(Source: University of Pennsylvania)According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, applications to full-time M.B.A. programs have dropped. The article (here, for subscribers) says the following:



More than three-quarters of the two-year, full-time M.B.A. programs surveyed received fewer applications for the 2003-4 academic year than they had for 2002-3. In 41 percent of the programs, the slide was more than 20 percent.Compared with the peak year of 2002, the Chronicle reports, the numbers are down 25 percent. Here's one take on why:

Two years ago, when the American economy was in a slump, M.B.A. programs were at the height of their popularity. But now that the economy appears to be improving, more students are entering the job market rather than heading to professional schools, experts say.In response, many leading business schools are recruiting more aggressively. As this Business Week piece points out, even such luminaries as Penn's Wharton School and Duke's Fuqua School are reaching out earlier to applicants and making last-minute recruitment pushes.

The upshot? Now may be a great time to think about that M.B.A.