While the article bemoans these programs becoming restrictive, it is ignoring a major reality. Let's take a person. This is the person that might end up getting

While the article bemoans these programs becoming restrictive, it is ignoring a major reality. Let's take a person. This is the person that might end up getting 'weeded out' before they've even gotten their foot in the door. They probably have 0 or near 0 background in anything related to computing. They similarly likely have negligible background in anything related to science/engineering/mathematics. And keep in mind we now live in the era where there are a million free resources online (as well as compilers/etc) meaning the cost of doing any of this is practically 0, so they've generally chosen to never pursue any of this. Let's take this person, John Doe, and imagine he gets accepted to a computer science program at a well regarded university. The majority of people in his class will fail/drop out of the program before graduation, regardless of background. How likely is John Doe in particular to make it through the program? I don't know the exact number, but it is going to be extremely low. What these 'barriers' do is not only save people from wasting their time, but also make room for people who stand a better chance of making it through the program. And furthermore rejection is hardly some death sentence. If somebody genuinely wants into the program then they could take independent classes at a community college, take remedial non-major classes and demonstrate excellence, or any of a wide array of other options that could then be segued into acceptance next year/semester. And this doesn't even necessarily have to slow them down. There are so many core non-major classes required that you can get those out of the way and ultimately end up graduating in about the same time as if you were accepted to begin with. Imagine getting your calculus, linear algebra, physics/chemistry/... pick, etc stuff all done in your freshman year. That would've actually been AWESOME to have been able to have your schedule packed with nothing but CS classes and maybe a few softball liberal arts requirements for your later years.