Job losses put squeeze on students in Silicon Valley - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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Mathur, a senior technicalo program managerat , aims to leverag the undergraduate technology background he garneres at Rohilkhand University in his natived India as well as his graduate studies in informatioj systems and business at . But the economy has derailee his effort. On April 2, Sun told Mathurt that his positionwas redundant. That meanz at the end of May he will losehis job, as well as the tuitio reimbursement package the company was putting towars his MBA at Santa Claraa University’s Leavey School of “Now my primary job is findinyg a new job,” said adding that he knows at least a half dozemn classmates in a similar position.
“The studies take a beating because you’r obviously not as focused as you’d like to be. Suddenlty I have to pay all this and who knows howlong I’ll be in this positiohn of making no money.” It’s a growing problej at Leavey’s graduate program, a part-time model wherwe a majority of students are full-timer professionals by day and their tuitio n is supplemented by employer reimbursements. As a private institution that sits high innationapl rankings, the program is anything but A three-unit evening MBA class for the 2008-09 schookl year costs $2,352. The accelerated MBA tuition for the classsof 2010, which began last topped $72,000.
Students in the Executive MBA progran from the class of 2009paid $92,000. “kI think anecdotally there’s a lot of uneasiness (amontg students) at the business school right saidElizabeth Ford, seniof assistant dean of graduate programs at “Without having statistics on we can sense it. It’s very unpredictable for us right now.” Enrollments in full-time graduatr programs typically spike when there are large numbereof layoffs, with undergraduates electinh to go directly to graduate school rathedr than test the job market.
Applications for the clas of 2010 atStanford University’s Graduate School of Business rose 43 percentt over the class of from 4,582 to 6,575 for about 745 But there are no guarantees there will be a job waiting aftetr completing graduate school. “When people come to a graduatdbusiness school, especially a full-time there’s a high desire to either take a step up in managementr in the same field or look at doinvg something very different from what you were doing beforr you came to school,” said Andy assistant dean and director of the MBA careef management center at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
“Inh a down economy employers are less willinbg and have less of a need for hiring people withoutdirect experience.” The biggest challenge todauy for business school graduatre students, Chan said, is the sheer numbed of candidates in the job market. Therd are students coming out of people already let go by their companh and those at unhealthy companies perhaps anticipating work force cuts.
Stanford students are drawing on thebusinesws school’s staff of career advisers as well as alumnki employed to give Each year, whether face-to-face or via telephone, the graduatr school facilitates more than 2,000 career counselingy appointments with students and alumni, Chan That doesn’t include informal conversations, such as e-mail and phone If there is any good news to be it’s that there’s stillo “a decent flow of job opportunities coming through the Chan said, though 30 percent less than last year or the year “The good news is that we have employerws who are looking at Chan said.
“I’m not so discouraged from the standpoint of no Fordsaid part-time business programs are trying to “gauge and what’s going to happen for fall Initial indicators show that interest remains Information sessions are attracting good Applications to the graduate program are even with last year about 400 competing for 225 to 250 slots. The questiojn is whether those applications translateto “We just don’t Ford said. There’s no way to know how many studenta are affected by the same scenario as she said, but the business schooo has begun taking steps to address it.