Who Studies Science and Engineering at Minnesota? | b

Who Studies Science and Engineering at Minnesota?

2026/04/01

 

Yesterday, I attended a presentation where I learned various facts about the undergraduate student body in the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota. Here are a few that seemed worth knowing, presented in quiz form.

Questions.

  1. Origin. What percentage of the CSE entering class comes from the Twin Cities metro area? From Minnesota? From the United States?
  2. Gender. What percentage of CSE undergraduates are women?
  3. Race. What percentage of the CSE entering class was Black in 2020? 2023? 2025?
  4. Major. What percentage of CSE undergraduates had declared a major in Computer and Data Science in 2020? 2023? 2025?

As a hint, the answers to the first two questions have been pretty stable over the past decade, while the third and fourth questions have changed significantly across years.

Answers.

  1. 53% from the Twin Cities area, 65% from Minnesota, 91% Domestic.
  2. 28% Women.
  3. In 2020: 2.7% Black. In 2023: 6.8% Black. In 2025: 9.9% Black
  4. In 2020: 17% CS majors. In 2023: 32% CS majors. In 2025: 17% CS majors.

Brief Commentary.

  1. I knew that a majority of our students were from Minnesota, but didn’t realize how few came from outside the Twin Cities area.
  2. I believe my department (ISyE) is roughly gender balanced, bucking the college-wide pattern.
  3. I was not aware of this dramatic rise.
  4. I was directionally aware of the CS bubble growing and bursting, but didn’t realize how quickly it had collapsed! I am somewhat surprised that students responded so quickly – this shows that many students are choosing majors primarily based on career prospects, rather than interest.