Code vs. Canon: CS and English Majors
Computer science and English bachelor's degrees on one axis, 1971 to the present. English begins with a twenty-seven-to-one advantage; the lines first touch during the 1984 PC boom, separate again during the bust, and cross permanently in 2014. The gap has widened every year since — a half-century rotation of the curriculum from letters to code, told in two lines.
What does it show?
In 1971, America minted 27 English majors for every computer-science graduate. The lines first crossed in the 1984 PC boom, un-crossed in the bust, then crossed for good in 2014 — by 2022 computer science out-graduated English three to one.
Methodology
Bachelor's degrees conferred in computer and information sciences (Digest table 325.35) and in English language and literature (Digest 2019 table 325.50, extended with table 322.10), annual from 1970-71. The two fields' crossing is a clean marker of the curriculum's half-century rotation from letters to code.