As icy winds blast through the economy, some may seek shelter in the warm glow of what they see as a safe bet — enrolling in a master of business administration program.
The UB/Towson MBA program, a joint offering between University of Baltimore and Towson University, expects a 10 percent increase in enrollment next year, according to its director, Ron Desi.
He’s not clear yet how the economic crisis would affect the school’s admission numbers, but said that previous downturns had sent beleaguered professionals back to school.
“Historically that’s been the case, graduate enrollment in MBA programs does increase,” Desi said. “My advice to students is … you want to make sure you’re ahead of the game and not behind it, you don’t want to be conservative, you want to be getting an education and retooling.”
Since Sept. 1, interest in business, law and graduate school preparation programs has increased by 45 percent, according to a study conducted by Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions.
That comes as more than 1.2 million jobs have been lost nationwide this year, and unemployment has reached its highest rate in decades.
The study found that the number of test takers for the GMAT, the exam required by most MBA programs, increased 5.8 percent nationwide through September.
But getting in won’t be easy. According to the Kaplan study, 75 percent of 245 business school admissions officers said getting in would be more competitive than in 2005 because of a surge of applications they’ve seen in the last five years.
In recent years, finance has been the hottest field for incoming business school students hoping to make big bucks after graduation, said Anirban Basu, president and chief executive officer of Sage Policy Group.
Now, he said interest will probably shift to a less sexy specialization, but one in which more companies may be hiring.
“I think what will become popular now is what probably should have been popular before: business management,” Basu said. “Actually knowing how to run a business, lead people, and set out a mission and how to achieve it. America has bred an inferior set of CEOs, many do not know how to manage a company.”
