Computer science enrollment falls about 12% at US colleges as more students pick health

A few years ago, a computer science degree looked like the safest bet a student could make. This autumn, fewer students in the US are making it. Early figures from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, published on 29 October 2026, show a computer science enrollment decline of 12.4% at four-year colleges compared with last year.

It is the second year in a row of falls, and it comes as many students and parents ask the same question: is computer science worth it in 2026? The data can’t answer that for any one person. But it does show a clear shift in what young Americans are choosing to study.

A double-digit drop at every level of study

The Clearinghouse, a nonprofit that collects enrollment data from US colleges, tracks “Computer and Information Science” as one group of majors. This autumn, it fell 12.4% at four-year colleges, 12.3% at two-year colleges and 10.4% at graduate level.

Health majors moved the other way. They rose 6.2% at four-year colleges, 4.3% at two-year colleges and 2.0% at graduate level. Undergraduate engineering also grew by more than 6%, Higher Ed Dive reports.

Overall, US college enrollment barely moved (up 0.2%). Undergraduate numbers rose 0.6%, much slower than last year’s 2.4%. Graduate enrollment fell 1.6%, mostly because master’s programmes lost 3.7%.

Matthew Holsapple, the Clearinghouse’s senior director of research, told Bloomberg these were “remarkable declines” for a field that until recently was one of the fastest growing in higher education.

Early numbers, and no official reason

Two cautions matter. First, these figures are preliminary. They come from about 46% of the colleges that report to the Clearinghouse, covering 7.9 million students, Higher Ed Dive reports. Final numbers arrive in January 2027. Second, they cover the US only.

The trend is not new, though. In spring 2026, the Clearinghouse found undergraduate computer science enrollment down 8.4% at four-year colleges, and graduate numbers fell 14% in autumn 2025.

The Clearinghouse does not say why students are leaving. Reporters point to the jobs market. Bloomberg reports that companies have cut many entry-level coding roles as AI spreads. Higher Ed Dive points to tech layoffs and “the take-off of automated coding”. It also cites Federal Reserve Bank of New York data showing unemployment of about 7% for recent computer science graduates in 2024, and 7.8% for computer engineering.

That is a likely reason, not a proven one. Holsapple also said affordability is “almost certainly one important piece” of why students are choosing other paths. Cost, jobs and AI are probably tangled together.

If you are choosing a degree, what this does and doesn’t tell you

If you are a student, a parent or someone changing careers, this is useful, but it is not a verdict on your choice.

The worry about computer science majors’ unemployment is real, and the pressure falls hardest on entry-level jobs. Big employers are reshaping teams, as Barclays’ plan to cut about 5,000 roles and Microsoft’s paid exit offer to staff show.

Is computer science worth it with AI? In practice, demand tends to favour people who pair coding with another field, such as health, engineering, data or security, and who can work alongside AI coding tools. That is analysis, not a promise. A smaller class today could also mean less competition for jobs in four years, though nobody can be sure.

If you already chose computer science, you have not made a mistake. A degree is one part of a career, not the whole of it.

Why this computer science enrollment decline looks more like a correction than a collapse

There is good news here. Students are reading the market and choosing health and engineering, fields with clear needs. That looks like students acting carefully, not panicking.

The worry is real too. If fewer people learn to build software just as AI changes how it is built, the pipeline of skilled engineers could thin out.

History offers some calm. After the dot-com bust of 2001, US computer science enrollment fell for several years, then steadied around 2008, the Computing Research Association noted at the time. Over the past decade, it then became the biggest growth story in US higher education, the Clearinghouse says. On balance, this looks more like a hard correction after a long boom than the end of the field. What is different this time is AI, and nobody yet knows how many entry-level coding jobs it will change for good.

Watch the Clearinghouse’s final figures in January, which will also include international students. If this CS enrollment decline holds, colleges will need to rethink how they teach computing, with AI as part of the course, not a reason to skip it.