  In this research paper we describe a study that involves measuring the
complexities of undergraduate curricula offered by computer science
departments, and then comparing them to the quality of these departments, where
quality is determined by a metric-based ranking system. The study objective was
to determine whether or not a relationship exists between the quality of
computer science departments and the complexity of the curricula they offer.
The relationship between curricular complexity and program quality was
previously investigated for the case of undergraduate electrical engineering
programs, with surprising results. It was found that if the US News & World
Report Best Undergraduate Programs ranking is used as a proxy for quality, then
a statistically significant difference in curricular complexities exists
between higher and lower quality electrical engineering programs. Furthermore,
it was found that higher quality electrical engineering programs tend to have
lower complexity curricula, and vice versa. In the study reported in this
paper, a sufficient amount of data was collected in order to determine that an
inverse relationship between program quality and curricular complexity also
exists in undergraduate computer science departments. This brings up an
interesting question regarding the extent to which this phenomenon exists
across the spectrum of STEM disciplines.
