Archive for May 17, 2019
Seeking Data: What’s happening at your school as you cap CS major enrollment?
I’m just back from the 2019 NCWIT Summit (see link here), which was amazing — as always. I talked to people at schools who have instituted caps on undergraduate CS enrollment, and I’m hearing stories that I didn’t expect. I’d love to hear your experience at your school. Are you seeing these things?
- One story is that students are taking and re-taking (“2-3 times”) the early classes, to get high enough grades to get past the grade cap. Thus, the GPA grade cap has actually increased enrollment pressure on earlier classes.
- Because of these course repeats, students are (presumably) taking longer to graduate. I didn’t talk to anyone with data on that — maybe it’s too soon, since caps are within the last 3-5 years at most institutions?
- I was also hearing about incredible pressure that students are feeling because of the grade caps. We expected to see impacts on enrollment for under-represented groups, but these reports say that everyone has increased stress because of the grade caps. The caps are leading to damage to department climate and even a spike in mental health issues. (I heard some pretty horrible stories.)
These are all just anecdote. I’m not sure how to cast a wider net for more information, but this blog might be a place to start. Could you share your reports on how enrollment caps are impacting your course enrollment at the lower levels, on time to graduation, and on departmental climate (or other issues)? Thanks!
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