The women@scs Advisory Council is a group of undergraduate and graduate women in the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science. This committee was established in 1999 by Leah Miller and Lisa Nelson, with faculty advisor Lenore Blum. The purpose of the group is to create a community of women within SCS, where women are a minority.

Researchers at CMU had conducted a longitudinal study of undergraduate women in the computer science program to determine why women left computer science. They discovered that although most of the women in the undergraduate program were performing very well, they perceived themselves to be less successful than the men in the program. In short, women were leaving because of low self-esteems.

1999 was also the year that Carnegie Mellon saw a dramatic increase in the number of women entering the computer science program as freshmen. To assist these women and prevent them from experiencing the same insecurities that upperclass-women had experienced, a Big Sister/Little Sister was created. Interested freshmen women were paired with older students who mentored them for a year.

Other programs sponsored by women@scs are:

For more information about women@scs, please see their website:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~women/