The number of undergraduate computer science majors across the University of California system dropped 6% between fall 2024 and fall 2025, according to UC enrollment data reported by GovTech. That followed a 3% decline the year before. The system now has about 12,652 CS majors, roughly the same as in 2021.

For Bay Area families heading into college application season, the numbers confirm what counselors are already hearing. Sierra Ward, college and career advisor at Saratoga High School, said AI has upended the conversations she has with students planning for college.

"For the first time ever, some of my students are trying to ask me if they should bother taking computer science courses in general," Ward said.

Nithya Grandhi, who will be a junior at Lynbrook High School in San Jose this fall, originally planned to pursue computer science after discovering coding through robotics in ninth grade. She shifted her focus toward mechanical and electrical engineering after concluding that AI is displacing entry-level programming jobs.

The job market data supports the concern. California launched its AI-Unemployment Tracker on June 25, and California Policy Lab senior researcher Ben Hyman said his team found higher unemployment claims among college-educated workers in high-AI-exposure occupations, particularly in the Bay Area following the 2022 release of ChatGPT.

UC San Diego is the sole UC campus where CS enrollment grew. It is also the only one offering a dedicated AI major, with 20% of CS department applications going to that track over the past two years. UC Santa Barbara admissions director Cuca Acosta told a counselors conference in San Jose in September 2025 that her campus is now struggling to fill traditional CS seats.

UCLA CS professor Glenn Reinman offered a counterpoint, saying generative AI "does not replace the need for trained humans" even as it transforms the field.

In Palo Alto, where many families work in the industry being disrupted, PAUSD has been updating its classroom AI policies annually since the 2022-23 school year. Paly English department head Richard Rodriguez confirmed in May 2026 that new district AI guidelines are being drafted for the coming school year. The district has not released CS-specific course enrollment data for Paly or Gunn.

David Reynaldo, founder of admissions consultancy College Zoom, said the biggest shift is coming not from students but from their parents, who are now steering children toward physical engineering disciplines. "Parental pressure plays a lot — a lot, a lot, a lot — on the kids," Reynaldo said.