In the game of business schools, it’s all in the name.

As the number of university freshmen applying to major in business nationally takes a dive, Syracuse University’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management is seeing a 9 percent jump in applicants. SU officials and students tie the prestige of the school’s name to its applicant climb.

A study of approximately 220,000 first-time students from almost 300 colleges by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California Los Angeles showed an all-time low for freshman listing business as a probable major. Nationally, the percentage of freshman planning to major in business declined from 16.8 to 14.4 percent in the past year.

Donald Saleh, SU’s vice president of enrollment management, said there was no indication of a drop-off in business majors at Whitman. The number of Whitman applicants jumped from 2,958 to 3,218 since last year, he said.

Saleh said he thinks Whitman applicants are increasing because of the program’s good name.

‘Students who are looking to a career in business are going to focus on the best programs,’ Saleh said. ‘The quality of the education here may continue to attract strong students.’

Saleh correlated the nationwide decline in potential business majors to the hit on the banking and financial industries during the recession. Well-paying jobs in those industries that were originally easy to get are more difficult to get today and face increased competition, he said.

Allie Richards, a freshman marketing major, said she agreed that the networking connections available through Whitman overshadowed the economic troubles affecting the business industry.

‘I picked Whitman because it has really good networking compared to other schools,’ Richards said.

Jodi Cohen, a freshman retail management major, said she was working on getting an internship that was only made available through academic and professional connections.

Whitman Dean Melvin Stith said he thinks the business major decline was the result of the bad economy and students hearing stories in the news about company layoffs and hiring freezes.

‘They think the job prospects will be dim when they get out in four years,’ Stith said.

But last year, areas such as accounting and banking were looking to hire students, Stith said, and starting salaries for Whitman graduates increased.

But Whitman hasn’t been left out of the recession’s impact. For one of the first times, there was a 10 percent drop last year in the number of employed Whitman students 90 days after graduation, Stith said.

mcboren@syr.edu

Published on February 1, 2010 at 12:00 pm