The big exit of computer science (and where students are going instead)

Something strange happened on the campus of the University of California this fall. For the first time since the dot-com crash, computer science enrollment declined. On the whole system, it collapsed 6% this year after falling by 3% in 2024, according to a report last week by the San Francisco Chronicle. Even enrolling in college at all it was up 2% nationally – according to January data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center – students are paying for traditional CS degrees.

The one exception is UC San Diego — the only UC campus that added dedicated AI major this fall.

All of this may seem like a temporary situation connected to the issues of a few CSs getting a job in college. But it is a sign of the future, which China is eagerly embracing. Like the MIT Technology Review was reported last JulyChinese universities have leaned more towards reading AI, treating AI as a threat but instead as a necessary foundation. About 60% of Chinese students and teachers now use AI tools several times a day, and schools like Zhejiang University have made AI courses official, while top institutions like Tsinghua have created new AI colleges. In China, speaking well with AI is no longer optional; and tables.

US universities are working hard to achieve it. Over the past two years, many have launched specialized AI programs. MIT’s “AI and decision making” major is now the second largest on campus, says the school. As the New York Times reported in December, the University of South Florida enrolled more than 3,000 students in a New AI is a cybersecurity college during his fall semester. University at Buffalo last summer established a new department of “AI and Society” that offers seven new, unique undergraduate programs, and received more than 200 applicants before opening its doors.

The transition did not go well everywhere. When I spoke to UNC Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Roberts in October, he described a spectrum — one group “leaning forward” with AI, others “with their heads in the sand.” Roberts, a former finance executive who came from an outside education background, was pushing for AI integration despite resistance. A week ago, UNC announced it would including two schools to create an AI-focused organization — an idea that backfired on teachers. Roberts also appointed a vice provost specifically for AI. “No one is going to say to students after they graduate, ‘Do the best job you can, but if you use AI, you’re going to be in trouble,'” Roberts told me. “Yet we have teachers saying this right now.”

Parents are taking part in the stone transformation, too. David Reynaldo, who runs admissions consulting at College Zoom, told the Chronicle that parents who push kids into CS are now leading them into other major fields that seem unrelated to AI automation, including mechanics and electronics.

But enrollment numbers show that students are voting with their feet. According to a research in October by the non-profit Computing Research Association – its members include computer science and computer engineering departments from various universities – 62% of respondents reported that their computing programs have seen graduate enrollment drop. But with the spread of AI software, it looks like a migration of technology and like a migration. The University of Southern California is starting an AI degree this fall is coming; in the same way Columbia University, Pace Universityand New Mexico State Universityamong many others. Students are not abandoning technology; they are choosing AI-focused software instead.

It is too soon to say whether this reorganization is permanent or a temporary scare. But it’s a wake-up call for administrators who have spent years struggling with how to handle AI in the classroom. The argument to ban ChatGPT is history at this point. The question now is whether America’s universities can move quickly or will be left scrambling over what to do as students move to schools that have the answers.