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From: olshause@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (Ronald Gerhardt Olshausen)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Quality of Students
Message-ID: <1991Jan13.014852.26217@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu>
Date: 13 Jan 91 01:48:52 GMT
Sender: news@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington
Lines: 21

I'd like to ask a question of those who have been teaching in academia
for a number of years. How would you compare your students of today,
compared with those of 20 years ago? Ten years ago? Five?

Though the number of high school seniors has declined, as have average 
SAT scores, undergraduate enrollments are on the rise. This of course
suggests a dilution in admission standards.


CS, and engineering disciplines in general, seem to be declining in 
popularity. When I was an undergrad, not so long ago, Business was a 
fairly ignominious  major: it was what you studied when you flunked
out of something else. Recently, it seems to have gained in prestige:
here at IU, business is the toughest degree program to which to gain 
admission.

So, I'd like to ask about the demographic composition of today's 
undergrad technical classes: age, nationality, gender, etc.

Regards
Ronald Olshausen