More and more students are flocking to colleges that offer this major. How are these schools working to meet the increased demand?

Enrollment in computer science and engineering programs has been rising significantly at many top U.S. universities. The reason: Corporate recruitment of computer science grads has remained steady throughout the economic downturn, and students are seeing the possibility of a substantial payday when they leave school.

Stanford University claims a 40% jump in students declaring themselves as computer science majors. Other colleges seeing an influx of applications include University of Illinois (26%), Carnegie Mellon University (14%) and Georgia Tech (5%).

At University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, last year’s grads received 2.3 job offers and starting salaries over $72,000 on average. Those offers aren’t just from computer science firms – the financial sector, insurance companies and defense contractors are all showing interest in computer science grads.

Computer courses have also gained popularity for students not seeking out IT jobs after college. Biology, medicine and chemistry students are making sure to include an IT class as the discipline invades life sciences. Meanwhile, business students are adding computer science classes as a backup, now that the luster of banking careers has dimmed.

Though not quite the enrollment boom of the dot-com era, schools like University of California at Berkeley don’t expect the numbers to decrease anytime soon, and are developing new courses and industry partnerships for undergrads.

Tell us how your school’s computer science department is meeting increased demands in the comments section below.

Tags: computer science, corporate recruitment, Stanford University, University of California