Applications to full-time MBA programs at top business schools are expected to decline for a second consecutive year even as the job outlook for graduates continues to improve, according to Poets&Quants (P&Q).
P&Q interviewed Peter von Loesecke, chief executive of the MBA Tour, which organizes trips with business school admissions staff throughout the country and the world to provide information to potential MBA applicants. Loesecke estimates that schools with large numbers of applicants are down between 3 and 10 percent based on conversations he has had with admissions officials at more than two dozen schools over the past three months, P&Q reports.
Applications for this year’s incoming class fell by 4 percent at Harvard Business School, which released preliminary class profile information last week. Last fall, Stanford Director of Admissions Derrick Bolton was predicting that applications could drop by as much as 10 percent at top schools this year, P&Q reports.
“Applications are down in particular because people are having a hard time justifying the investment,” Loesecke told P&Q. “Part-time programs may be a better alternative for them because they can hold down their jobs and not have to go through the pain of a job transition.” He added that mounting debt is another concern, especially for prospective MBA applicants who still have undergraduate loans to repay.
At the same time, more and more current MBA graduates are finding jobs faster and reporting increased satisfaction with schools’ career services offerings, according to a new global survey by the MBA Tour. According to the survey’s findings, more than a quarter of 2009 MBA graduates from U.S. programs said job prospects were worse than they had been for the previous graduating class of 2008. That number dropped to 8.3 percent in 2010 and to zero for those graduating this year.
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