Revisiting Academic Probation in CS: At-Risk Indicators and Impact on Student Success

Computer Science (CS) is a competitive field with high demand and low admission rates. In the last three years, the CS program at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) received over 15,000 applications and admitted only 14%. Despite being highly selective and admitting top students, we observed over a 10-year span 57% experienced a period of academic probation. The alarmingly high probation rate motivates us to understand challenges that lead CS students to enter probation at UCI. Some of our results aligned with past findings regarding academic performance: high school GPA and math background level have a negative trend with probation, underrepresented groups experience probation at higher rates than the average, and female students have lower probation but higher attrition rates than men. More importantly, over a third of the students enter probation in freshman year, and students on probation leave the field at higher rates than the average. There is also a positive trend linking probation duration to attrition rates. Our results suggest that current probation practices may not be sufficient for students to return to satisfactory academic standing, highlighting the need for proactive and targeted probation interventions.