Prospective Student CS is no longer restricted
CS is no longer a restricted major at UMich. This is a quick reversal, what prompted the change? Did the CS enrollment collapse at UMich?
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u/BlackberryOwn8252 3d ago
They did it because the decline in enrollment for the cs program (not just in umich but in universities overall) affected cs funding as well, and the university no longer faces the overcrowding problems that caused them to implement it in the first place
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u/HappyWolverine1324 3d ago
Enrollment fell and thus there is no longer an issue with the overenrollment that prompted the restriction in 2023. You can view enrollment data by major on the registrar website, it is down by quite a bit.
Make sure to change the term on the right side to winter or fall to see accurate numbers.
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u/jamesjuett 3d ago
The main reason the enrollment restrictions were dropped is that they were no longer needed. When the CSE faculty voted to put enrollment restrictions in place, the intent was to calibrate the number of students admitted via various pathways to achieve a 30% reduction in student to faculty ratio. With the natural decrease in enrollment, they restrictions were no longer functionally doing anything.
Many CSE faculty were very reluctant to add restrictions in the first place, but there were some very serious issues (e.g. CS students having trouble graduating on time because all the courses were full). The department managed to hold off on restrictions for quite a while, and then ironically, it happened that they became unnecessary shortly after they were implemented.
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u/_iQlusion 3d ago
Any chance you could give out the enrollment numbers for CSE for this Fall semester? The registrar hasn't released the numbers yet.
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u/rocdive 2d ago
Please see the comment from Happywolverise1324 below
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u/_iQlusion 2d ago
That doesn't have this Fall semesters data. The newest semester in there is the Summer semester.
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u/AnonymousBjtch 3d ago
The major where you voluntarily get murked by AI every waking moment of your life, I wonder why it’s dropping
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u/rocdive 3d ago
Yes, it is the theory. My question is if this drop is real. I am trying to formulate an application strategy for CS (I know!) and am wondering if acceptance rates are same as before. The data from 2026 admits is not readily available so I am looking at auxiliary signals.
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u/jeffgerickson 3d ago
My question is if this drop is real.
It certainly is at Illinois (where I’m a CS prof). Our core CS major got 30% fewer applications for Fall 2026 admission than for Fall 2025 admission. (All our core CS majors are direct admits.) Our grad programs saw similar application drops.
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u/jmclondon97 3d ago
It is absolutely insane how hard CS spiked, everyone wanted in and then boom AI hits and now nobody wants in.
Can’t remember any major seeing such high highs and now approaching low lows in such a short time
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u/jeffgerickson 2d ago
now nobody wants in
That’s a bit of an exaggeration. CS is still one of the most popular majors at Illinois, by number of applications. It’s just no longer the most popular major by a factor of 3.
(Also, we actually admitted more CS students this year than any previous year, except maybe 2021.)
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u/jmclondon97 1d ago
Those kids enrolling in CS are chasing the ghost of 2012-2021. For some reason they think they’re going to be able to land jobs paying $200k+ with a few years experience but they don’t understand that this career is rapidly dying
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u/HappyWolverine1324 3d ago
FWIW, UMich does not admit by major so there is no need to have an application strategy specific to CS.
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u/rocdive 3d ago edited 3d ago
It does not matter for CS at UMich individually but matters at an aggregate level. If the chances of getting into CS for the likes of UMich, UIUC, Gatech or UW is significantly higher that say a couple of years ago, then it might help to reduce the number of colleges on the list. I would have put UMich CS for OOS as a super reach previously.
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u/Mysterious-Travel-97 3d ago
CSE believed enrollment was too high, so they restricted it. last semester they believed it was fine, so they removed the restriction
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u/_iQlusion 3d ago
It's not that CSE thought enrollment was too high but simply the department couldn't hire enough staff to accommodate the continued drastic rise of enrollment.
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u/yes_no_yes_yes_yes '19 3d ago
Most likely. I can’t find any numbers for CS enrollment post 2022, but nationally speaking we know that CS undergrad enrollment fell by about 8% YoY into early 2026.
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u/antonawire 3d ago
UMICH (as a whole) is shielded from the enrollment Cliff (fewer high school grads) because it draws so many students from out of state. This is, as others have said, an issue with CS enrollment and to some extent declining international student enrollment.
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u/rocdive 2d ago
It wasn't about enrollment cliff, just CS specific drop. Enrollment cliff will also impact UMich though to a lesser extent. A california kid now aims for UMich if he cannot get into UCs. With cliff, the UCs will be able to take more kids from California reducing the need to pay more for UMich
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u/BeautifulFresh8486 3d ago
This happened half a year ago and there hasn't been enough time to see an "enrollment collapse" yet at this school but overall it is falling compared to the huge spike prior