This paper addresses a complete enrollment paradigm shift in the Computer Science department, which led to a need to adjust course offerings, department community, and advising strategies. As was the case nationwide, our university (a small liberal arts college in the Midwest) decided to hold classes remotely during the pandemic (2019-2020), and return to face-to-face instruction in 2021. Upon our return, we noticed a population shift in our majors from mostly domestic students to a more international population. A more significant shift occurred in the composition of our female students.

Enrollment shifts in the international student population:
First, we analyze the trends in international enrollment from 2016 to 2024. Our data shows a gradual increase in the university’s international population with a larger spike in 2022. For reference, our incoming class of 2016-2017 consisted of 559 incoming students, 65 of which were international (11.6%) and in 2023-2024, there were 499 incoming students, with 125 international students (25%). Similarly, the percentage of international women increased significantly from 2016 (60% of the male students) to 2024 (102% of the men's population). In our paper and presentation, we will detail the reasons for the increase in our international population in general and the increase in the percentage of women international students. This section will contain a quantitative and qualitative analysis.

Enrollment shifts in the women’s Computer Science population:
Our department has a long history (since 1991) of efforts to increase the percentage of women, led by the authors. In fact, our department has consistently held a percentage of at least 28% women in each graduating class for over a decade. Our largest graduating class (in terms of the percentage of women) was in 2017 and consisted of 47% women and 53% men. For reference, our department has graduated between 40 and 70 students per year for the last decade. Our data shows a complete reversal of the percentages of domestic and international women in the computer science department since the Covid epidemic. In 2017, domestic women represented about 80% of the total number of women in the department, and international women 20%. In 2023 however, domestic women represented a little over 18% and international women almost 82%. In this section, we will describe the quantitative change in the student population in the our department (in general and for women), we will discuss the reasons for this paradigm shift and list the challenges, benefits and changes that the department has been through.

Conclusion:
A qualitative investigation of the population change reveals several factors including the increase in the percentage of women international students, a very active Women in Computing/ACM-W organization led, mainly, by international women, an active organization for international students in computing, word-of-mouth marketing of the computer science department by international alums, the success of international alums (including attending prestigious graduate schools and securing prominent industry jobs). The paper will also analyze various methods the department used to increase the percentage of women in computing and their effectiveness given our population shift. Finally, we will address the changes the department is making to address the needs of our changing population.

Keywords: Education, Women in computing, international population, international women in computing.