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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (0305898). The author would like to thank Joel Young for his assistance on the paper, Deepak Kapur for providing a computer science perspective, and all students who gave their valuable time. The author is also grateful for Les Levidow's comments on a previous draft and for Kean Birch's editorial suggestions.
Notes
1. In the US, computer science (CS) began to be established as a distinct academic discipline in the early 1960s with the creation of the first CS departments and degree programmes. It has been closely related to mathematics and/or electrical engineering, from which CS historically emerged (Denning, Citation2000). Some departments have maintained computer engineering (CE) programmes with electrical engineering while others have integrated CE with CS programmes.
2. Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private university, ranking overall among the top 10 universities in the US, with a CS department regularly ranking among the top five in the country. CMU's CS programme was officially established as a department in 1965 under the Mellon College of Science, became one of the first schools of CS in 1988, and has been a major source of seminal advances in artificial intelligence, computer design, robotics, and many other areas. Out of 5,389 undergraduates enrolled in Fall 2004, only 286 were blacks, 281 were Hispanics, and 27 were American Indians/Alaska Natives. Out of 532 undergraduates enrolled in CS in the same year, 33 were Hispanics, 21 were blacks, and two were American Indians/Alaska Natives. Overall undergraduate female enrolment was 2,120, with 136 in CS.
3. A Minority-Serving Institution is defined as an institution that meets the requirements of Section 1046(3) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 of the US. It makes up a category of educational establishments such as Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Tribal Colleges and Universities. To be considered a Hispanic-Serving Institution, the Hispanic enrolment at a college or university must be at least 25% of the total student enrolment. There are about 200 Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Historically Black Colleges and Universities were established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of blacks. There are about 105 Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Tribal Colleges and Universities are those institutions that have American Indian/Alaska Native student enrolment of 50% of the total student enrolment. There are about 30 Tribal Colleges and Universities, most of them located on Indian reservations.
4. The National Science Foundation Citation(2004) uses the term minority for people other than whites. Accordingly, blacks, Hispanics, American Indians/Alaska Natives, and Asians are minorities though the first three groups are considered under-represented minorities and Asians are considered over-represented minorities in science and engineering education and careers.
5. Paul Allen and Bill Gates are co-founders of Microsoft; Sergey Brin and Larry Page are co-founders of Google; Larry Ellison is the co-founder of Oracle; and Steven Jobs and Steve Wozniak are co-founders of Apple. They are in Forbes' list of the world's richest people.
6. US national statistics on students' dropout rates from science and engineering are not available. Some studies have calculated persistence and dropout rates in science and engineering on the basis of enrolment profile and graduation rates (e.g. Seymour and Hewitt, Citation1997; Huang et al., Citation2000). These studies show that among the students enrolled in science and engineering programmes in the first year of postsecondary education, under-represented minority students seemed to have difficulty attaining a degree in S&E fields within a five-year college calendar. Some of them had to switch to other fields. A study of 18 CS departments in 2001 and 209 in 2002 showed that on average women's attrition rate was six points higher than was men's in the same department (Cohoon, Citation2006, pp. 214–225).
7. ‘Traditional students’ commonly refers to those students who enrol in postsecondary education immediately after graduation from high school and complete their bachelor's degrees in four or five years at a young age of 22–23. They tend to pursue postsecondary studies on a full-time basis, are financially dependent on family, do not have children, and work mostly in the summer. In 1999–2000, almost one-third of undergraduates were strongly non-traditional and another one-third were moderately non-traditional (National Center for Education Statistics, Citation2002).