"So many eligible women."
That's how Carnegie Mellon's Lenore Blum referred to this year's applicants for CMU's School of Computer Science. Women make up 48% of incoming freshman this year -- a new high for the school.
There were nearly 7,000 applicants for the program this year. It accepted just 166, which is about 30% larger than in past years.
The percent of women in the class far surpasses the national average of 16.5% for undergraduate computer science programs, according to the Computing Research Association's Taulbee Survey.
Blum, who teachers computer science, said there was no talk of "lowering of the bar" at CMU to do so.
"Every year, we get more and more women. And every year, it seems like all the scores and stats go up. It is competitive to get into our program," Blum said.
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That stands in contrast to the commonly-cited "pipeline problem," which some in Silicon Valley use as the reason their companies aren't diverse -- that there simply aren't enough minority or female STEM graduates.
Blum said blaming the pipeline is a "mistake."
"You start with the group you have," she added, noting that this year's achievement reflects incremental growth over several decades.
While Harvey Mudd College credited a redesigned curriculum, for bringing in and retaining more female students, Blum and CMU have taken a very different approach.
When Blum joined CMU in 1999, she said there was serious talk of changing the curriculum to attract more women. "I said, 'No way. You change the culture -- not the curriculum.'"
Instead, Blum started Women@SCS, a mentorship organization for female computer science students. Unlike many organizations that are student-run, this particular group is led by faculty, which means there's continuity even when students graduate. "You need the guidance and institutional support and the memory," Blum said.
"Encouraging women by giving them a support system and a sense of community is a good idea," Macallan Cruff, an 18-year-old CMU freshman told CNNMoney. "Don't dumb down the curriculum."
Cruff said she's been pleasantly surprised to see a 50/50 split of men and women in her courses, compared to about four women in a class of 25 in her high school computer science class.
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Cruff hopes schools will work to foster a sense of community for students at a much younger age. As a junior in high school, Cruff formed a "Coding Club" at a nearby elementary school to start introducing programming to girls in the third grade.
Blum said Carnegie Mellon is also focused on reaching students before they even enter college. It trains high school teachers on the latest programming languages, which encourages them to spread the word about CMU to their students.
She stressed the importance of having the administration put money behind the school's efforts and not solely rely on grants.
Blum noted that Silicon Valley has been recruiting Carnegie Mellon's graduates, an obvious move given that most tech companies are looking for talented candidates, especially female ones.
But she said it could compromise the number of women going on to get computer science PhDs. "I have concerns about that," she said.
