Harvard is seeing a very similar trend. Our intro to CS course, CS 50 [1], had an enrollment of over 600 this Fall (up about 20%), making it one of the largest classes at the College [2]. Even its teaching staff, which numbers over 100, is bigger than most classes (and most of them are undergraduates) [3].

The data isn't in for this term yet, but pre-term planning data suggests that enrollment in CS 51 (our second-term CS course) will go up by about 40% (it experienced similar growth last year), and CS 181, a machine learning class, might nearly triple in size since it was last offered [4].

For smaller departments like Harvard's (and Yale's, which is even smaller still), there just aren't enough professors to go around, and with the enormous influx of students, I think the quality and variety of the courses offered has suffered. Many courses are only offered sporadically--especially systems courses--since there simply aren't enough professors to teach them all.

And that's to say nothing of the (undergraduate) teaching assistants, which bear much of the brunt of this trend. I TFed Harvard's algorithms course (which doubled in size over the two years I taught it), and am TFing our operating systems class this term (which if today's turnout was any guide looks like it might nearly triple in size). The workload was considerable, and I'm sorry to say that the feedback and individual attention I was able to provide students has gotten worse and more tardy because of this.

I don't think Harvard (and Yale, etc.) can cope with this sort of explosive growth for too much longer.

[1]: https://www.cs50.net

[2]: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/4/13/cs-greatest-grow...

[3]: https://www.cs50.net/staff/

[4]: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/12/17/ptp-data-obtain...