Harvard Study: CS Achievement and Writing Skills Both Predict Vibe Coding Proficiency

Harvard Gazette·medium signal

A preregistered cross-sectional study (N=100 tertiary students, arXiv 2603.14133) finds that both written communication proficiency and computer science achievement are significant predictors of vibe coding performance, with CS achievement remaining significant after controlling for domain-general cognitive skills. The Harvard Gazette covered the finding alongside a six-week course taught by Prof. Karen Brennan using Replit, Figma Make, and Claude Code. Suggests vibe coding requires both technical and communication skills — not just one or the other.