The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Application numbers have remained comparable to last year's.
Rolling admissions, final deadline: April 10
Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth
Application numbers have fallen about 10% since last year.
Deadlines: December 4, January 19, February 20, and April 16
Columbia Business School
Application numbers have increased "significantly" since last year.
Rolling admissions, final deadline: March 1 for international candidates and April 20 for domestic candidates.
Kellogg Graduate School of Management
Application numbers have remained comparable to last year's.
Deadlines: November 10, January 15, and March 16
Strong indicators suggest that application numbers may jump significantly -- and soon. David Wilson is president of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), the organization that oversees the GMAT exam. He says that the number of test registrants and test takers is up about 8% in the past 12 months, with the greatest surge between October and December 2000. "We haven't seen such a significant uptick in American test takers in several years," Wilson says.
Meanwhile, Trent Anderson, vice president and publisher of Kaplan, reports a 20% increase in enrollment so far this year. And he expects that number will grow past 25% before final B-school deadlines ensue.
The bottom line? Don't expect a huge population shift toward B-schools in the fall of 2001. Anderson says that a significant number of Kaplan attendees are tech-sector refugees, but he insists the class of 2003 will be a diverse one.
"We're seeing a convergence of trends," he says. "For one, an MBA is no longer considered a specialized degree. I've seen divinity-school students pursue MBAs to help them manage their parishoners, football players pursue MBAs to help them make the jump to coaching, and even a woman who runs a tattoo and piercing chain attend B-school with hopes of growing her business."
For the most part, admissions officers are not reporting a great dotcom influx. Some say, however, they do hear the distant rumble of thundering feet. Sally Jaeger, director of admissions at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, expects more Silicon Valley expatriates to attend graduate school next year.
"Going to business school is not a decision you make on a whim," Jaeger says. "Most candidates take 12 to 18 months to make up their minds. Also, most would-be applicants are emerging from exciting startup environments that fell apart. The last thing many of them are thinking about is jumping directly into a rigorous two-year program. They need a buffer."
Indeed, a rush for MBAs may yet come. Linda Meehan, assistant dean and executive director of admissions and financial aid at Columbia, says that recruiting events are attracting a fevered response this year. "We've seen significantly larger groups at our events -- up anywhere from 15% to 50%, depending on the event," she says. The percentage of women showing interest, however, has remained steady at about 25% to 30% of the applicant pool.
"In past years, when the economy has been weak, applications have gone up," says Ann Johnston Scott, director of graduate programs for the DuPree College of Management at Georgia Tech and vice chair of GMAC. "Right now, we're trying to figure out whether we're really in a recession. Candidates may be hedging their bets, pushing right up to the application deadlines."
Kaplan's Anderson, for one, believes the rush will come sooner rather than later. Victims of the recent firing sprees will just barely have time to take the GMAT exam, report the scores to their choice schools, and marshal recommendations and transcripts to admissions offices in time for the last round of deadlines this spring. "Given the numbers I've seen so far," he says. "I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a late flood of applicants."
Additional reporting and writing by Linda Tischler and Anni Layne.
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