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September 29, 2008, 04:03 PM ET
Educators Say Wall Street Collapse May Result in More IT Applicants
After the dot-com crash of 2001, enrollments in computer-science departments dwindled. Students fled the departments, opting for majors in more lucrative fields like business and finance.
But all that is slowly changing, in large part due to the collapse of Wall Street, according to Computerworld.
Educators said they have already noticed a shift, and numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics suggest that jobs in information technology are on the rise. According to the bureau, one of the fastest-growing job areas is network-systems and data-communications analysts, with an expected increase of 53 percent over the last two years.
John Gallaugher, an associate professor of information systems in the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, told Computerworld that students have expressed an interest in switching from business and finance to IT.
The number of applications to the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University is slowly creeping back up toward the 3,200 applications it had in 2001. Last year there were 2,300, up from its lowest point of 1,700, Computerworld reported.
Randal E. Bryant, dean of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, warned students not to choose their majors based on “what’s a likely short-term fluctuation in the job market.”
“I like to tell students that if you make your career choice that quickly based on what is hottest this month, you’re going to be graduating in four years, and that field may not be hot anymore,” Mr. Bryant told Computerworld. —David DeBolt
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