Computer science majors make some of the country's highest starting salaries for college graduates, at nearly $50,000 a year. Computer science and computer engineering jobs are some of the fastest-growing occupations in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Despite that, universities all across the country are watching enrollments drop in their computer science programs — at almost the exact time employers are saying they can't find enough qualified candidates.

"We're going crazy trying to find candidates," said Sridevi Movva, the managing partner of Nashville IT consulting firm Optimum Technologies Solutions.

This is a change from the peak of the dot-com era from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s, when tech companies with big plans, wild ideas and risk-taking investors flooded the marketplace.

Some university professors feel students and their parents are still scared off from computer science because of the dot-com bust, combined with a fear that an increasing number of jobs, especially programming jobs, are being sent offshore to places such as India.

Others think universities haven't done a good job offering the latest skills, and that students are turning to technical schools and career colleges as an alternative. Career college enrollment almost doubled between 1998 and 2003, according to data compiled by the Career College Association.

One of the exceptions to the general downward trend among universities is Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, which didn't see a spike during the dot-com era and has simply been growing steadily.

Computer science department chairman Doug Talbert speculated his department never saw the boom or bust in enrollment because students who pick Tennessee Tech already know they want technology careers.

"We have companies who call us and say, 'Do you have any (computer science) graduates who haven't found work?' " he said. "And we say, 'No.' "

Beth Hunter, the Nashville branch manager for Robert Half, said she lost an account because a local employer was outsourcing 13 jobs to India. She wouldn't name the employer.

"We're losing some of our positions to offshore staffing," she said. "But there are jobs out there, and the market is growing."

Jonathan Waite graduated with a bachelor's degree from Vanderbilt in May. He said some fellow programming graduates had a tough time finding work and decided to go to graduate school. The prospect of computer science jobs being sent overseas is something he thinks about, too.

"I feel as long as I work hard, and I'm willing to learn new things, I'll be able to find work," he added.