(FORTUNE Magazine) – Do you lament the day the word ''nerd'' was linked with computers? Johnette Hassell, head of the computer science department at Tulane University in New Orleans, sure does. She thinks the nerdy image is partly to blame for the drop in the number of college students who want to be computer scientists. The ranks of prospective computer jocks at Tulane have declined 30% since 1985. Nationally: 20%. High-tech companies are already feeling the squeeze. Says Mark Haas, a technical manager at Bell Northern Research: ''We aren't lowering our hiring standards, but the writing's on the wall. There are a lot of companies fighting for fewer people.'' Haas's outfit is one of them. It brings potential recruits in for a tour of its Dallas labs and follows that with a night on the town. Would-be employers Digital, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and eight other computer companies are trying to increase the size of the talent pool. They're lobbying for more federal spending on education to help steer students their way. Some of those same companies, however, are partly to blame for scaring students away in the first place. Limited hiring at IBM, for example, and layoffs at Digital have helped to persuade many to look for careers with more certain futures. Robert Ritchie, director of university affairs at Hewlett- Packard, which has avoided layoffs, says companies may have to pay more to win them back. Today's average starting salary: $30,000, up from $23,000 in 1983. - J.R.