The only thing that this article didn't mention is that a huge portion of this upswing is probably based on the fact that most 18 year olds have had computers i

The only thing that this article didn't mention is that a huge portion of this upswing is probably based on the fact that most 18 year olds have had computers integrated with their lives for the past 10 years. I'm sure many students who enrolled in the late 90s had only the most superficial computer experience; it appeared like a lucrative and interesting field. Nowadays even at lesser universities the majority of CS students come in with some programming experience. A smart kid can sit down and play with some code so much easier than they can play with chemistry or really any other field of engineering, and I'm sure that is having a huge impact in what fields kids are choosing.