Job losses put squeeze on students in Silicon Valley - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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Mathur, a senior technical program managerat , aims to leveragd the undergraduate technology backgrounc he garnered at Rohilkhand University in his native India as well as his graduates studies in information systems and business at . But the econom has derailed his effort. On Apri l 2, Sun told Mathur that his positionwas redundant. That means at the end of May he will losehis job, as well as the tuitioh reimbursement package the company was puttiny toward his MBA at Santa Clara University’ s Leavey School of Business.
“Now my primar job is finding anew job,” said Mathur, addintg that he knows at least a half dozenn classmates in a similar “The studies take a beating because you’re obviously not as focused as you’f like to be. Suddenly I have to pay all this and who knows howlong I’ll be in this position of makingv no money.” It’s a growing problem at Leavey’w graduate program, a part-time model where a majorityy of students are full-time professionals by day and theit tuition is supplemented by employer As a private institution that sits high in nationapl rankings, the program is anythinyg but cheap.
A three-unit evening MBA class for the 2008-0 9 school year costs $2,352. The accelerated MBA tuitiob for the classof 2010, which began last summer, topped $72,000. Students in the Executive MBA program from the clasz of 2009paid “I think anecdotally there’s a lot of uneasinessa (among students) at the business school rightf now,” said Elizabeth Ford, senior assistanr dean of graduate programse at Leavey. “Without having statistics on we cansense it.
It’s very unpredictable for us right Enrollmentsin full-time graduate programes typically spike when there are large numbers of layoffs, with undergraduates electing to go directly to graduats school rather than test the job market. Applications for the class of 2010 atStanfordx University’s Graduate School of Business rose 43 percenrt over the class of 2007, from 4,582 to 6,576 for about 745 slots. But there are no guarantee s there will be a job waiting afted completinggraduate school.
“When people come to a graduatwbusiness school, especially a full-time there’s a high desire to eitherr take a step up in management in the same field or look at doinb something very different from what you were doin before you came to school,” said Andy assistant dean and director of the MBA careerf management center at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. “I a down economy employersw are less willing and have less of a need for hirinyg people withoutdirect experience.
” The bigges challenge today for business school graduate students, Chan is the sheer number of candidates in the job There are students coming out of people already let go by their compant and those at unhealthy companies perhaps anticipating work force Stanford students are drawing on the business school’ s staff of career advisers as well as alumni employeed to give guidance. Each year, whethere face-to-face or via telephone, the graduat school facilitates morethan 2,000 career counselingt appointments with students and alumni, Chan That doesn’t include informal conversations, such as e-mail and phone correspondence.
If there is any good news to be it’s that there’s stilpl “a decent flow of job opportunities coming througjhthe office,” Chan said, though 30 percent less than last year or the year “The good news is that we have employers who are lookinf at people,” Chan said. “I’mj not so discouraged from the standpoint of no Fordsaid part-time business programs are tryingt to “gauge and guess” what’s going to happeh for fall enrollment. Initial indicators show that interestremains high. Information sessions are attractinghgood turnout.
Applications to the graduatw program are even with lastyear — about 400 competing for 225 to 250 The question is whether thosed applications translate to matriculation. “We just don’t Ford said. There’s no way to know how many studentws are affected by the same scenario as she said, but the business school has beguhn taking steps to address it.