A Bear Market in B-School Applications

**myun** · 08-01-2003, 12:59 PM

I wonder if you guys have read this article. It looks kind of discouraging, especially for me who is about to get into a B-school although I am not going for an MBA. My question here is, does anybody notice the drop in the MBA admission standards this year? This article seems to imply that it may have been easier to get into an MBA programme this year. Now this is another critical reasoning question. The evidence is that there is 30% drop in the number of applicants; if you assume that the distribution of quality of applicants remains the same as in the previous years, then you may conclude that it should have been easier to get into an MBA programme. Any comments?

JULY 14, 2003 (From BusinessWeek)
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...8/b3841053.htm

As the likelihood of a hot job fades, so does the MBA's allure

Recessions usually are good for business schools. Applications flood into such august institutions as the Wharton School, Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, and Stanford University as the young and talented of the corporate world opt to hide out in graduate school, earn an MBA, and emerge when jobs are plentiful again.

For the first two years of the current downturn that pattern largely held. But this year, business school is suddenly less of a draw. Applications for the B-school Class of '05 -- the students who will hit the books this fall -- have fallen by as much as 30% at some top schools compared with last year. The University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, for example, has received 27% fewer applications for the autumn term than it did in 2002.
... (More on the website http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...8/b3841053.htm)

**kicker** · 08-01-2003, 01:14 PM

http://www.TestMagic.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5500

**Erin** · 08-01-2003, 01:18 PM

Linda and I talked a bit about this article here:

http://www.TestMagic.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5500

I know it doesn't bode well, but I think an education will always help in the long run, especially for people with great potential (as you seem to be, myun).