The popularity of computer science, which was once chosen by one in four students in the College of Liberal Studies at Seoul National University, is cooling down rapidly.

Instead, the Department of Philosophy is rapidly emerging as a popular major.

Experts analyze this trend is driven by a decrease in students wanting to become developers as AI has entered an era of writing its own code.

According to data from the office of People Power Party lawmaker Lee In-sun, the proportion of students in the College of Liberal Studies at Seoul National University who chose the Department of Computer Science and Engineering within the College of Engineering halved from 28.8% in 2023 to 12.9% this year.

Looking solely at the second semester of this year, the proportion plummeted to 3.5%.

The admission quota for the College of Liberal Studies is about 150 students, who enter without a designated major and can choose their major in their sophomore year, excluding medicine and nursing.

Until before 2020, business and economics majors, which were advantageous for employment, enjoyed high popularity, but starting in 2021, more than 60 students began flocking to the Department of Computer Science and Engineering every year.

In 2023, when ChatGPT was released, 69 students chose computer science as their major, hitting a peak.

However, after an abrupt plunge in applicants, the number of students choosing the Department of Computer Science and Engineering shrank to just 3 in the second semester of this year.

There were also 8 students this year who previously chose computer science as their major but gave it up to switch to other departments.

The employment rate for graduates of Seoul National University's Department of Computer Science and Engineering also fell from 86.8% in 2021 to 72.6% in 2025.

On the other hand, the popularity of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, which is evaluated as advantageous for employment at semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, rose further. After being chosen by 9 to 14 liberal studies students annually from 2021 to 2025, it was chosen by 18 students this year.

Riding the AI wave, the Department of Philosophy, which used to be called a major where finding a job is difficult, saw its employment rate rise from 55.6% in 2021 to 77.3% in 2025.

As of last year, this surpassed the employment rate of Seoul National University's Department of Computer Science and Engineering.

Furthermore, the competition rate for early admissions through general selection at Seoul National University dropped from 7.59 to 1 for computer science in the 2020 academic year to 4.31 to 1 this year, while philosophy surged significantly from 9.92 to 1 to 15.56 to 1 over the same period.

Analysts attribute this to a changing corporate atmosphere where companies value the capability to understand human language and context to solve problems over simply being good at computer languages.

The decline of computer science and the rise of philosophy are also taking place overseas, drawing attention as major overseas tech companies have successively hired humanities scholars and assigned them to key positions.