unranked in CS. He has a BS in Computer Science. Hope has 5 full time CS faculty and 4 adjuncts, and there were 14 seniors in his class. No trouble getting the classes he needed. He was never aiming for FAANG or jobs in the coastal cities. He had no trouble getting internships including an NSF REU, and ended up with a job he’s happy with in a corporate IT department back in our hometown.
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It is true that CS is impacted at some campuses across the country, and the prof shortage is why many schools hire adjuncts to teach classes and/or cap CS enrollment.
With that said there are many, and I mean hundreds of schools where one can be a CS major without jumping through hoops…they are often not the sexy/highly rejective schools though. Schools like Iowa, Iowa State, Utah, Arizona, Arizona State, UT Dallas, U Alabama, UCF, Dayton, and many more…and the career outcomes from these schools generally rival that of many schools (with some exceptions) mentioned in this thread.
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@tamagotchi more potential good news for your son
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"for the CHIPS Act to succeed, each fab will need hundreds of skilled engineers and technicians of all stripes, with training ranging from two-year associate degrees to Ph.D.s. Engineering schools in the United States are now racing to produce that talent. Universities and community colleges are revamping their semiconductor-related curricula and forging strategic partnerships with one another and with industry to train the staff needed to run U.S. foundries. "
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If companies want the typical “5 years of experience,” they’ll never be able to staff properly. Hopefully, companies will realize that they need to provide training, like they did when I was beginning my career. Some still do it - my S is fortunate to work for a company that provides ongoing, in depth training - but many companies seem to think that even entry level jobs require years of experience.
This seems to forget what happened in 2000-03. In the spring of 2001 many people thought we’d hit bottom, tech valuations were down but the Dow Jones index had recovered. Then everything fell off a cliff again: yes there was 9/11 but tech was on a downturn for years afterwards, companies like Cisco cut staff every year for a decade or more.
From WSJ.com
I work in a very bubbly bit of tech, filled with SPAC companies and startups. They are almost all without exception headed for bankruptcy unless they can find a buyer. The only topic of conversation is when the money runs out as they are still burning cash after the first round of layoffs and now their clients are cutting back further. Many will fail later this year or early next.
And the idea that layoffs are on a consistent down trend is foolish. It’s a cycle: the easy cuts were done in Jan, the next rounds are being prepared now (and are happening more quietly) and then another round will be scheduled towards the end of the year if the economy tips into recession.
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This seems to forget what happened in 2000-03. In the spring of 2001 many people thought we’d hit bottom, tech valuations were down but the Dow Jones index had recovered.
I wouldn’t choose a Dow Jones Industrial graph for a discussion about tech. A full market or tech based index would be more appropriate. For example, a graph of the NASDAQ is below, which portrays a different situation in spring 2001. There was a ~1 month period in April 2001 with some recovery prior to dropping again. It’s not the same as the current climate in which large tech stocks as a whole have been rapidly increasing throughout 2023. In any case, the comment was “common predictions of post 2000 like tech recession.” Such predictions were common 6 months ago, but far less so today.
I wouldn’t assume tech startups face the same challenges as subject title of this thread “Big Tech.” Things like SVB collapsing 2 months ago had more significant effects on tech startups and the startup culture in general than they did on “big tech,” particularly in regards to things like raising funding.
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GDD major?
I’m guessing it’s a Game Design & Development major, such as this one for example: Game Design and Development BS | RIT
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The semiconductor industry is notoriously cyclical (much more so than the software industry). With exponentially increasing cost of building each new generation of semiconductor fabs, CHIPS Act will have little impact longer term, IMO. In addition, we’re so close to the limit of 2D chip design due to the laws of quantum physics, the industry could be at a crossroads in a very near future (3D wafer stacking may temporarily delay reaching that crossroads by a generation or two but not permanently altering its fate). Quantum computing may become a reality by then (hopefully) but it’s fundamentally different from semiconductor technologies and is likely to disrupt the semiconductor industry anyway.
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A friend’s daughter is an electrical enginerr from RIT. Her first internship was Tesla. She didn’t want to do software at all. Her first job… Was Tesla. Her job. Doing software designs for the electrical systems of the car… Lol. She actually loved it and learned on the job.
My son graduated recently in Industrial engineering and doesn’t was to do programming but learned like 5 software languages. Another friend daughter in data Analytics school of information and in 2 years knows like 6 languages so I just see the reality is CS isn’t going anywhere but using programming will be infiltrated amongst the engineering specialties too a higher degree. So learning as he becomes an engineer will help him in internships and future jobs. Even if he’s not programming understanding it might help him in future endeavors
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It’s always been hard to find CS professors. Back when I was getting my CS degree at a small school in the early '80s, I think we had 3 CS professors. Most of the lower-level CS classes were taught by math or EE professors, and it wasn’t until you got to the more advanced classes that you’d get the CS professors. That worked perfectly fine.
I’m going to guess that’s how a lot of small colleges still do it, and it’s one of the reasons I’ve always objected to the idea that looking at the number of CS professors on staff is a good way to judge the quality of a CS program.
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At this point it is customary to point out that computer science is not (only) about coding 
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@neela1 is absolutely correct. It’s a common misconception that CS is all about programming.
But… I also see programming becoming an essential skill for many non CS jobs. For example, Python to do data analysis. And many trading and portfolio management roles these days require the ability to code.
I remember seeing ads for administrative jobs 20-25 years ago that said things like “must be comfortable operating a computer”, “familiarity with MS Office software required”, etc. You hardly see this in ads anymore - because it’s a given. The same will happen with coding for a variety of jobs.
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Very true… Thx for pointing that out 
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It can take time for market forces to have an impact on choice of major. So far the hiring slump in the tech sector doesn’t seem to have dampened demand for CS majors and there are still many students midway through their studies. It’s interesting how universities are reacting to the demand for the major and the impact it’s having on demand for humanities.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/05/19/college-majors-computer-science-humanities/
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CS has dramatically increased in popularity in recent years, particularly at the highly selective private colleges, that are often emphasized on this forum, which often have no max cap on major enrollment. The rate of increase at HYPSM… type colleges is far higher than the stats listed in the article.
I’ll use Chicago as an example because they have particularly good reporting that goes up to spring 2023. The number of students majoring in CS has increased by a factor of 13x during the 13 year period since 2010, with steady increases each year. At many highly selective private colleges, CS has overcome econ to become the most popular major, although CS enrollment is still behind econ enrollment at Chicago.
Number of Chicago Students with Declared Major in CS
Spring 2023 – 510
Spring 2022 – 443
Spring 2021 – 406
Spring 2020 – 360
Spring 2019 – 341
Spring 2018 – 296
Spring 2017 – 255
Spring 2016 – 217
Spring 2015 – 165
Spring 2014 – 145
Spring 2013 – 115
Spring 2012 – 75
Spring 2011 – 52
Spring 2010 – 38
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The 510 is still a small number right? I am thinking it is 3 batches in soph/junior/senior years. So per year numbers are 510/3 = 170 approximately.
College Navigator - University of Chicago indicates that in 2021-2022, 110 students graduated with bachelor’s degrees in CS from Chicago.
Economics with 542 was still by far the biggest major among graduates that year. Math (126) and biology (121) were the only other two majors with more graduates than CS that year.
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Yes, it’s a small minority of students, but still much larger than all other majors except econ. The most common majors at Chicago are currently:
Most Enrolled Majors in 2023
1 . Economics
2. Computer Science
3. Mathematics
4. Biology
5. Political Science
…
~15. English
Back in 2010, the order was as follows. CS increased more rapidly than likely any other major, while English and most other humanities had a notable decline.
Most Enrolled Majors in 2010
1 . Economics
2. Biology
3. Political Science
4. Mathematics
5. English
…
~30. Computer Science
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