You may recall how the last tech bubble 15 years ago resulted in staggering market losses, numerous failed start-ups and increasing IT unemployment. Less noticed was the bubble’s eerie correlation to undergraduate enrollments in computer science.

As the NASDAQ increased, so did computer science and computer engineering enrollments. They were almost in heartrate synch, like E.T. and Elliott (in the blockbuster movie). When the NASDAQ lost half its value in 2000, within a few years computer science enrollments also fell about 50%. Today, enrollments are again spiking right along with the stock market.

NASDAQ composite 1996-2015 StockCharts.com
The NASDAQ composite index, 1978 to 2015.
cra computer science engineering enrollmentsv2
The 44th annual CRA Taulbee Survey, 2014

Newly declared computer science and computer engineering undergrad majors from 1995 through 2014.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

…