4 ms·

I don't quite understand if "Majoring" means completed degrees or not. In my old University, women were common in the first year of Comp Sci, as it was the eas

by hendry 11y ago

I don't quite understand if "Majoring" means completed degrees or not. In my old University, women were common in the first year of Comp Sci, as it was the easiest department to gain entry to for them as females because of quotas or whatever positive discrimination is called. However in the second year, they would typically transfer out to another department they were more keen on, but probably wouldn't have won a place at initially.

douche 11y ago
Anecdotally, it seemed like all of the ladies in my CS department wound up actually majoring in Cognitive Science, which was part of the CS department technically, but about half psyche and pre-med, really.
discodave 11y ago
Do you actually have any evidence of it being easier for women to get into CS because of quotas?
- r0naa 11y ago
  Isn't quota and affirmative action the very definition of making it easier for a certain group to get access to a particular institution?
  - richmarr 11y ago
    I think discodave is asking for evidence that quotas are in use for these courses, as oppposed to evidence that quotas increase numbers of otherwise-underrepresented groups
- niuzeta 11y ago
  not the parent, but the discussion is of interest for me. I've quickly run a search query for "affirmative action statistics for computer science". First page result included a report from http://www.civilrights.org/ http://www.civilrights.org/. I am ignorant of veracity or validity of this organization, so I can't verify if its contents are sufficient to be "evidence". But here goes(emphasis mine): "By 2010, one in four new jobs will be “technically-oriented,” or involving computers. However, women still lag far behind in earning computer technology degrees and working in computer technology-related professions. High school girls represent only 17 percent of computer science AP test takers and college-educated women earn only 27 percent of bachelor’s degrees in computer science (down from 37 percent in 1984) and 16.3 percent of doctorate degrees in computer science. Overall, women comprise roughly 20 percent of IT professionals. (“Tech Savvy: Educating Girls in the New Computer Age,” American Association for University Women, 2000)" [1] Barring the "down from 37 percent" part, it tells me that 17% of female high schoolers take AP computer science, but actually a higher percentage of women end up with a CS diploma. It's very thin connection but that does raise a question that affirmative action lets in more women. [1] http://www.civilrights.org/equal-opportunity/fact-sheets/fact_sheet_packet.pdf http://www.civilrights.org/equal-opportunity/fact-sheets/fac...
dcposch 11y ago
Not the case at Stanford. Stanford doesn't separate undergrad admissions by department. When I applied, the application didn't even ask what my intended major was. All Stanford undergrads start out as "undeclared", and many don't choose a major until sophomore year.

by hendry 11y ago

douche 11y ago

Anecdotally, it seemed like all of the ladies in my CS department wound up actually majoring in Cognitive Science, which was part of the CS department technically, but about half psyche and pre-med, really.

discodave 11y ago

Do you actually have any evidence of it being easier for women to get into CS because of quotas?

r0naa 11y ago
Isn't quota and affirmative action the very definition of making it easier for a certain group to get access to a particular institution?
- richmarr 11y ago
  I think discodave is asking for evidence that quotas are in use for these courses, as oppposed to evidence that quotas increase numbers of otherwise-underrepresented groups
niuzeta 11y ago
not the parent, but the discussion is of interest for me. I've quickly run a search query for "affirmative action statistics for computer science". First page result included a report from http://www.civilrights.org/ http://www.civilrights.org/. I am ignorant of veracity or validity of this organization, so I can't verify if its contents are sufficient to be "evidence". But here goes(emphasis mine): "By 2010, one in four new jobs will be “technically-oriented,” or involving computers. However, women still lag far behind in earning computer technology degrees and working in computer technology-related professions. High school girls represent only 17 percent of computer science AP test takers and college-educated women earn only 27 percent of bachelor’s degrees in computer science (down from 37 percent in 1984) and 16.3 percent of doctorate degrees in computer science. Overall, women comprise roughly 20 percent of IT professionals. (“Tech Savvy: Educating Girls in the New Computer Age,” American Association for University Women, 2000)" [1] Barring the "down from 37 percent" part, it tells me that 17% of female high schoolers take AP computer science, but actually a higher percentage of women end up with a CS diploma. It's very thin connection but that does raise a question that affirmative action lets in more women. [1] http://www.civilrights.org/equal-opportunity/fact-sheets/fact_sheet_packet.pdf http://www.civilrights.org/equal-opportunity/fact-sheets/fac...

dcposch 11y ago

Not the case at Stanford. Stanford doesn't separate undergrad admissions by department. When I applied, the application didn't even ask what my intended major was. All Stanford undergrads start out as "undeclared", and many don't choose a major until sophomore year.