Over the past 30 years, undergraduate computer science enrollments at universities in the United States have followed a roller-coaster-like trajectory. After peaking during the PC revolution of the early 1980s and the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, the number of students pursuing a computer science major has fallen significantly. At Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, for example, the number of undergrads declaring a computer science major dropped from 171 in 2000-2001 to 86 in 2006-2007. Women, always a small minority in the field, have become even scarcer than before. The Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, reports that in 2004 fewer than 0.5% of female college freshmen were interested in computer science as a major--a low not seen since the early 1970s.

Experts trace the drop in numbers to students' concerns about job prospects in the wake of the bursting of the dot-com bubble, increased offshoring, and the influx of cheap skilled labor from abroad. Many, however, think students are unduly pessimistic about their opportunities. And some, including Owen Astrachan, a computer scientist at Duke University in North Carolina, say the lack of interest has another key component: The classes are boring.

Benjamin Lester. Science 16 November 2007: Vol. 318. no. 5853, pp. 1086 - 1087