For MBA Applicants, Final-Round Blues

i am going to be testing this theory..i am applying R3 to W/H/S

i am confused..are the numbers up or down????

i seriously doubt that a lot of applicants are applying to b-school this year..what are they going to do 2 years out from now??

What are you going to do 2 years from now?

i already have a job after I graduate, I am going to join my non-profit full time..

Seriously?

Are they paying for your MBA then? If not, why would you go that route?

yeah man, you only live once and this non-profit has become my life passion..so i want to give it my best shot..acquire the skills i need, hopefully attract some fellow students to join me..

That's pretty admirable, dude!

As far as what we'll be doing 2 years out -- the same thing anyone with an MBA does, for the most part. Wall Street jobs are pretty much gone and hiring is down in other traditional post-MBA functions and industries a bit, but I think it's easy to overstate how bad things are. People are getting jobs. HBS just released a post saying 77% of the Class of 2009 have offers. Talking to people at Fuqua, about 2/3 had offers as of two weeks ago. That is down from past years (which were boom years, not average), and for int'ls I suspect it is harder than for domestic students.

So some folks will move from Wall St ambitions to corporate finance, some people will drop from consulting to GM, etc., but there are still jobs to be had. Have to be smart and set realistic expectations, but it's not like half of every class is going to be unemployed.

I agree - I think we are going to see a different set of goals for people obtaining an MBA. Just try to look at the downturn as a lower opportunity cost for leaving work. If only tuition went down based on the economy we'd be in a great condition.