186 lines
8.9 KiB
Plaintext
186 lines
8.9 KiB
Plaintext
From fork-admin@xent.com Mon Sep 2 16:22:18 2002
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From: "Adam L. Beberg" <beberg@mithral.com>
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To: <fork@example.com>
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Subject: Tech's Major Decline
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Date: Sun, 1 Sep 2002 19:40:27 -0700 (PDT)
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"Once we thought of the Internet as this thing with infinite capabilities.
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It was basically just a fad that came along."
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Missing from the article is the percentage of foreign enrolement, I would
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bet the numbers of students from Asia (China specificly) has gone up quite a
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bit, and is the only thing keeping the overall numbers from plummiting.
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"you can't get the chicks with that anymore."
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About time us geeks were outcasts again. I was getting sick of hearing about
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geeks breeding and ending up with autistic children - proving that
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intelligence is a genetic defect and a "do not breed" flag.)
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- Adam L. "Duncan" Beberg
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http://www.mithral.com/~beberg/
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beberg@mithral.com
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-----------------
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Tech's Major Decline
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College Students Turning Away From Bits and Bytes
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By Ellen McCarthy
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Washington Post Staff Writer
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Tuesday, August 27, 2002; Page E01
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If John Yandziak had been entering college a few years ago, he might have
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sought a stake in the "new" economy. He might have dreamed of becoming an
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ace code-cracker for the CIA or the National Security Agency, or imagined
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toppling an empire with revolutionary software. Maybe he would have tried to
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use the Internet to end world hunger.
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But as Yandziak attends his first college classes this week, he's harboring
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different academic ambitions. The Ashburn native says he wants to do
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something more social and more interesting than working with computers.
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Besides, he said while packing for a Charlottesville dormitory room, "you
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can't get the chicks with that anymore."
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The tech industry's financial problems are enough to bankrupt the dreams of
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some fair-weather students. But now there's another consequence of the tech
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bust: Enrollment growth in undergraduate computer science departments has
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come to a halt.
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The number of undergraduates majoring in computer science fell 1 percent in
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2001, according to a report by the Computing Research Association. And
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educators in the field say the trend seems to be accelerating, with some
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colleges seeing much greater drops as the new academic year begins.
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The word is out among department deans that the bust's fallout has trickled
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into the classroom, said Maria Clavez, president of the Association of
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Computing Machinery.
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"I've heard everything from no change to modest decline to more dramatic
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declines," said Clavez, who will become the dean of science and engineering
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at Princeton University in January. "It can be hard to see this, because at
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some colleges the number of people who want to study computer science so far
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exceeds the available space. [But] it is going to have an effect."
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At Virginia Tech, enrollment of undergraduates in the computer science
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department will drop 25 percent this year, to 300. At George Washington
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University, the number of incoming freshmen who plan to study computer
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science fell by more than half this year.
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Interest in undergraduate computer science programs had grown rapidly in the
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past decade. In 1997, schools with PhD programs in computer science and
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computer engineering granted 8,063 degrees, according to the Computing
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Research Association. The numbers rose through 2001, when 17,048 degrees
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were awarded.
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The Labor Department projects that software engineering will be the
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fastest-growing occupation between 2000 and 2010, with other
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computer-related industries trailing close behind.
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But in the short term that growth may slow, based on the changes among
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college students. For example, 900 of the 2,000-plus undergraduates studying
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information technology and engineering at George Mason University were
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computer science majors last year. This year the enrollment in that major is
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down to 800, although a newly created and more general information
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technology major has attracted 200 students.
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"Having it ease off for a while is a bit of a relief," said Lloyd Griffith,
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dean of George Mason's information technology and engineering school.
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"Particularly with the field as it has been, they don't want to spend four
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years on something and then not get a job."
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Freshman enrollment for the University of Maryland's computer science major
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is expected to be about 167 this fall, down from 329 last year. Maryland
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decreased its total freshman enrollment by 11 percent, but that alone does
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not account for the drop, said Steve Halperin, dean of Maryland's College of
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Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences.
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"We are seeing a decrease in the number of freshmen who are declaring their
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interest in pursuing computer science as a major," Halperin said. "That's a
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factual statement. But I would say that at this point . . . we don't expect
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to see a decrease in the number of graduates. Many of the kids who are no
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longer expressing an interest in majoring in CS would have fallen off."
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Yandziak, who began at the University of Virginia on Saturday, is not
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convinced that's the case. He graduated in the top 5 percent of his class,
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with a 3.9 grade-point average, and nailed the highest possible score on his
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advanced-placement exam in computer science.
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"All of my classes have been easy for me. Math and sciences were always fun,
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so I looked for professions in which I could use those things," Yandziak
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said. "I'm just not sure I want my life to be immersed in [technology]. I
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want to do something that will contribute to the practical world."
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Harris N. Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of
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America, said the last time there was a dearth of computing professionals,
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salaries skyrocketed and workers benefited from the labor shortage.
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"There was a tremendous imbalance in the late '90s; potentially you have the
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same sort of thing going on right now. People are saying, 'I don't need this
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kind of IT training right now,' " Miller said. "Our concern as an industry
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is that if they begin to again see major declines in enrollment, down the
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road four years, as the economy picks up, once again companies are going to
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find themselves in a shortage situation."
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Economic potential weighs heavily in many student career choices, but other
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factors, including program difficulty, personal interests and social
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influences, also come into play, said Judy Hingle, director of professional
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development at the American College Counseling Association. The perception
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of computer science as an isolating, "nerdy" profession is one that many in
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the industry have tried to squelch. That stereotype went underground during
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the tech bubble but reemerged during the bust.
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"All the hipness is gone," Yandziak said. "Once we thought of the Internet
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as this thing with infinite capabilities. It was basically just a fad that
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came along."
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Lamont Thompson, a recent graduate of Calvin Coolidge Senior High School in
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the District, is headed to Morehouse College in Atlanta to study business
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marketing, with the intention of going into real estate development.
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"Technology comes natural to people my age; it's not fascinating anymore,"
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Thompson said. "To be honest with you, when I think computer science, I
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think of some guy sitting behind a computer all day in a dark room. It's a
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necessity, but I wouldn't take it any further."
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