Despite the Downturn, MBA Spring Break Lives

The academic rite of spring is seen as a chance to job search, network, and learn, and international trips are all the rage

By Lindsey Gerdes

The economy may be on life support, the job market for MBAs anemic, and debt for many business school students in six-figure territory, but one time-honored tradition has not fallen victim to hard times: spring break.

For many MBAs, spring break is more than a chance to share a fleabag motel room with five friends in Daytona—it's an educational investment, an opportunity to visit another country and learn something about the global economy that can't be taught in a classroom. That's why, despite the economy's demise, many are jetting off to far-flung destinations from Shanghai to Dubai and are willing to pay up to $5,000 for the privilege. Since many of the trips can be paid for using financial aid, the trips don't have to add to their already considerable debt.

Ben Wightman, 31, a student at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management is getting ready for a two-week trip to the Middle East with 34 classmates, visiting Jordan and Qatar as well as the United Arab Emirates. After spending tens of thousands of dollars to get his degree, he figures another $5,000 or so isn't going to bankrupt him. "You've already made the investment in getting a top MBA, so this [trip] is really an investment I've seen most of my classmates are willing to make," says Wightman. Some participants who racked up thousands of frequent flier miles during the pre-MBA consulting careers are using them to defray costs.

These student-organized ventures are part of Kellogg's Global Initiatives in Management (GIM) program, which also includes a classroom component that takes place during the quarter before the trip. GIM attracts roughly half of Kellogg's full-time B-school students each year, despite the trips' hefty price tag.

Job-Hunting Time

Not everyone is choosing the international route. With more than half of all business schools reporting a significant drop in recruiting activity on campus this winter, according to a survey by the MBA Career Services Council, many students feel pressure to tend to their job searches instead of spending a week globe-trotting.

At Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management, second-year MBA student Adam Treadwell, a 32-year-old husband and father of two, is sticking close to home. Treadwill, who already has a job lined up at health-care giant CIGNA (CI), says that even friends who have already landed jobs are opting to stick close to campus for vacation in order to pinch pennies. He notes this is particularly true of his international student friends, who are scrambling to finance their degrees since many big lenders have changed student loan policies. Says Treadwell: "Credit has dried up for a lot of international students, so getting even normal loans is pretty tough, let alone trying to [obtain additional funds] for international trips."

These stay-at-home students appear to be the exception to the rule, though. At schools such as Kellogg that have a required international component built into their programs, students are still coming out in full force and signing up for these trips. Roughly 40 students at Emory University's Goizueta Business School are currently in Brazil (cost: $2,650), while another 35 are in China (cost: $3,300). J.B. Kurish, the associate dean at Goizueta's full-time MBA program, hopes that students, who can also fulfill their international requirement by taking a mini-course on campus during the break, opt to spend spring break abroad instead. "I personally believe that international experience is vitally important to people," says Kurish. "Our students have been willing to spend money to go to places where they can have an enriching experience. It would be very disappointing if, because of economic forces, students felt they could not afford to go overseas."