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The downturn in the economy and the recent dot-com and technology bust may be causing more undergraduates to think twice about majoring in computer science or engineering. In 2001 and 2002, there was a slight decline in the number of new students majoring in computer science or computer engineering, reports the Computing Research Association, made up of U.S. and Canadian academic departments as well as research and professional computing organizations.

This trend is showing up after a steady increase of new computer science majors between 1995 and 2000, which had the highest number of new computer science and computer engineering majors. However, the reason for the slight decline over the past two years remains uncertain.

"As yet, we cannot determine whether this was simply an artifact of the changes in the departments' reporting, or the start of a new trend," say CRA researchers in their 2000-2001 survey of 215 doctoral degree-granting computer science departments. "Perhaps the decline in the technology industry is making computer science and engineering less alluring to new undergraduates."

Dr. Stuart Zweben, professor and chair of Ohio State University's Department of Computer and Information Science, says indeed the number of computer science majors nationwide appears to be on the decline. "This certainly seems true in most Big 10 schools, with whom I have annual meetings. It certainly is true at Ohio State," Zweben says.