# U.S. Computer Science Enrollment Fell About 12% This Fall, Early Clearinghouse Data Show, as Health Programs Grew

Times of AI Desk · 2026-10-29 · Work

[https://timesof.ai/2026/10/us-computer-science-enrollment-falls-fall-2026-clearinghouse](https://timesof.ai/2026/10/us-computer-science-enrollment-falls-fall-2026-clearinghouse)

> Preliminary fall 2026 data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center show enrollment in computer and information sciences down 12.4% at four-year colleges, 12.3% at two-year colleges and 10.4% in graduate programs, while health programs grew and total enrollment edged up 0.2%. Bloomberg links the decline to AI cutting entry-level coding jobs; the Clearinghouse does not assign a cause. The figures cover about 46% of institutions; final data come in January.

Students are staying in college but moving out of computer science. Preliminary fall 2026 figures from the **National Student Clearinghouse Research Center**, published on **October 29**, show total U.S. enrollment up **0.2%** from a year earlier, while enrollment in computer and information sciences fell **12.4%** at four-year colleges.

## The numbers

The decline shows up at every level the Clearinghouse tracks. Computer and information sciences enrollment fell **12.3%** at two-year colleges and **10.4%** in graduate programs. Health programs moved the other way, rising 6.2% at four-year colleges, 4.3% at two-year colleges and 2.0% in graduate programs.

Undergraduate enrollment overall rose 0.6% and community college enrollment 1.2%, while graduate enrollment fell 1.6%, including a 3.7% drop in master's programs, according to the Clearinghouse.

Bloomberg, in a report published by Business Standard, reports that in two years computer science undergraduate programs have lost 18.4% of their students and graduate programs 27.1%, and links the decline to AI reducing entry-level coding jobs. The Clearinghouse itself does not attribute a cause.

## Reading it

A double-digit drop in one field while overall enrollment holds steady is a choice students are making, not a demographic effect. Whether AI is the driver is still an inference: employers have cited AI in cuts this year, as in [the March layoffs at Block, Morgan Stanley and Atlassian](https://timesof.ai/2026/03/ai-workforce-layoffs-and-adoption), but the Clearinghouse data cannot say why students chose other fields.

## What students are reacting to

The job data students can see points both ways. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's outcomes-by-major table, released in February from 2024 Census data, put unemployment among recent computer science graduates, aged 22 to 27, at 7.0%, against 4.2% for recent graduates overall and 2.1% for nursing. The same table shows computer science still pays better and is less likely to leave graduates in jobs that do not need a degree: a median early-career wage of $87,000 against $58,000 overall, and an underemployment rate of 19.1% against 39.4%.

Read against those numbers, the shift toward health looks like a move toward the field where finding a first job is easiest, away from one where the first job has become harder to land but still pays more once found. The New York Fed's broader series says conditions for all recent graduates stayed difficult through the second quarter of 2026, with unemployment at about 5.6%. Its by-major figures run a year behind; they predate most of this year's hiring changes and cannot show whether the computer science gap has widened.

## Limits

- The figures are preliminary, based on about 7.92 million enrollments reported as of September 24, 2026, from 46.0% of institutions. The Clearinghouse's final fall report is due in January.
- The preliminary data exclude international student detail.
- Bloomberg's two-year figures come from Business Standard's publication of the Bloomberg report and do not appear on the Clearinghouse page.
- The New York Fed's by-major figures are for 2024, the latest it has published.
- No source here establishes that AI caused the decline.

## Sources

- [Federal Reserve Bank of New York: The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates (outcomes by major updated February 4, 2026; quarterly data August 6, 2026)](https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/college-labor-market)
- [Federal Reserve Bank of New York: Outcomes by major data (CSV)](https://www.newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/research/interactives/data/college-labor-market/college-labor-outcomes-by-major-data.csv)
- [National Student Clearinghouse Research Center: Preliminary Fall Enrollment Trends (October 29, 2026)](https://nscresearchcenter.org/prelim-fall-enrollment-trends/)
- [National Student Clearinghouse Research Center: Preliminary Fall 2026 methodological notes (October 29, 2026)](https://nscresearchcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/PrelimFall2026-MethodNotes.pdf)
- [Business Standard (Bloomberg): Student enrolment in US computer science programs falls as AI takes jobs (October 29, 2026)](https://www.business-standard.com/world-news/student-enrolment-in-us-computer-science-programs-falls-as-ai-takes-jobs-126102900433_1.html)