U.S. Business Schools: Why Foreign MBAs Are Disappearing

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Marcinkevage expects international students to make up 28% of this fall's incoming class, less than the school's more typical 30% to 35% enrollment in recent years. But she says the admissions team made an "intentional decision" to limit the size of the international class this year.

"We took a pretty conservative approach to overall class size this year so we can really focus on placement," she says. "The last thing we want to do in an economy like this is admit a lot of people and have a placement risk at the back end, where people leave dissatisfied with their experience."

Iowa's Tippie slashed foreign MBAs

Colleen Downie, admissions director at the University of Iowa's Tippie School, says her school adopted a similar philosophy this year, despite a 15% increase in international applications when most schools were posting declines. "We talked long and hard about whether or not to decrease our international representation," Downie says.

Ultimately the admissions team made a "strategic decision" to accept fewer students, primarily so the school could provide them with more hands-on career services support, Downie says Tippie will have around 25% to 30% international enrollment this year, down from 38% last year.

At Emory's Goizueta School, Admissions Director Julie Barefoot says there was a 12% decline in international applications this year, with applications from India down about 25%. As a result, international students will make up about 30% of the incoming class, down 10 percentage points from the previous year.

International applicants struggled this year to obtain loans to fund their education just as they were questioning their career prospects in the U.S., Barefoot says. The admissions office did its best to accommodate the international students' concerns, even extending the May deadline for deposits, Barefoot says.

At Emory's Goizueta, 32 nationalities

"There were certain candidates we were concerned about so we sent pretty regular updates to our candidate pool and had conversations with incoming students about the job search process," Barefoot says. "I do think the uncertainty at the time of the application led some people to be more cautious."

But even though numbers are down, Barefoot says diversity at the school will remain robust, with 32 countries represented in this fall's incoming class. "That's the good news," she says.

To ensure that international applications stay strong for the coming application cycle, some admissions officers are taking a more proactive approach to recruiting students.

John Roeder, admissions director at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management (Vanderbilt Full-Time MBA Profile), says his school plans to do more international outreach this fall than ever before. Owen is unusual in that it had a banner year attracting international students: Roeder expects international enrollment to hit 26% this year, up 6 percentage points over last year.

Vanderbilt presses to maintain gains

To maintain its momentum, he is about to launch a new program called Alumni Ambassadors, which he believes will help keep the pipeline for international applications strong. Alumni in countries such as Venezuela, Peru, India, China, Japan, and Korea will be participating in admissions events in their respective countries, hosting receptions for students and recruiting talented prospects.

"I think we do need to be more proactive in various markets and this should be a great way for us to maintain a continued presence year-round in those countries," Roeder says.

Thunderbird's Jay Bryant says his school is also taking a more aggressive approach this fall. The school added a full-time recruiter in Geneva this year to attract more students from Europe and the Middle East. Thunderbird has also started a special scholarship fund for students from the developing world. Bryant hopes such moves will help his business school counter ebbing international enrollment.

"It's going to be a hard year and we are definitely going to have to put a lot more attention on our international applicants this fall," Bryant says. "Students are going to be looking at employment figures and things like that and they are not going to be too shiny for any school this year."

Damast is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com.

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