To overcome the highest unemployment rate in 14 years and a struggling stock market, more college students across the country are applying to business, law and graduate schools.
The national trend, identified by Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions, is based on a survey of 245 business school administrators in August. According to the survey, 75 percent of the officers said the admissions process is more competitive than it was in 2005, which is leading more than half the institutions to consider expanding the number of seats available each year.
UF's undergraduate business program has not seen a significant increase in applications, but a surge has been seen in some of the college's graduate programs.
Dr. Brian Ray, associate dean and director of the Warrington College of Business Administration, said the number of applications is inversely related to how well the economy is doing.
Ray said the floundering economy is causing enrollment in community colleges to increase. In two to three years, he said, UF should expect a spike in the amount of transfer applicants.
Mindy Kraft, director of the Master of Arts in International Business and Master of Science in Management programs in the Hough Graduate School of Business, said her programs received a 20 percent increase in summer applications. As a result, the international business program went over its acceptance limit.
"We're packing the classrooms, and we're going to try to cut back with the upcoming year," Kraft said.
UF does not fall into the majority of schools surveyed by Kaplan because it is not looking to expand its graduate business school enrollment, she said.
"Because of budget cuts, hiring freezes and layoffs, programs that could grow are negatively affected," she said.
Instead, UF's resources limit the amount of growth of an increasingly popular program.
Stateside students aren't the only ones seeking admission into UF's business graduate programs.
More international students are banking on the weak U.S. dollar and sending in applications, Kraft said.
Although the U.S. economy is down, the same is not necessarily true for other parts of the world, she said, and more foreign students are able to afford the price of an education abroad and at UF.
