Why Universities Must Resist GPA-based Enrollment Caps in the Face of Surging Enrollments

Computing departments face a challenging combination of forces: soaring student enrollments and lagging resources. On the face of it, it seems logical to respond by capping enrollments, and by far the most popular method in North America^a is to set a minimum grade-point average (GPA) threshold for entry to the major (typically calculated from the student's grades in the first two-three courses of the major, plus a few co-requisites such as Calculus 1 and 2, and, occasionally, Physics 1). Although this might appear like a fair way to determine who gets into the major, it is inequitable and works at cross purposes to broadening participation in computing (BPC) efforts. Why? Because GPA-based enrollment caps calculated on a student's performance in CS1 and CS2 reward prior experience in computing. It is much easier to get As in CS1 and CS2 if you have taken computer science before. This has a direct impact on BPC efforts because prior experience in computing is not uniformly distributed across race, ethnicity, and gender. Simply put, GPA-based enrollment caps perpetuate the lack of diversity among those who study computing.

At the Center for Inclusive Computing, where I am the executive director, we have performed in-depth site visits over the last two years at 32 U.S. universities. Conversations with students, faculty, deans, department chairs, and advisors have revealed three additional ways in which GPA-caps run counter to BPC efforts, which I describe here.